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List of Deaths on the Pacific Crest Trail

By Mac 47 Comments

Over the years, there have been a number of deaths on the Pacific Crest Trail. With the trail's growing popularity, it's important that people realize that a PCT thru-hike does not take place in a controlled environment and that death on the PCT is an entirely realistic possibility for the ill-prepared (or even the well-prepared).

Not everyone who begins a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike will complete their mission of traversing the country-spanning 2,660 mi / 4,280 km trail. Many will leave the trail due to injury, some due to weather, others for financial reasons, and, unfortunately, a very small percentage will die.

Table of Contents
1 Fatalities by Cause
2 Pacific Crest Trail Hiker Deaths
3 Fatalities by Location
4 Other Hiker Deaths on the PCT
5 Unconfirmed Deaths

So you are interested in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail but you don't know if you're quite ready to drag yourself across a continent for five months and probably die?

Need to come up with some statistics to put to rest your family's fears that you will be dragged from your sleeping bag in the night by a bloodthirsty animal? Want to know how you can expect to meet your maker should this hike turn out to be your last? Not interested in any of this and don't know why you're still reading?

Luckily for you, we have answers.

PLEASE, NOTE!

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all deaths that have occurred on the PCT or along the PCT corridor. If you have any fatalities (with sources) that you would like to see added, please leave a comment below.

The total number of thru-hiker deaths on the Pacific Crest Trail? At the time this post is being updated (as I update it whenever news comes in), the number stands at 15. There have been 15 thru-hiker deaths on the PCT.

Fatalities by Cause

Here is a breakdown of what has caused them:

  • 6 โ€“ Falling
  • 3 โ€“ Heatstroke
  • 2 โ€“ Drowning
  • 2 โ€“ Cars
  • 1 โ€“ Falling trees
  • 1 โ€“ High altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) (unconfirmed)
  • 1 โ€“ Unknown
  • 0 โ€“ Hypothermia
  • 0 โ€“ Lightning
  • 0 โ€“ Murder
  • 0 โ€“ Mountain lions
  • 0 โ€“ Bears
  • 0 โ€“ Snakes
  • 0 โ€“ Spiders
  • 0 โ€“ Alien abduction

Pacific Crest Trail Hiker Deaths

Here is a detailed account of each of the deaths noted above (in chronological order from earliest to most recent):

HAPE (UNCONFIRMED) | Maddie Magee | May 28, 2022 | Twenty-three-year-old Maddie Magee died near the top of Forester Pass (the high point of the PCT) in California's Sierra Nevada of (unconfirmed) high altitude pulmonary edema or HAPE (source)

FALL | Trevor Laher | March 27, 2020 | Twenty-two-year-old Trevor Laher slipped and fell on snow-covered ice near Apache Peak just outside Idyllwild, California (source)

FALLING TREE | Finn Bastian | August 27, 2019 | In Stevenson (Washington), Finn Bastian, a hiker from Germany, died after being hit by a falling tree on the PCT. Officials reported that the tree had rotted at the base, causing it to become unstable (source)

DROWNING | Wang Chaocui | Mid July, 2017 | In Yosemite National Park (California), Wang Chaocui was discovered in a river in Kerrick Canyon. The 2017 hiking season was plagued by many dangerous river crossings because of the unusually high snowpack from the previous winter (source)

DROWNING | Rika Morita | Mid July, 2017 | In Kings Canyon National Park (California), Rika Morita was discovered in the South Fork of the Kings River. The 2017 hiking season was plagued by many dangerous river crossings because of the unusually high snowpack from the previous winter (source)

HEATSTROKE (SUSPECTED) | Marvin Novo | May 29, 2017 | In the Mission Creek Preserve (California), Marvin Novo's body was discovered along the West Fork Trail. It is suspected that his death was heat-related (source)

FALL | Dawson Johnson | July 2014 | Dawson Johnson, a 75-year-old hiker from Redwater, Texas, fell and died while hiking down from the Mount Whitney Summit to Crabtree Meadow (source)

