NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, January 30, 2015
INCIDENTS
Rocky Mountain NP
Search In Progress For Man Walking Trail Ridge Road
A search is in progress for a New York man who disappeared while attempting to walk over the Rockies on Trail Ridge Road despite warnings from park rangers.
On Monday, January 26th, park rangers contacted J.S. Jr, 34, from Cohoes, New York. J.S. had entered Rocky Mountain National Park on foot and said that he was planning to walk westbound over Trail Ridge Road. Rangers advised him against this based on his behavior and his lack of preparedness for winter alpine conditions. J.S. was wearing tennis shoes, jeans or tan canvas pants, and a black/blue jacket. He had no hat or gloves and was carrying a plastic grocery bag.
Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, with its highest point reaching 12,183 feet. Over ten miles of the road are above 11,500 feet. The road closed to vehicles for the season on November 4th. The road is not maintained during the winter. Conditions on the road range from bare wind-blown asphalt to deep snow drifts.
On Tuesday afternoon, rangers on skis contacted J.S. above Many Parks Curve on Trail Ridge Road. They were concerned for his welfare and were attempting to assist him. J.S. fled from the rangers up a dry section of the road, though, and continued to elude rangers until darkness fell.
Beginning early on Wednesday, two teams of rangers attempted to locate J.S. again on the road - one team coming from the east side of the park and the other team from the west side. They faced wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour. These high winds and blowing snow hampered their efforts to follow J.S.'s footprints. Aerial operations were not possible due to the high winds. The entire road corridor was checked, but J.S. was not located.
Yesterday, rangers again attempted to locate J.S. in areas around Trail Ridge Road.
Rangers have been assisted over the last two days by a Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer with an all-terrain vehicle equipped with snow tracks. Yesterday's operations were also aided by an over-snow tracked vehicle and operator from Estes Park Power and Light. The motorized equipment is only being used on Trail Ridge Road.
Park rangers would like to hear from anyone who might have information on J.S.'s whereabouts. Please call (970) 586-1204.
[Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers):
Fire and Aviation Management - National Park Service structural firefighters have joined firefighters in more than 800 fire departments from around the world in vowing to always wear their seatbelts while riding in fire apparatus.
Wrangell-St. Elias NP&P - A researcher recently completed a study of human-bear interactions in the Kennecott Valley and prepared four videos of interviews with local residents on the subject. Links are provided to all four.
Historical Documentation Programs - The Library of Congress and the National Park Service have announced that a drawing by a Fort Worth architect is the 2014 Holland Prize winner.
Grand Teton NP - Steve Cain, senior wildlife biologist at Grand Teton National Park, will retire at the end of January after a 36-year career with both the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Pinnacles NP - Administrative Officer Leticia Ruiz will be retiring on February 3rd after almost 40 years in federal service, all of it in Pinnacles National Park.
Servicewide Training Calendar - The following have been added to this week's calendar - a fee supervisors training workshop at NCTC, a new online course that provides an introduction to air resources, a resource advisor (READ) training course at Yosemite, and an extended deadline for a resource protection and law class in Anchorage.
To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites:
NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/
The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).
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