The cold mountain snowmelt now raging in many of Colorado’s recreational rivers claimed its third victim of the month Thursday afternoon.
The river fatality came after four people were thrown into the fast-flowing Cache La Poudre River west of Fort Collins during a commercial rafting trip.
There were four rafting or tubing deaths in the state at this point last year, according to a record kept by The Denver Post.
Winter’s heavy snowpack — three to four times its normal depth in some parts of northwest Colorado — has been slow to melt until recently because of cool spells in the high country. That could mean a prolonged period of whitewater, rather than the sharp rise in flow that normally happens by mid-June.
“We’re not in the prediction business, but my guess is we’re looking at two to three more weeks of good high flows,” said Michael Lewis, associate director of hydrologic data for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Colorado Water Science Center in Lakewood.
The names and hometowns of those involved in Thursday afternoon’s accident have not been released.
The Larimer County coroner’s office said it would perform an autopsy today to determine the rafter’s cause of death.
Another of the rafters broke a leg, and two others, who were wearing wet suits, were pulled from an island in the river and were apparently uninjured, authorities said.
The incident happened at about 12:40 p.m. near the Mishawaka Inn, about 25 miles west of Fort Collins on Poudre Canyon Highway. The spot is popular with rafters but has a history of trouble, said Larimer County sheriff’s spokesman John Schulz.
On June 16, there were three rescue operations on the river, but they resulted in only minor injuries, he said.
“The river is running pretty high, and it runs through the rocks pretty fast, and there’s a little dip, so it can be challenging,” he said. “When the river is running this fast, there are going to be problems.”
Thursday afternoon, the river was running “much above normal,” according to the USGS. River gauges measured the flow at 276 percent of its normal mean for the date.
The four were part of a trip operated by Rocky Mountain Adventures in Fort Collins. A spokesman for the company did not return a call after the incident.
Last year, Colorado hosted more than 507,000 rafters, with a $150 million impact, according to the Colorado River Outfitters Association, the trade group for commercial adventure companies.
Rocky Mountain Adventures’ online description of the rafting trip highlights the rapids on Mishawaka Falls and describes the outing as “much more action-packed than the other half-day whitewater rafting trips, with plunges that vary from intermediate to advanced in difficulty.”
The company warns: “The current is swift and the channels are narrow, with fun but challenging rapids.”
