Pitkin County officials recovered the body of a 37-year-old Aspen resident from Conundrum Couloir Wednesday morning, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday.
According to a Thursday afternoon news release from the sheriff’s office, the recovery was a two-day effort between sheriff deputies, the county coroner’s office, Mountain Rescue Aspen and Care Flight.
The hiker’s employer reported them missing on July 30 at 2:20 p.m., when they failed to arrive for work. The next day, friends of the hiker told deputies that they had found a car similar to the hiker’s rental car at the end of Castle Creek Road in Pitkin County, according to the news release.
On July 31, working with the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, Mountain Rescue Aspen sent search teams into the Castle and Conundrum Peaks area to look for the overdue hiker.
According to the release, a climber on one of the trails told a search team they had seen shoes and legs sticking out from the snow along the Conundrum Couloir.
When the team climbed up the couloir, they found the hiker’s body wedged into the skier’s lift, against the rock face and mostly covered by snow, the release stated.
Due to worsening weather conditions, Mountain Rescue Aspen wasn’t able to attempt recovery and had to return two days later on Aug. 2 for the hiker’s body.
Officials said the recovered hiker was not wearing mountaineering boots, crampons, or a helmet — all recommended for the Class 3 Steep Snow route. MRA did recover an ice axe in the rocks above the couloir, according to the release.
The Pitkin County Coroner’s Office will release the identity of the hiker at a later time.
Those interested in visiting the backcountry should visit Mountain Rescue Aspen’s Education and Essentials page to learn more about traveling safely in the Aspen backcountry. The sheriff’s office advised visiting 14ers.com to study ascent information and maps of any fourteen-thousand-foot peak in Colorado before the hike.
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