Snow along the Keyhole Route at Rocky Mountain National Park on October 20, 2018, in an area searched for Ryan Albert/NPS file
A single glove found near Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park has led to the discovery of the body of a New Jersey man missing in the park since October.
A team of park climbing rangers patroling an area of Longs Peak known as "The Trough" last weekend discovered the glove, which matched the brand that Ryan Albert, of Marlton, New Jersey, was thought to have been wearing when he headed into the backcountry.
On Thursday, a more thorough search of the area by four climbing rangers located the 30-year-old man's body covered in deep snow at an elevation of roughly 12,300 feet, a park release said Friday. This location is approximately 1,000 feet below The Ledges section of the Keyhole Route, and approximately 2,000 feet below the summit.
On Friday morning rangers completed an on scene investigation and Albert’s body was recovered by helicopter and then transferred to the Boulder County Coroner’s Office. Boulder County Coroner’s office will not release positive identification until completion of an autopsy. Once the investigation is complete more details will be released.
Albert was last seen in the park last October 4. A backcountry traveler reported seeing him at about 10:30 a.m. that day in the area of Granite Pass, heading toward the Keyhole on Longs Peak, the park's tallest mountain with a summit of 14,259 feet. Search efforts began the next day, though by then poor weather had set in, the beginning of a multi-day weather pattern of extreme conditions including low visibility and fog, thunderstorms and snow showers and freezing temperatures in the 20s and 30s.
Search teams faced pockets of deep snow as well as verglas ice. The wintry conditions lasted through the search efforts.
During the first two days of the search, in challenging weather and terrain, teams were able to search higher elevations including sections of the Boulder Field, the Keyhole Route, The Loft, Chasm Cirque, North Longs Peak and Boulder Brook. As the snow accumulation and ice continued to build at higher elevations, teams worked lower in the search area throughout the first week. On Friday, October 12, eight days after Albert was last seen, a break in the weather allowed aerial reconnaissance to take place. In addition to searchers looking from the helicopter, footage was taken of high probability areas. Rocky Mountain National Park Search and Rescue team members spent numerous days reviewing the extensive footage.
Another significant winter storm began late Saturday, October 13, bringing additional snow accumulation at higher elevations. On Thursday, October 18, through Saturday, October 20, teams went back to the upper mountain at the Keyhole and Ledges area and again faced continuing deteriorating conditions including waist and chest deep snow, steep icy slopes and extremely slow travel. On Sunday, October 21, a team traveled to the Chasm Cirque area and visually searched Lamb’s Slide, Mills Glacier, Camel Gully and the Chasm View fall line with binoculars and spotting scopes.
The active backcountry search ended in early November due to the wintry conditions.
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