Hikers find mystery skeleton on remote mountain in Calif.

Had they not gotten off track, a pair of hikers on Mount Williamson, California’s second-highest peak, would have missed it.

In a remote area about three hours from the mountain’s summit, a bleached skull peeked out from beneath gray boulders.

“We were in disbelief,” said one of the hikers, Brandon Follin, 22, who was with his friend, Tyler Hofer, 33.

As they got closer, they spotted hints of other bones amid the boulders. Clearing away the rocks revealed a skeleton, which was almost fully intact, with a pair of disintegrating leather shoes and the remnants of a belt.

Investigators at the Inyo County Sheriff ’s Office are trying to identify the hiker and solve the mystery of why he or she never got beyond this spot in “the bowl,” as that stretch leading up to the top of Mount Williamson is known.

Hofer saw the chalk-white skull first. The hikers were at a loss about what to do. Follin said not touching the bones and calling authorities seemed wise, but they were far beyond cell service. They opted to document their findings.

After they reached the summit, they called 911. On Wednesday, the remains were removed by a California Highway Patrol helicopter.

The Inyo County Sheriff ’s Office said it could not yet say how long the person had been on the mountain. The sex of the person was pending a review by the county coroner’s office.

Forensic anthropologist Alison Galloway, a professor emerita of anthropology at University of California, Santa Cruz, said with only bones, it is trickier to determine whether someone has been there for one year or 20.

In this case, the shoes and belt may offer more useful clues than the skeleton itself, she said. There are a variety of other techniques to determine timing. She pointed to carbon-14 testing, for example, which can reveal whether someone died before the 1950s.

Strangely, the use of atomic bombs in the 1950s and 1960s released enough changes in the carbon ions in the atmosphere to be reflected in the bones of people who were born after that time, she said.

Carma Roper, a spokeswoman for the sheriff ’s office, said investigators had reviewed lists of everyone reported missing in the area in the last couple of decades. Based on the skeleton’s location, nothing has matched up.

There is “no evidence to suggest foul play at the scene,” Roper said.

Follin was skeptical. “The way the body was laid out, it was lounging” as if someone buried the hiker, he said.

The sheriff’s office is attempting to obtain a DNA sample from the remains. If no hair is available, skeletal DNA is a possibility.