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Missing hiker found dead at bottom of Angels Landing in Zion National Park is identified

Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Hikers carefully pick their way down the Angel's Landing Trail in Zion National Park in this file photo. It's one of the premier hikes in the park which takes the hiker up and a steep rock spine that climbs to a magnificent view of the Virgin River and Zion Canyon below. The hikes is not for those with fear of heights. An anchor chain is embedded in the rock in steep places along the trail that hikers can grab onto for safety.

Search and rescue crews looking for a 35-year-old man who went missing in Zion National Park earlier this week found his body Thursday at the bottom of the park’s iconic Angels Landing rock formation.

The body was found Thursday morning, and investigators later confirmed it was Pradeep Beryl Solomon, spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said in a news release.

Solomon, who lived in northern Utah, was reported missing Wednesday after he didn’t return home from a trip to the park, where he planned to hike Angels Landing.

Baltrus said the park didn’t receive any reports of a man falling from the trail in the last few days, but it was raining Tuesday and there were fewer visitors in the area.

The trail, which includes steep sections and has exposure near long drops-offs, also gets slick when wet, she said, and the injuries the man received were consistent with a long fall.

A 13-year-old girl died when she fell from the trail in February 2018. A 45-year-old man died after a suspected fall from the trail in March 2017. That was the first death on the trail since a California woman fell to her death in 2010.

“Our deepest condolences go out to the Solomon family and friends,” park superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh said in a statement. “We are all deeply saddened by this outcome.”