Rather unusual behavior by a visitor:

Rocky Mountain National Park (CO)
Search In Progress For Man Walking Trail Ridge Road

A search is in progress for a New York man who disappeared while attempting to walk over the Rockies on Trail Ridge Road despite warnings from park rangers.

On Monday, January 26th, park rangers contacted Jay Starr Jr, 34, from Cohoes, New York. Starr had entered Rocky Mountain National Park on foot and said that he was planning to walk westbound over Trail Ridge Road. Rangers advised him against this based on his behavior and his lack of preparedness for winter alpine conditions. Starr was wearing tennis shoes, jeans or tan canvas pants, and a black/blue jacket. He had no hat or gloves and was carrying a plastic grocery bag.

Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, with its highest point reaching 12,183 feet. Over ten miles of the road are above 11,500 feet. The road closed to vehicles for the season on November 4th. The road is not maintained during the winter. Conditions on the road range from bare wind-blown asphalt to deep snow drifts.

On Tuesday afternoon, rangers on skis contacted Starr above Many Parks Curve on Trail Ridge Road. They were concerned for his welfare and were attempting to assist him. Starr fled from the rangers up a dry section of the road, though, and continued to elude rangers until darkness fell.

Beginning early on Wednesday, two teams of rangers attempted to locate Starr again on the road – one team coming from the east side of the park and the other team from the west side. They faced wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour. These high winds and blowing snow hampered their efforts to follow Starr’s footprints. Aerial operations were not possible due to the high winds. The entire road corridor was checked, but Starr was not located.

Yesterday, rangers again attempted to locate Starr in areas around Trail Ridge Road.

Rangers have been assisted over the last two days by a Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer with an all-terrain vehicle equipped with snow tracks. Yesterday’s operations were also aided by an over-snow tracked vehicle and operator from Estes Park Power and Light. The motorized equipment is only being used on Trail Ridge Road.

Park rangers would like to hear from anyone who might have information on Starr’s whereabouts. Please call (970) 586-1204.

Must say I will be VERY surprised if he is found alive. Seems he´s got a snowballs chance in h***l.


EDIT: Googled "Search In Progress For Man Walking Trail Ridge Road" and found this:

http://home.nps.gov/applications/mr/

The rangers made a valiant attempt to help this idiot, above and beyond the call of duty. Now it's time to sit back and let nature take its course, with natural selection and natural cleansing of the gene pool proceeding as they always do. It's sad, but if this fool is really that good at ignoring advice and intentionally avoiding help and assistance, so be it. At least he's only trying to kill himself, not others. They'll probably find him next spring. It will be easier then.

p.s. - Looks like Herman30 posted at the same time I did. So they found the guy still alive, huh? I can't say I was expecting that outcome.

The rangers certainly went the distance here. The behaviors exhibited strongly suggest that this gentleman is suffering from mental health difficulties. You can't easily stop an individual from doing something so obviously dangerous, but the duty to assist remains. A fine example of professionalism IMO.

(Aside: YMMV, but I think this forum would be better served if we replaced "gene pool" comments with "There but for the grace of God go I.")

That was exactly what I was thinking when I read the original post.

Thank you for that comment. Incidents like this are why we have ranger, and other professionals, in parks.

Full disclosure: I am retired NPS (40 year career)and I bleed gray and loden green. It is also why I check the NPS Morning Report regularly for stuff like this.

The victim was amazingly fortunate in this case...

My thoughts regarding this "victim" have been deleted as it presumed a state of mind that I am not qualified to diagnose. Besides I dislike it when others are presumptuous, so I have self-censored.

Do Park Rangers not have the legal authority to prevent someone like this from proceeding? It would be cheaper and safer to detain him prior to departing than to conduct a search.

I personally would have let him go and NOT searched for him, but that is just me. Many people are only still alive because others are more alert, careful, and helpful.

It depends. It sounds like he spoke to rangers who said "No, don't go there." and later on he went anyway...when no one was around. I am pretty sure that Trail Ridge Road had a gate with "Road Closed" sign. He might eventually get a ticket for"creating a dangerous situation" or some such.

The classic priorities for NPS folks are 1)saving lives, and 2)extinguishing fires.

You wouldn't believe the range of expertise one will encounter in park visitors. Some are unbelievably clueless and others may know more about the subject or locale than you do. Keeps you on your toes

...Not as rare as you might think; people have big plans and little knowledge or prep.