HEATSTROKE | Timothy Evan Nodal | April 24, 2014 | Near Lake Morena (California) Timothy Nodal began to feel sick and emergency services were summoned. When firefighters reached him, they were going over his symptoms when he suddenly went into arrest. Emergency personnel was unable to revive him (source)

FALL | Ray โ€œNo Way Rayโ€ Echols | May 15, 2006 | Near Deep Creek in the San Bernardino National Forest (California), Ray Echols lost his footing and fell approximately 200 feet to his death (source)

UNKNOWN | John Donovan | May 2005 | John Donovan died after becoming lost on Southern Californiaโ€™s Mt. San Jacinto in an unseasonal snowstorm. His body was not recovered until more than a year later. The cause of death is unknown, but hypothermia is suspected (source)

FALL | John Lowder | June 1999 | It's thought John Lowder (69), a doctor from San Diego, slipped on some ice crossing New Army Pass in the Sierra and fell approximately 60 ft / 18 m off into a canyon in the Sierra Nevada. He broke one arm, both legs, and suffered a head injury. He succame to his injuries (which included internal bleeding and head trauma) before being found in his sleeping bag by hikers the day after his fall (source)

HIT BY CAR | Flicka Rodman | Nov. 19, 1995 | While taking a road walk detour down Highway 138 in Southern California, both he and Jane Rodman were struck and killed by a motorist who lost control of his vehicle after falling asleep at the wheel (he received a five-day jail sentence) (source)

HIT BY CAR | Jane Rodman | Nov. 19, 1995 | While taking a road walk detour down Highway 138 in Southern California, both she and Flicka Rodman were struck and killed by a motorist who lost control of his vehicle after falling asleep at the wheel (he received a five-day jail sentence) (source)

FALL | Jodi Zatchick | Winter 1983 | During a winter thru-hike attempt, Jodi Zatchick and her hiking partner Gerald Duran fell off a cliff face near Wrightwood, California after losing the trail and slipping on an icy slope (source)

FALL | Gerald Duran | Winter 1983 | During a winter thru-hike attempt, Gerald Duran and his hiking partner Jodi Zatchick fell off a cliff face near Wrightwood, California after losing the trail and slipping on an icy slope (source)

Hyperlite Mountain Gear Dirigo 2 Snow
Snow in the desert on the PCT โ€“ yes, it happens.
PCT Warner Springs Community Center
More dangerous than bears, mountain lions, and snakes? Cars.

Fatalities by Location

The Pacific Crest Trail is typically divided into five distinct sections: the Desert, the Sierra Nevada, Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Here are the number of fatalities that have occurred in each section.

  • Desert: 9
  • Sierra Nevada: 5
  • Northern California: 0
  • Oregon: 0
  • Washington: 1

Other Hiker Deaths on the PCT

I also came across the following deaths which occurred on or near the PCT but did not involve thru-hikers:

FALL | 30-year-old male | March 31, 2022 | A man's body was recovered just north of Forester Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail following a fall in monsoon-type weather(source)

LIGHTNING | Nicholas Torchia | July 30, 2021 | On the Sallie Keyes Cutoff near Muir Trail Ranch in the Sierra, Torchia was leaning against a tree for cover during a storm when the tree was struck by lightning (source)

HEATSTROKE | Unnamed Woman | June 16, 2021 | Emergency services were called to aid a woman near Anza (California) suffering from suspected heatstroke. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene (source)

FALL | Wayne Paul Pferdehirt | August 26, 2019 | Wayne Paul Pferdehirt (67), died in a fall near Mather Pass (Sierra). His body was found just below the summit (source)

FALL | Laurie Choate | September 5, 2018 | Laurie Choate, died in a fall hiking the Kendall Katwalk (Washington). She fell approximately 300 ft / 91 m and did not survive the fall (source)

FALL | Emily Lang | August 12, 2017 | Emily Lang (19), died in a fall along the PCT near Mount Hood (Oregon). Her body was found on rocks at the base of a waterfall about 6 mi / 9.6 km northwest of Timberline Lodge (source)

