Jim Detterline, a retired, long-time Rocky Mountain National Park ranger and reputed climber who rescued many from the backcountry wilderness, was found dead Tuesday near his Boulder County home. He was 60 years old.
Detterline, who was said to have summitted Longs Peak more than 400 times, including many trips to save those who trouble had befallen, was discovered close to the town of Allenspark, where he lived. He was wearing climbing gear and lying between two large rock formations, the county sheriff’s office says. Authorities say he had major injuries that appeared to be from a fall.
Detterline was last seen alive at his home on the morning of Oct. 23, according to authorities. He had been climbing alone in a series of rocky outcrops called the Ironclads, said Vanessa Polcari, a family friend who was speaking for the his family. His border collie, Annie, stayed with him until he was found, she said.
“He was truly one in a million and I was so ridiculously blessed to have called him my husband,” Detterline’s wife, Rebecca, posted on Facebook.
Detterline retired from Rocky Mountain National Park in 2009 as a supervisory climbing ranger. He began working there in 1987 as a park ranger.
During his career and life, Detterline became known for his admiration of Longs Peak, which stands at 14,259 feet. His love for the mountain is perhaps what he is best known for, telling a reporter in 2008 that he learned something nearly every time he made a trek up the peak.
“We climb on the shoulders of those who were there before us,” Detterline was quoted in the Estes Park Trail-Gazette as saying in 2008. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of the old guides from the Boulder Field era, the real pioneers. It’s been a real thrill because (the mountain) attracts a certain caliber of person to it.”
Detterline was said to have summitted Longs Peak 300 times by the time he was 52 years old in 2008, according to the Trail-Gazette. The newspaper reported that year that Detterline, a native of Pennsylvania coal country, made his first attempt at Longs Peak in 1979 during his first trip out west with a friend.
Tom Hornbein, a close friend of Detterline’s, says the retired ranger had ascended Longs Peak more than 400 times by the time he died.
Hornbein called Detterline “Mr. Longs Peak.” The Longs Peak Summit Club’s Facebook page posted this week: “Longs Peak is sad today.”
“Jim was a great friend and mentor to me and I know many others too,” Kyle Kingrey commented on an online climbing message board discussing Detterline’s death. “The climbs and trips we did together were some of the best, most memorable times I’ve ever had in the mountains.”
For many others, Detterline was their saving grace — a reassuring voice in the wild that meant rescuers were close and safety was near.
He received the U.S. Interior Department’s Valor Award for helping rescue two people from a frigid river in the park in 1995. Officials said he waded into the water to keep the victims from being washed over a waterfall while other rangers set up rescue gear.
During the floods of 2013, he even helped evacuate a friend’s tortoises — one a heavy African tortoise — hiking them out of terrain that was annihilated by rising waters.
Peggy Archer, of Superior, told The Denver Post on Friday she believes she was the last person rescued by Detterline when she and her three dogs made a series of wrong turns while hiking near Ward in August. After many hours in the wilderness and approaching 11 p.m., Detterline’s headlamp appeared out of the dark.
Archer says Detterline, who was with another man, pulled out a sweatshirt and some water before leading her to safety.
“It was brief,” she said of her encounter with Detterline, “but it was a lifetime worth of memories for me. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it since he’s passed. When you’re lost, and someone find you, you’re connected with them forever. That’s how I feel about him. He’s a remarkable man.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
