Girl’s body recovered from canyon

MONTROSE — The body of a teenage girl was removed from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Sunday morning, Supervisory Ranger Paul Zaenger said.

The girl, 17, a Montrose High student, was found dead 1,200 feet below the Gunnison Point overlook Saturday morning. Based on another ranger’s observations of a vehicle Friday and again Saturday morning, it was thought the girl fell at some point between Friday night and the ranger’s arrival the next morning.

Montrose County Coroner Dr. Tom Canfield said Tuesday he was still examining dental records to make a formal identification and could not release additional information until that was completed.

A recovery team spent Saturday night on the canyon floor, and hiked up to the body at first light Sunday, Zaenger said. The team was able to turn the girl’s remains over to the coroner by about 9:30 Sunday morning.

“The harder part was getting up to the body and getting it into the litter, then getting it back down to the river,” he said.

Rangers Ryan Thrush and Brent Mims, with volunteer Nick Wasser, had to undertake a 140-foot ice climb to reach the body.

“There was some ice climb in there. It was rather wet ice,” Zaenger said. “It was pretty tricky.”

Once the men secured the remains, they belayed them in a litter over the ice climb area. Twice, they had to use a safety line to get the litter down to the river, where they created a makeshift landing area for a Durango-based helicopter.

Though the recovery team was concerned about the weather, Zaenger said it didn’t take as long as anticipated for the helicopter to remove the body.

“There was a squall building up on Sunday morning, so we went down lower to keep the helicopter above the squall,” he said. “As it turned out, the flying didn’t take terribly long.”

He estimated in-air time to be an hour or so.

Falls do occur at the Black Canyon, but Zaenger said these are not regular occurrences.

“It’s not at all what we would wish for any of the folks that come here. It’s our aim for them to have a beautiful and enriching experience. I’m sorry to say that doesn’t happen for everyone that has come. ... It (the death) is a tragedy.”