Quandary Peak

Quandry Peak, originally uploaded by armando10.

A hiker was found dead on Quandary Peak today.

SUMMIT COUNTY — Rescue workers found the body of missing hiker on Quandary Peak shortly after 1 p.m. today. The 31-year old man from Missouri was dead when rescuers found him; he had been missing since Wednesday afternoon.

The man, who had been vacationing in Breckenridge with his family, embarked on a short day hike from the Blue Lakes Trailhead Wednesday morning. When his family had not heard from him by 5:30 p.m. that evening they alerted search and rescue.

“We had 10 teams on the mountain Wednesday and we couldn’t find anything,” Summit County Search and Rescue public information officer Anna DeBatiste said.[...]

“According to his family, this guy was an experienced hiker and he had summited Quandary before,” DeBatiste said. “He knew what he was doing, so we don’t know what happened.”

My condolences to his friends and family.

Update: The hiker has been identified.

Summit County authorities think missing hiker Ryan Torpey, 31, a chef from Kansas City, Mo., fell to his death on Quandary Peak.