One dead and one missing after a raft capsized in the upper reaches of the Colorado River

One man is dead and another is missing after their raft capsized on the Colorado River below Gore Canyon near Radium on Saturday.

Grand County rescue crews headed to the river after a 911 call was received around 3:40 p.m. Saturday reporting a person not breathing. Another report via a satellite-based Garmin device indicated there had been a rafting accident and bystanders were administering CPR to a man.

The man, a 56-year-old man from the Denver metropolitan area, was pronounced dead by emergency responders.

Search crews used a drone and a Union Pacific Railroad truck to search for a second man, a 61-year-old from the Denver metropolitan area who went missing after their raft capsized.

The Grand County Sheriff’s Office said it appears none of the men were wearing a flotation device.

A third person managed to bring the two men to shore.

Search crews said three life jackets were found with the overturned raft. The raft tipped around the Yarmony Rapids in a whitewater section below the Pumphouse Recreation Area. The Colorado River was flowing at about 3,200 cubic feet per second (CFS), which is considered moderate to high levels. The main rapid in Yarmony – also called the Eye of the Needle – has a hole that can tip rafts at about 3,000 CFS.

The accident is the second fatality of the 2024 whitewater season in Colorado. A woman on a commercial rafting trip died on May 30 on the Poudre River west of Fort Collins after the raft struck a bridge pier. Last year, at least 23 people died in Colorado’s rivers and streams.

The Yarmony Rapid is one of the more challenging rapids on the Class III section of the Upper Colorado above State Bridge and below Gore Canyon. Last year, a 51-year-old Steamboat Springs woman drowned after her raft capsized at the Harmony Rapid with a current of about 5,200 cubic feet per second.

The Bureau of Land Management planned to search for the missing man on Sunday and urged river users to report any sightings.