[/b] [b]What started out as this on 8/1:

Worried searchers comb park for ranger

By George Merritt
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Rocky Mountain National Park - Park rangers searched for one of their own Sunday, two days after a fit and experienced member of their team went into the backcountry and did not return.

Jeff Christensen, 31, was last seen when he left alone for a patrol of the rugged and remote Mummy Range about 11 a.m. Friday.

"We are very positive," spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said of the attitude of the rescue teams. "Jeff is young, he's fit. ... This is his fourth year as a seasonal ranger."

Still, with no word from Christensen for a third consecutive day, Patterson said time "is of the essence."

She said rescuers are conducting the same kind of search they would for any healthy individual missing in the park. But she said there is an obvious personal concern.

"The only thing that is different is that in the back of their minds, they know this is a co-worker," she said.

No one can remember a ranger going missing for more than an afternoon.

Christensen is a "kindred spirit" who worked on search and rescue. If it had been one of them missing, searchers know, Christensen would have been out looking for them.

About 50 people from the park staff, area sheriffs' offices and the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, as well as Front Range Rescue dogs, took part Sunday in the second day of the massive search.

Two helicopters - one equipped with a device to look for body heat - also patrolled the steep, high-altitude area.

But the going is tough. Mount Chapin at 12,454 feet and Mount Chiquita at 13,069 feet mark the terrain.

Patterson said the area is popular with cross-country skiers, but when the snow melts there are few, if any, foot trails.

"This is not a flat meadow," she said.

Christensen left from the Chapin Pass Trailhead off Old Fall River Road on Friday with plans to return to the Lawn Lake Trailhead by that evening.

Patterson said friends report they knew of no personal issues Christensen was dealing with recently.

It's certain that he carried a radio Friday. And officials said his pack probably contained camping essentials: food, water, a headlamp, matches and rain gear. He probably had his Park Service commissioned pistol and may have had a cellphone.

That they have not heard from Christensen over his radio "does give us some concern," Patterson said, but not too much. It is possible his batteries are dead, or he could be in one of the many drainages or gullies where radio reception is spotty at best, she said.

Christensen, who lives in Fraser, has worked for the ski patrol in Winter Park during the winters. Some of his friends from the area helped search for him Sunday.

Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or [email]gmerritt@denverpost.com.[/email]

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Has ended up as this on 8/7:

Body of missing ranger is found

Discovery made by hiker; fall apparent

By Steve Lipsher
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Estes Park - A hiker on Saturday found the body of a park ranger who had been missing for eight days in Rocky Mountain National Park, dashing hopes of park officials and searchers who thought he might still be alive.

The discovery of the body of Jeff Christensen, 31, followed what had been an intense air and ground search after the ranger didn't return from a backcountry patrol July 29. By the end of the week, more than 200 searchers were pushing through the rugged terrain, supported by dog crews and helicopters.

"We all tried very hard, and we're all very saddened by the outcome," said one member of a volunteer rescue team who asked not to be identified.

Christensen's body was found near the Spectacle Lakes, two alpine tarns just below the sheer east face of Mount Ypsilon. Authorities said it appeared he had fallen, though they declined to explain how they reached that conclusion. They also wouldn't say how long Christensen might have survived after his fall.

"Jeff's death is under investigation. We know you have many questions, and we do, too," said park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson. "Please bear with us. ... It may take two or three days before we know the answers."

The grim reality was confirmed in a broadcast over rescuers' radios about 3:20 p.m., roughly two hours after Christensen's body had been found.

"The search has been concluded," the dispatcher told crews fanned out over the 26-square- mile search area. "Please be safe on your return, and thank you for your assistance."

Christensen's parents, Dale and Chris Christensen, were in the park and could not be found immediately, resulting in the delay in getting out the word, Patterson said.

"They're pretty much coping right now with the news," she said. "Obviously, like all of us, they were hoping for a better outcome."

Late in the afternoon, exhausted searchers returned in small groups, some obviously distraught. They were met by colleagues with tearful hugs.

Christensen's uncle Tony Hingus had joined in the search along with members of rescue groups from across the state and dozens of day hikers who wanted to help.

By 7 p.m., flags had been lowered to half-staff outside park headquarters, and park officials placed black tape over their badges in memory of the first ranger to have died on duty in the park's 90-year history.

Christensen had worked the three previous summers in the west side of the park. He was conducting his first foot patrol in the Mummy Range the day he was last seen.

Park officials said they will review the policy of sending rangers out on patrol alone as part of the investigation into Christensen's death, Patterson said.

"It's certainly something we would consider," she said. "But our rangers' office is the backcountry of our park."

Earlier in the week, gunshots heard in the area and clicks on the park radio system lent hope that Christensen was still alive. Park officials said he was carrying a radio, a gun and a backpack equipped with various gear.

"We really think it was him," park spokesman David Eaker said. "We know that he had his pistol with him. But for some reason, it stopped. Maybe he ran out of ammunition or was incapable of firing the gun any more."

On Saturday, as many as five helicopters, nine teams of rescue dogs, and trained searchers and other volunteers again retraced Christensen's planned 15-mile loop from Chapin Pass, passing over several rugged high peaks in the Mummy Range and then heading down the rocky Lawn Lake trail.

Rescue leaders using mapping technology tried to determine the most likely areas where he would have ended up. Any object found was considered a potentially vital clue.

Once, it was a Nalgene bottle. Then a Swiss army knife. On Saturday, it was the discovery of a yellow sweat shirt, high off the trail on the east side of Bighorn Mountain, that temporarily gave rescuers renewed hope.

At one point, searchers called every number listed in Christensen's cellphone records - even tracking down a Granby woman who was to meet him for a date last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, park visitors from across the country offered messages of support on a sheet of easel paper at park headquarters.

"Our prayers are with you," wrote a couple from Lubbock, Texas.

"We will keep you and your family in our prayers always. Good luck," wrote another couple from Weyauwega, Wis.

In the end, the trained searchers were left to wonder what more could have been done to find their missing comrade.

Eaker noted that the Park Service would have expended the same amount of energy for anyone but that the difference in this search was the legions of volunteers from rescue groups from across the state.

"I'm not saying they wouldn't be here," he said. "But I think they feel he's one of their own."

Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or [email]slipsher@denverpost.com.[/email]