Free Republic

•As he's mauled by the bear, the marathoner can think only of his youngster's safety In the split second before he saw the grizzly's fangs, Johan Otter heard his daughter Jenna's startled voice. "Oh NO!" Jenna Otter, 18, had been hiking just ahead of her dad as they zigzagged up the steep switchbacks of the Grinnell Glacier Trail at Glacier National Park on Aug. 25. As she turned a blind corner just above the tree line, she stumbled into the path of a sow with two cubs. The mother bear surged straight for the man. Her teeth sank into his...

More than 125 people and two helicopters search in national park. Concern for a missing park ranger grew Monday as an intensified search failed for the third day to find any trace of Jeff Christensen. "We've got nothing," said Scott Sticha, information officer with the Rocky Mountain National Park. "If one of the dogs even turns their heads, we're on it. But we've got nothing." More than 125 searchers joined the effort Monday, more than double the number searching the day before, and two helicopters swept overhead. "The only thing that we have ruled out is lightning," Sticha said. "He...

LARIMER COUNTY - A search continued Sunday for a park ranger who went missing Friday. More than 50 people helped scour drainages in the Mummy Range in the northern part of Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday for Jeff Christensen, 31, of Fraser, who was last seen by his co-workers at 11 a.m. Friday at the Chapin Pass Trailhead off Old Fall River Road. Volunteers were called off the search at nightfall and were expected to return to continue the search this morning. Christensen, an experienced mountaineer and EMT, was planning to do a backcountry patrol to the Lawn Lake...

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK (AP) - Park rangers and staff, aided by area search and rescue teams, searched for a second day Sunday for a missing park ranger. Ranger Jeff Christensen was last seen by his co-workers at 11 a.m. at the Chapin Pass Trailhead off Old Fall River Road on Friday at 11 a.m. Christensen told them he was planning a backcountry patrol to the Lawn Lake Trailhead. He did not contact park staff that evening, although he was carrying a radio, and did not arrive for his shift Saturday. A search began early Saturday with more than 25...