The western side of Arikaree Peak where a 31-year-old Boulder man fell to his death in late August. Search and rescue teams have declined to recover the man’s body due to safety concerns.
Grand County Sheriff’s Office
Multiple agencies in Colorado have conducted a coordinated attempt to recover the body of a man who fell at least 300 to 400 feet to his death on Arikaree Peak last month. This past week, after multiple attempts, rescuers deemed any further attempts to recover the unidentified hiker’s body too dangerous, according to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.
The fall occurred on August 28 along the 13,000-foot peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness west of Boulder. When rescuers first set out to get to the man after his fall, they had a physician aboard the rescue chopper who declared that he had not survived the 300-400 foot fall. At the time, adverse weather conditions coupled with the steep terrain where the man had finally landed prevented them from reaching the hiker. That initial recovery response was conducted by Grand County Search and Rescue, Boulder County Emergency Services, Colorado Hoist Rescue Team, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Colorado Search and Rescue, the Colorado Air National Guard and the Alpine Rescue Team.
A second attempt was then made on September 6 by Grand County Search and Rescue, the Alpine Rescue Team, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, and Med Evac. Again, the steep terrain prevented rescuers from reaching the hiker safely. The sheriff’s office then announced a “multi-agency decision” that further recovery efforts would be halted. While the hiker’s identity has not been released to the public, the Grand County Coroner’s office has said they’ve been in contact with the victim’s family.
“Our teams made every possible effort to safely reach the site of the fall, but conditions remain too dangerous for us to proceed,” Grand County Search and Rescue Field Director Greg Foley said. “The safety of our personnel must come first.”
“This recovery effort is not hampered by technical and logistical challenges,” Dale Atkins of Alpine Rescue Team told CBS News Colorado. “Rather, it is the excessive risk faced by rescuers that thwarts our efforts. Mountain rescuers are risk takers, but we are not risk seekers. In high risk operations we have emergency plans to rescue a rescuer. But on Arikaree, we haven’t been able to put together an effective and timely back-up plan should a rescuer get hurt. The raggedness of the mountain prevented crews from Colorado Hoist Rescue Team from retrieving the body, which also means they could not rescue a rescuer in the same location.
Atkins explained that the golden rule of mountain rescuers “is to not make the situation worse.” The west side of Arikaree “is shredded with steep and ragged gullies and towering rock fins and pinnacles,” he said, presenting too many obstacles and new dangers for rescuers to navigate without inviting too much risk.