FALL | Emma Place | August 12, 2017 | Emma Place (19), died in a fall along the PCT near Mount Hood (Oregon). Her body was found on rocks at the base of a waterfall about 6 mi / 9.6 km northwest of Timberline Lodge (source)

FALLING TREE | Phillip Crosby | December 11, 2014 | Camped off the PCT near Mt. Ashland Ski Lodge (Oregon), Phillip Crosby was crushed by a tree that fell on his tent in strong wind (source)

FALL | 20-year-old male | August 20, 2013 | A man free-climbing a rock face with friends near the PCT in Yakima County (Washington) fell to his death (source)

HYPOTHERMIA | Karen Tellez | December 7, 1997 | A woman out hiking became separated from her group and died of suspected hypothermia near the PCT near Pine Canyon Road in Southern California (source)

SUICIDE | Douglas Cracker | October 29, 1988 | A hiker on the PCT discovered the body of Douglas Cracker, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, half a mile north of Highway 62 in Crater Lake National Park (source)

Unconfirmed Deaths

Lastly, I have also had some reports of deaths on the Pacific Crest Trail that I haven't been able to find any source material for. If you know of any sources for the below deaths or have any that may need to be added to the list, please let me know in the comments.

UNKNOWN | Park Sun Chil (Happy Days) | April 13, 2018 | A hiker from South Korea is said to have passed away on the trail in Southern California.


And that's it! That is readily available via the internet and that we know of.

It turns out that the Pacific Crest Trail is a safe place to be (and when the zombies, robots, or aliens finally decide to make their move, I'll bet it'll be even safer). Of course, there may be more death along the PCT than reported, but the reality is that there is little (but don't trust me). So if you ever see a headline something like, โ€œHiker deaths on the PCT jump 200% in the National Scenic Trail's deadliest year ever!โ€œ, know that this means ten people died doing something inherently dangerous (aka it's clickbait).

So if you have some mental block about hiking the PCT because of all the scary things that are waiting for you out there, then know that despite those things actually existing, they are unlikely to kill you.

But also know that you'll probably die out there.

Good luck!

You'll Like These Too:

List of Deaths on the Pacific Crest Trail

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Pacific Crest Trail Death,  PCT Resources,  Research,  Statistics

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ThePoetessatGreenLake
ThePoetessatGreenLake

I hiked the PCT in 2014. After helping a friend with cellulitis in his foot get medevaced to Victorville, I spent the next 10 days with a husband and wife team from Texas. Sandra and Dawson were doing the PCT together and having the time of their life. They wre going slow, but making steady progress. I got ahead of them by a week before I reached Whitney Portal and didn’t expect to see them again. When I arrived in Tuolumne Meadows, I got a text from a new hiking friend that Dawson had solo climbed Whitney while Sandra waited in Lower Crabtree Meadows and had fallen to his death. Whitney is a side hike, but one taken by most PCT hikers. Sandra reported him missing to rangers. His body was recovered a few days later. Nowhere in the reporting of his death does it say they were hiking the PCT, but they were. Perhaps that’s why Dawson didn’t make your list. He was the oldest through-hiker I met that year. I met a few others doing the JMT in their 70s and one woman in her 80s who was about to climb Whitney with her son! I struggled with Dawson’s death and talked to him a lot as I continued north through CA, OR and WA.

2
Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  ThePoetessatGreenLake

Hello, friend, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I found an article to confirm your account of Dawson and I’ve added it to the list.

1
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John T
John T

What about all of the people who are reported missing and never found? I found stats that say over 189 people were reported missing and were never found in the State of Oregon’s national park since 1994. Now, I doubt all of these hikers were hiking the PCT trail, however, it’s interesting to note that unless you are confirmed dead, you are just added to a missing persons list and you remain a missing person but for some reason you aren’t considered dead and your aren’t considered as part of the stats of people who have died. I wonder why….maybe bad PR.

