Fresno contractor who appeared on HGTV dies while hiking in Sequoia National Park

Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times on Oct 8, 2026

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A contractor who has appeared on HGTV died this week while hiking in Sequoia National Park, according to officials.

Kalem Peter Kazarian, 52, died Monday while hiking on Mt. Whitney at the park, the Tulare County Coroner's office confirmed to The Times. His cause of death hasn't been determined.

Kazarian appeared alongside hosts Koko and Nick Chandler in the 2019 HGTV pilot of "Go Big or Go Home," KSEE reported.

Kazarian worked on a project for Yerevan for Habitat for Humanity Armenia and helped build homes for charity, according to the local outlet. He owned Kazarian Custom Homes in Fresno, according to social media posts.

A 2022 post on the business' Instagram page described Kazarian as "a natural teacher, leader, visionary, and one of the hardest workers."

Kazarian marks at least the second person who died this year while trying to summit the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. at 14,505 feet.

In January, a hiker was found dead during an aerial search of the north face of Mt. Whitney after they failed to descend the mountain and reunite with a hiking companion. The hiker was found below the notorious "final 400" stretch, a dangerously steep chute along the route that is particularly challenging to navigate in the winter months.

Last December, the body of a 21-year-old hiker was found on Mt. Whitney after weeks of searching. Another hiker fell to their death last October, after some of Mt. Whitney's earliest snows of the season. Both were found on a difficult portion known as the 99 Switchbacks.

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