Highway 6 reopened after recovery of ice climber's body in Clear Creek Canyon

Traffic along Clear Creek Canyon was re-opened Saturday afternoon after rescue crews recovered the body of an ice climber.

Around 10:44 a.m., the Colorado Department of Transportation, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and Colorado State Patrol closed traffic in both directions of U.S.6 between State Highways 93 and 119. The entire stretch of the canyon was closed due to the rescue of a fallen ice climber.

According to the Alpine Rescue Team, two males in their mid-20s were ice climbing on the Coors Light route around three miles up the canyon in the Little Eiger climbing area. They said one of the men walked out onto a ledge and attempted to set a top anchor when he slipped and fell 20-30 feet. The man was unroped and not wearing crampons.

The second climber descended to the road and flagged down a motorist, the rescue team said. Once the motorist made it to an area with phone service they called 911.

Golden Gate Fire Department and Golden Fire Department arrived on the scene around 11 a.m. and pronounced the fallen ice climber deceased. Personnel from those departments requested help from the rescue team for the body's recovery due to the difficult terrain.

"We did do multiple technical lowerings. There is a low ledge system we had to negotiate," said Alpine Rescue Team Public Information Officer Jake Smith. Total descent to the road was about 200 feet.

Officials reopened Hwy 6 around 12:50 p.m. The highway was closed for about two hours for the recovery operation.