2
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John T
John T
Reply to  John T

A staggering 189 men and 51 women officially remain listed as missing since 1997 by the Oregon Office of Emergency Management after trekking into Oregon’s wildest places, said Georges Kleinbaum, search and rescue coordinator for the office.

1
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  John T

Yes, but we are talking specifically about PCT hikers here, not simply people who may have died/gone missing somewhere near the PCT.

0
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al
al
Reply to  John T

Please list the source? Link?

0
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Kevin C
Kevin C

Karen Tellez was a dayhiker who wanted to hike the PCT.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-dec-08-mn-61991-story.html

1
Reply
Mac
Mac
Author
Reply to  Kevin C

Noted and added.

1
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Alex1776
Alex1776

Although they are not confirmed deaths, the missing thru hikers should be included with a separate section. Kind of common sense. There are still vital lessons to be learned from the circumstances they went missing in, and their stories. There should be more than morbid fascination to this information.

1
Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  Alex1776

Not sure I agree with your common sense sentiment, but I can do a section (or separate post) on missing hikers.

Care to start us off with some names?

0
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Alison Auton
Alison Auton

This needs to be updated. In addition to Strawberry, Tree and Marvin, two day hikers fell to their deaths recently on the PCT.

1
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  Alison Auton

Will be updated at the end of the season – thank you for the information.

0
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Jonathan Mace Bent
Jonathan Mace Bent

Kris Fowler “Sherpa” is still missing from PCT 2016. Michael Fiery disappeared on the PCT in 2005 and was never found (his backpack was). There are a bunch of other disappearances. There have been a lot of people who have disappeared over the years in Yosemite (and all around the Pacific Crest. I agree the PCT is generally safe, but people should be aware that people just disappear all along the PCT.

1
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  Jonathan Mace Bent

Disappearances โ‰  deaths.

0
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Sprinkler
Sprinkler
Reply to  Mac

Yeah but he was a known PCT hiker (I hiked with him for awhile actually) that went too late into the season and was likely caught in a storm. While it would be nice to think that he finished the trail and slipped off to Aruba, that is probably not the case.

0
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Craig Campbell
Craig Campbell

Crater Lake is in Oregon, not Washington.

1
Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  Craig Campbell

That’s a Control+V error if I’ve ever seen one. Thanks for pointing it out!

0
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Caroline
Caroline

Two young women died on the PCT in the 1990s I think, crossing a highway near the Canadian border… I think I read that in the old PCT guide, towards the last page.

1
Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  Caroline

Cars strike again. I’ll see if I can dig up some information on those two.

0
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Samo
Samo

Just found this on the Internets. Means it is true, right?

“Since its formation in 1977, there has been only one known attempt to hike the PCT in winter, by couple Gerald Duran and Jodi Zatchick back in 1983. They were traveling south to north and were hiking towards Wrightwood, California, to resupply when they got lost. They had started down the wrong canyon and ended up on much steeper terrain than their intended Acorn Trail. As they were descending, they slipped on an icy slope and then fell several hundred feet off a cliff face to their deaths.” – http://www.outsideonline.com/1930861/first-ever-winter-thru-hike-pct

1
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  Samo

Very interesting! I did some quick more poking around the internets and couldn’t find anything else about these two. I’ll update with a reference to this article. Maybe I’ll get in touch with the author to ask about where this information came from.

0
Reply
Jonathan Mace Bent
Jonathan Mace Bent
Reply to  Samo

A winter hike of the PCT was successfully completed in 2014/15.

0
Reply
Francis Scott
Francis Scott
Reply to  Jonathan Mace Bent

Climate change made it doable.

0
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Niall C
Niall C

I was at the top of Forrester Pass on 28 May at about 11:00am. I spoke to an Australian man who attempted to resuscitate the young woman, he said, for 2 hours. I passed her covered body just past the crest. And later saw the helicopter land at the bottom of the pass and then proceed to remove her body and fly away. My sincere condolences to her family and friends.

