ESTES PARK, Colo. (AP) – A hiker found the body of a missing Rocky Mountain National Park ranger Saturday, eight days after the ranger apparently fell during a routine patrol, park officials said.
No further information on where Jeff Christensen was found or how long he might have survived were released.
More than 200 searchers had been looking for Christensen, 31, in the vast and rugged Mummy Range since July 29. He had told co-workers he was planning a routine backcountry patrol to the Lawn Lake trailhead. Visitors told park officials they saw Christensen that afternoon, but the ranger didn’t return that night.
On Saturday, searchers had been focusing on an area where rangers and park visitors on Wednesday heard gunshots and radio clicks that might have come from Christensen.
Christensen, a ranger for four seasons, was an experienced mountaineer who worked as a ski patroller at the nearby Winter Park resort in the winter. Park officials said he was carrying a radio and a backpack equipped with various gear, though he hadn’t planned to spend the night in the backcountry when he left.
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