SPRINGDALE, Utah — The visitor who fell to his death Friday while on the popular Angels Landing trail in Zion National Park has been identified.
The National Park Service said the victim was 68-year-old Gilberto Ramos, from Laredo, Texas.
Search and rescue crews were first called to reports of the fall on the trail at 2 p.m. Due to the recovery attempts, the West Rim Trail, including Scout Lookout and Angels Landing, were immediately closed.
Ramos's body was located that evening on the north side of Angels Landing in Zion Canyon near Big Bend. His remains were transferred to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the State of Utah Office of the Medical Examiner.
During Friday's search, people coming down the trail said it was chaos, but they did not know exactly what happened and were just told to come back down.
The trails were reopened Saturday morning.
Both the West Rim and Angels Landing trails are among the most visited at the park, with Angels Landing consistently being ranked as one of the most dangerous trails in the national park system.
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Angels Landing can only be reached by permit. It is a thin, precarious trail that people climb with only a chain to hang on to, with drops of 500 to 1,000 feet down the side of the trail.
According to records, well over a dozen people have fallen from the trail since 2000. Of those, 13 died of their injuries.
At an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Zion National Park Lodge earlier in the day, U.S. Sen. John Curtis spoke about his love of Angels Landing.
"Well, I like Angels Landing, and I feel so bad that it takes a permit to get here because I wish everybody could come and have that experience," Curtis said.