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Dan H. (Trailname: Faceplant)
Dan H. (Trailname: Faceplant)

I was on the trail in 2018. Around mile 33 I saw a couple Korean guys round a corner ahead of me, then shortly after heard shouting. When I got there one of them was laid out on the trail, the second was doing CPR.
This was on April 13, 2018. Friday the 13th, around noon.
The hiker who was lying on the trail, Happy Days, ended up dying. I believe the official COD was a heart attack.
Had to leave the trail around mile 530 for family reasons. Planning another attempt in 2023.

0
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Ben Around
Ben Around

Since aliens only return live bodies your abduction count should be TBD.

0
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  Ben Around

You’re not wrong.

0
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Jordan
Jordan

Just lost one today. Heat stroke we think.

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Proud Military Brat
Proud Military Brat

I think this list is very misleading. Although a lot of people are missing, so we can’t confirm they are dead, most of them are. That trail isn’t easy and a lot of accidents happen.

0
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  Proud Military Brat

So what’s misleading about it?

0
Reply
Regina Marie
Regina Marie

David O’Sullivan is still missing. Chris Sylvia is still missing. Gavin Johnston is still missing.

0
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  Regina Marie

I should write a post called “List Of Missing Hikers On The PCT”

0
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Proud Military Brat
Proud Military Brat
Reply to  Regina Marie

Gavin was found.

0
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Proud Military Brat
Proud Military Brat
Reply to  Proud Military Brat

His family left his body on the mountain. Built him a nice memorial

1
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al
al

One thing I wanted to know. Where most of these people hiking alone?

0
Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  al

If I come across verifiable information about whether people were alone I will include it in the future.

0
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Proud Military Brat
Proud Military Brat
Reply to  al

Yes

0
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Colleen
Colleen

Class of 2017 – there have been 3 deaths this year. Strawberry (Rika Morita from Japan),Tree (Choacui Wang from China) and Marvin Novo (USA)
In the last 2 weeks Strawberry and Tree died in two separate incidents during river crossings in the Sierras. Marvin Novo died near whitewater preserve, may have been heat related.
David O’Sullivan (Ireland) has been missing since April, around Mt. San Jacinto.

0
Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  Colleen

This has been a rough year for the PCT. I will be updating this article once the season is over.

0
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Craig Roche
Craig Roche

You missed one:
http://www.highsierrahikers.org/ranger_reports/1999CrabtreeJostad.pdf

0
Reply
Mac
Mac
Author
Reply to  Craig Roche

Added to the list, thank you.

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kat lady
kat lady

So I was reading A Blistered Kind of Love and it mentions a death in 1999 that’s not listed here – John Lowder. There’s some debate about if he was a thru hiker or not but he started pretty close to Campo and was planning to go all way to Canada. No links on news sources that’s still up but here’s some PCT-L emails about it from the archives.

http://www.backcountry.net/arch/pct/9906/msg00102.html
http://www.backcountry.net/arch/pct/0001/msg00446.html

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Reply
Mac
Mac
Reply to  kat lady

Thanks for pointing this out. May have to send an email to the authors of A Blistered Kind of Love to see if they can provide any more information (since the PCT-L isn’t usually the most reliable source of information). Thanks!

0
Reply
kat lady
kat lady
Reply to  Mac

So I decided to look for more info about Lowder and peek at the Union-Tribute archives to find the obit that the PCT-L posted and here it is!

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SDUB&p_theme=sdub&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=john%20lowder%20AND%20date%286/1/1999%20to%206/31/1999%29&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=6/1/1999%20to%206/31/1999%29&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=%28john%20lowder%29&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

That link should work, I hope. But if not, go to http://www.newslibrary.com/sites/sdub/ and do a search for John Lowder in June 15 1999. It’s not the full article since you need to pay for it but it’s got the relevant info (died on PCT, cause of death got cut off) that matches up with the obit in PCT-L.

0
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Mac
Mac
Author
Reply to  kat lady

Thank you for this, the post has been updated.

0
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korla
korla

Nice article. You have a good sense of humour too!

0
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Mac
Mac
Reply to  korla

Thanks, korla!

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