For eight days last summer, ranger Jeff Christensen’s body lay undiscovered among boulders and willows in Rocky Mountain National Park, his doom sealed by a fatal skull fracture suffered in a freak tumble.
When hikers came across his body coincidental to a massive search effort, it appeared that the veteran ranger had tried to help himself before collapsing, managing to walk some distance downhill, wrapping a T-shirt around his bleeding head and possibly attempting to use his radio.
But an investigative report released by the national park on Thursday revealed that Christensen’s injuries may have proved fatal under any circumstance, and any of a combination of factors could have contributed to his fatal July 29 fall, including his choice of a rugged off- trail route, his slick-worn hiking boots, his haste to complete his backcountry patrol and his assignment to travel alone.
As a result of the first death in the park’s 90-year history involving a ranger on backcountry patrol, officials have established new rules for rangers – requiring them to file written travel plans and communicate any route changes – but will allow solo patrols to continue.
“A lot of that may not have prevented the accident, but it would have helped with the search,” said park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson.
Christensen, 31, had been dropped off at the Mount Chapin trailhead about 11 a.m. with the intent of hiking from Chapin Pass to Lost Lake through the remote Mummy and Hague ranges above timberline. According to the report, he started at a time “most consider to be quite late” because he’d been doing paperwork and using the Internet.
Although in his fourth summer as a ranger, he had been in that area only once before.
A colleague warned him that his planned route would cover about 22 miles and would take an exceedingly long time after Christensen said he hoped to finish the patrol in five hours, according to the investigation.
As a result, he said he would hike a shorter route along the ridge connecting Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon mountains and ending at the Lawn Lake trailhead later in the afternoon.
Three hiking parties encountered Christensen moving rapidly up the ridgeline toward Mount Chiquita, but investigators could not determine precisely which route he took down from the saddle between that peak and Mount Ypsilon.
A tumble – perhaps caused by a misstep or loose rock – caused Christensen to hit his head and fracture his skull near his left temple. He also “bruised his hip, cut his wrist, had numerous scrapes and lacerations and tore his clothing in several places,” the report said.
The location of his body and blood found inside his open backpack indicated that Christensen apparently remained conscious long enough to walk a short distance and wrap the T-shirt around his head.
The Larimer County coroner’s report indicates that he fell sometime between 4 and 8 p.m. and likely died between two and six hours later.
When three hikers came across the ranger’s body on Aug. 6, his handheld radio was discovered out of its holster next to him. It was later found to be functioning despite a cracked screen, although officials could not determine whether his battery had had any remaining power.
A park employee who reviewed radio-transmission tapes discovered several unexplained quick “clicks” – but no voice transmissions – about the time that the coroner estimated Christensen had fallen.
“As the battery drains down, voice transmissions will start to trail off or be cut short, and I think eventually you may in fact have nothing but frequency breaks or squelch clicks on the mike,” said Chief Ranger Mark Magnuson.
Although it is not known whether Christensen was responsible for the clicks, the park is now instructing rangers to carry extra radio batteries.
“That was such a significant question: Why didn’t Jeff call?” Magnuson said. “The deputy coroner’s opinion was that either Jeff didn’t realize or recognize the seriousness of the head injury and chose not to call, and then it simply became too late and he couldn’t call, or … the head injury was so severe that he may have taken his radio out of the holster, looked at it and not known what to do with it.”
By 6 p.m., another ranger realized Christensen had not called for a ride and tried to contact him. At about 11 p.m. a ranger noticed that Christensen’s car remained parked at the operations center.
That prompted a check of the Lawn Lake trailhead, a visit to Christensen’s park housing unit and unsuccessful attempts to reach him by cellphone and radio before a formal search was launched at 6:30 a.m. July 30.
More than 100 searchers flocked to the park daily in the following week, aided by several dog teams and as many as five helicopters scanning a 26-square- mile area.
Searchers were close to Christensen “numerous times,” according to the summary, though based on the coroner’s findings, he was probably dead already.
The site was included in the area of the initial search and had been visited by dog teams and flown over by helicopters using infrared equipment.
“Searchers indicated that they may have walked or passed within 30 feet of where Jeff was ultimately found,” according to an accident summary. And had night winds been different July 30, a dog team that was within a quarter-mile of his body may have been able to find him, the summary said.
Christensen’s park-issue ball cap and sunglasses have not been found and may yield clues as to where and how he fell, Magnuson said.
Officials indicated that rangers will still conduct solo patrols, even though they advise park visitors not to travel alone in the backcountry, but they are looking into providing staff with personal-locator beacons.
Magnuson said rangers typically are comfortable and competent to travel alone – and free to request a partner on any assignment.
“Ultimately, everybody is responsible for their own safety,” he said. “We could provide all the tools, all the guidelines and all the training that somebody could want, but when somebody goes up the trail, it’s up to them to put those things in place.”
Magnuson said he hopes Christensen’s death serves as a reminder for all backcountry travelers – rangers and casual hikers alike – to constantly make assessments about conditions, their own abilities and the consequences of a mistake.
“As we’ve analyzed and reanalyzed this incident, I think we all understand that could be any one of us out there,” he said. “We’ve all slipped on loose rocks. We’ve all tripped over boulders. All it takes is one time in the wrong place, and the outcome could be different.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
