Rocky Mountain National Park – Jeff Christensen forgot his new polarized sunglasses the last time he was with his friend Tony Wasson.
Wasson wore them when he joined the more than 200 rescuers who searched for the missing park ranger last week.
“I put them on during the search, hoping I could see where he went,” Wasson said. “But instead, through the glasses, I could see what meant most to him: his friends. I will continue to wear the glasses, and I’ll see what Jeff wanted to show me.”
Even in death, Christensen was teaching them, friends and family said Wednesday at a memorial service for the Rocky Mountain National Park ranger.
Christensen valued his friends and lived his life outdoors.
He died after he fell while patrolling a trail, and for eight days, rescuers scoured the rocks and peaks of the park looking for him.
A hiker found his body Saturday with a T-shirt wrapped around his head, an attempt to self-treat his fatal head injuries.
“He was dead on the first day. But God gave us eight days to know you, love you and see the incredible things you did for him,” his mother, Chris Christensen, told the 200 searchers who attended the service at the YMCA’s Hyde Chapel outside the park’s east entrance. More than 650 people attended the service, and speakers accommodated the crowd outside.
Christensen was in his element in the backcountry, said fellow Winter Park ski patroller Joe Zuiches who joined the search that began July 30. In fact, there was a running joke among the searchers: “Yeah, we found him. He said he wanted to stay a couple days,” said Zuiches.
Ski patroller Paul Salem said Christensen had opened his eyes, too, when he joined the search.
“I’m not much of a hiker, and I probably would have never seen the view from Mount Chiquita or the hike down to Ypsilon Lake,” Salem said.
The service was a pageantry of color. More than 80 Winter Park ski patrollers wore their bright red parkas. National Park rangers more than 100 strong donned their gray dress uniforms. Orange was the color for Larimer County Search and Rescue, and the Douglas County team wore yellow.
More than a dozen agencies came, wearing black tape on their badges and black ribbons on their chests.
Sunlight fell on the Ypsilon and Chiquita peaks in an otherwise cloud-shrouded sky – casting a glow on the very mountains Christensen was patrolling when he died.
The native of St. Paul, Minn., had headed West as soon as he got his history and geology degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He embraced Colorado and the outdoor lifestyle. The 31-year-old had been a ranger for four seasons and served on the Winter Park Ski Patrol for six years.
Last winter, he was regularly winning the biweekly ski race between the ski patrollers and ski instructors.
“Jeff liked to help others,” said Mike Snyder, acting regional director of the National Park Service. “We knew if the tables were turned, he would have spent long days searching for us.”
Christensen is survived by his mother and his father, Dale, and brothers Jason and Brian. His family will hold a funeral service Friday in Minnesota.
As Christensen’s casket was carried from the chapel Wednesday at the feet of the mountains, his call number – 233 – crackled over the radio for the last time.
Then the final transmission: “No contact Ranger 233. Ranger 233 out of service.”
Staff writer Dave Curtin can be reached at 303-820-1276 or dcurtin@denverpost.com.
