Hikers make grisly find

Human remains found on mountain summit

By John Cordsen of the Estes Park Trail Gazette

October 10th, 2007

There are 87 distinct summits in Boulder County. Estes Park’s Luke Plumley plans to climb them all. Finding a human skeleton at the summit of trip number 41 was not part of the plan.

The assistant vice president at the First National Bank of Estes Park and a buddy from Boulder took advantage of the Columbus Day holiday Monday with the idea of summitting a couple of the Boulder County peaks.

They made it up one when they found the remains of a man authorities say appears to be a male in his 50s.“It was a crazy scene,” he said. “It looked like he just laid back and died. He was only a skeleton and was laying right below the summit. His clothes were on, he had a paperback book on his lap, and had binoculars and a headlamp."

Plumley said it appeared the body had been there “for years, yet nothing was disturbed. It looked like he had just been laid there.”

Plumley said there was also a backpack and a lot of hiking gear. But one thing that stood out was the boots.“They looked brand new,” said Plumley.

Plumley and his hiking companion David Lensink discovered the skeleton near the summit of Point 7210, an unnamed peak in Buckingham Park, which is part of the City of Boulder-owned open space about three miles up Lefthand Canyon.

After making the grisly discovery, Plumley and Lensink retreated to regroup.“We went to one of the other high points that are part of the peak and asked ourselves ‘did we just see what we think we saw?’ and this was just not a prank,” said Plumley.

A closer examination (Plumley said neither he nor Lensink got closer than five feet to the body) confirmed their fears. The two descended the peak and called Boulder County authorities.

Plumley and Lensink led Boulder County Sheriff’s deputies back to the body. Authorities said they do not suspect foul play in the death of the man. Investigators — with the help of members from the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group — finished their on-scene investigation and extricated the body from the summit Tuesday.

It took over four hours and involved a dozen rescuers. The remains were taken to the morgue at Boulder Community Hospital. Authorities suspect the man committed suicide. The Boulder County Coroner had not identified the man as of Thursday morning.