HGTV guest found dead on notorious California mountain

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A Fresno contractor who worked on a home featured in an HGTV pilot died Monday while hiking Mount Whitney, local reports said.

The Tulares County Coroner’s Office confirmed to The California Post that Kalem Peter Kazarian, 52, died this week but noted his location of death as Sequoias National Park, just a long hike away from the famed mountain.

Kazarian worked as a contractor in the Fresno area and assisted on a May 2019 HGTV episode of “Go Big or Go Home.” He was from Fowler, a few miles south of Fresno.

The coroner’s office told the California Post to check back for Kazarian’s cause of death later. It’s also unclear where he was hiking specifically.

He had three children and was married to Jonelle Kazarian. Jonelle posted photos of the pair on social media enjoying hiking, including a recent climb of White Mountain, a 14,000-foot peak, this summer. The couple also recently celebrated their 27th anniversary.

Mount Whitney is considered a highly challenging mountain with two main routes: the Mount Whitney Trail, a 21.7-mile round-trip with over 6,000 feet of elevation gain, and a 9.4-mile round-trip mountaineering route up the east face.

The mountain’s peak is at an elevation of 14,505 feet and is the highest point in the contiguous United States.

Deaths on Mount Whitney are not uncommon. One half of a hiking pair died in January after one of them decided to soldier on alone while the other turned back. The hiker who went on was later discovered dead by a search and rescue team.

Rescue teams also recovered the body of 21-year-old Joseph Brambila in December of last year, nearly a month after the solo hiker went missing while scaling the peak. The Inyo County Sheriff’s Office previously said that he appeared to have suffered a “significant fall.”

Dangers of hiking the mountain include altitude sickness, falls, and, in the later months, brutally cold weather.

Early fall is considered the best time to hike Mount Whitney. Permits are required to hike the mountain.

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