Tragedy as hiker couple, 28 and 29, who went missing near summit of California’s 14,500ft Mount Whitney are found dead after ‘falling’ when they were separated from pal on ‘extremely steep and icy’ climb

California authorities have recovered and identified the bodies of two hikers who went missing while trekking the highest mountain in the contiguous United States.

Tulare County Sheriff’s Office officials told local media Thursday that the couple, identified as 28-year-old Andrew Niziol and 29-year-old Patty Bolan, were found after helicopter and fire search teams scoured the 15,000-foot Mount Whitney, in central California on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Niziol, a native of South Lake Tahoe, and Bolan, who had just completed graduate studies in physics at UC Davis, failed to report to their camp on Upper Boy Scout Lake, which is east of the summit.

They told their fellow campers that they planned to climb to the Notch, a small flat spot on the mountain often used as a rest point, before skiing back.

Just a day before the couple, who were on a long hike through California, were identified, a friend of theirs revealed that he had been climbing with them but became separated on an extremely steep and icy part of the mountain.

Ethan Michael Cannaert said he expected to encounter the couple, who he said were “both experienced in the backcountry and had adequate equipment for the climb” down the mountain at the Notch.

“I waited there for over an hour and was forced to descend the chute to escape the cold wind, but I never saw them,” Cannaert wrote in a Facebook post on a group dedicated to Mount Whitney.

The Notch is the final stop before a nearly vertical section of the mountain known as the ‘Final 400’.

Climbing down the Final 400 requires climbers to have specialized equipment, given the icy terrain, or face disaster as they fall potentially thousands of feet.

Although details about where exactly they were found are scarce, local police revealed that they were found at an elevation of 13,000 feet on the north side of the mountain, while lying nearly a thousand feet below the Notch.

The exact causes of their deaths are still unknown.

In one of his last social media posts, Andrew wrote on Facebook: ‘If I could go back in time and show myself as a 12 year old what my life is like now I would make myself so proud.

‘This is the kind of life I’ve been dreaming about for fifteen years. I’ve finally surrounded myself with people I can share these kinds of experiences with, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”