Australia / New ZealandSoaring temperatures, wrong turn doom US hiker

Tourist dies while trekking in outback Australia

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Temperatures reached 42C on the Larapinta Trail this week.
Temperatures reached 42C on the Larapinta Trail this week. Photo Credit: STRINGERimage/GettyImages
A 33-year-old US tourist has died while hiking a popular trail in the Australian outback.

The man had set out with a companion to scale Mount Sonder - a gruelling section of the 223km Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory - but the pair became separated, police said.

The man, from California, had taken a wrong turn on descent, a police officer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"[Mount Sonder] is about 1,300 metres tall and the actual walk that they undertook was about 16 kilometres there and back," Supt Rob Burgoyne said.

The Larapinta Trail takes trekkers through rugged bush west of Alice Springs, where temperatures reached 42C on Wednesday.

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