Whitewater_Adventure's Blog

Another death on the Arkansas River this weekend. This is the fourth death on the river this year, and the third in less than a week.

Courtesy: The Mountain Mail

Kayaker dies north of BV
A 70-year old kayaker died Sunday afternoon in a section of Arkansas River known as the Magnificent Mile north of Buena Vista.

Volker Beer, of Tucson, Ariz., was kayaking with a friend at 11:45 a.m. about six miles north of Buena Vista, Randy Amettis, Chaffee County Coroner said.

Other details of how Beer died were not made available by Chaffee County Sheriff's Office officials. By 8 p.m., a phone message asking for information was not returned and a dispatcher said the office would issue a press release today.

At 3:45 p.m. Sunday, river flow, which is nearing seasonal peak, was 3,270 cubic feet per second at the Granite measuring device.

The death Sunday was the third fatality on the river in six days and was the fourth of the rafting season.

A 61-year old Woodland Park man died Thursday when the raft in which he was a passenger hit the center pier of the F Street bridge in Salida and flipped. The man was pulled from the river about a mile downstream where rescuers began life saving efforts.

Tuesday, a 67-year old Illinois man died when the raft in which he was riding flipped in Pinball Rapid at the north end of Browns Canyon.

May 25, a 26-year old Kansas man died at Sledge Hammer Falls Rapid in the Royal Gorge when the raft in which he was riding overturned.