Michaelle Alejandra Rubio Leiva’s sister raised the alarm after watching her plunge nearly 1,000 feet from a Dolomites mountainside.
The 36-year-old communications manager, originally from Guatemala and most recently based in Florida, had stepped off a marked trail near Forcella Pordoi above Canazei, Italy, last Saturday to reach a panoramic photo spot when she lost her footing, according to Italian outlet Corriere della Sera. She fell approximately 980 feet from an exposed section of the Sella mountain group and was pronounced dead at the scene just before 12:30 p.m.
Leiva had been walking with her family toward a cable car station that would carry them to a famous panoramic restaurant atop Sass Pordoi, il Dolomiti reported. The pass, while easily accessible by cable car, proves difficult to traverse on foot due to steep terrain and loose gravel that complicates maintaining solid footing.
Emergency services scrambled to the remote site after the sister’s desperate call, but responders could not save Leiva. Her body was recovered and later transported to Canazei, where grieving relatives had already been airlifted following the tragedy.
The tour group had been exploring terrain sitting roughly 9,000 feet above sea level when the accident occurred. Forcella Pordoi’s dramatic rock faces form part of the UNESCO-listed Dolomites, a range that draws millions of visitors annually with its jagged peaks and sweeping vistas.
Leiva’s path to Italy had been an international one. She graduated from Brigham Young University and built a career in communications, working most recently at a firm in Miami, Corriere della Sera noted. She had also participated in multiple volunteer projects throughout her life.
Earlier this year, Leiva relocated to Rome to work as a digital nomad in consulting, though it remained unclear whether she had maintained that living arrangement at the time of her death.
The same volcanic landscape that has drawn photographers and hikers for generations has claimed other victims in recent years. The incident follows a separate episode at Mount Vesuvius in 2022, when an American tourist fell into the volcano’s crater while reaching for his cellphone after climbing a forbidden trail. That visitor survived after rescuers lowered a rope to extract him.