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Lost hiker found dead
Body at bottom of 300-foot cliff
Photo by JOSH STEPHENSON
Shelley Gulvas, far right, is comforted Friday afternoon during the search for her son, Joshua Gulvas, 21, of Columbus, Ohio. Joshua's girlfriend, Jennifer Dolvin, second from left, talks to her mother, Lisa Dolvin, at the search base camp north of Lemon Reservoir. The woman with Shelley Gulvas declined to give her name.
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Joshua Gulvas
LEMON RESERVOIR - Rescue workers on Friday located the body of a hiker who had been missing since Tuesday in the Weminuche Wilderness northeast of Durango.
Joshua Gulvas, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, fell to his death about seven miles north of Lemon Reservoir. His body was located sometime between 2 and 3 p.m. at the bottom of a 300-foot cliff near the headwaters of Virginia Creek drainage, said Dan Bender, spokesman with the La Plata County Sheriff's Office.
Family and friends were notified of the death immediately after the body was found. Several friends and family members from Ohio had flown to Durango to assist with the search. They were stationed at a base camp just north of Lemon Reservoir.
About an hour before the body was found, Dan Smith, an outfitter who assisted with the search, located Gulvas' backpack on a ridgeline. The backpack had food and other supplies in it, Bender said. A helicopter hovered in the area and found Gulvas' body at the bottom of a cliff.
"There have been strong storm cells in that area since Tuesday," Bender said. "Those storms have been accompanied by very high winds. So whether he fell or was blown off in one of those storms, we may never know."
Gulvas was somewhat experienced in the outdoors, but he had little experience in the high country, said Rand Gulvas, Joshua's father, in an interview before the body had been found.
"He's comfortable in the outdoors, but this is nothing like Ohio," Gulvas said. "He's never been in this country by himself."
The father and son separated Tuesday afternoon near Dollar Lake, several miles northeast of the end of Missionary Ridge Road. It was the last time they would see each other. They were backpacking north toward Ruby Lake, in the Needle Creek drainage.
"He said, 'This is the way to go.' I said, 'Josh, yeah, that's the right direction, but you have to climb up a mountain to get there.' He climbed up a peak and was walking a ridgeline."
Gulvas' body was found about 2�½ miles southeast from where they separated.
Shelley Gulvas, Joshua's mother, said Joshua loved the outdoors, almost to a fault.
"He just loves to get out in nature," she said. "He loves adventure. Well, he got one. I look at those sheer cliffs, and my heart just goes, 'Oh my gosh.'"
Friends of Joshua said he enjoyed survivalist shows on television. His mother said she told Joshua to take care of his dad while backpacking, but she never thought to tell his dad to take care of Joshua.
Shelley Gulvas expressed gratitude to the rescue team.
"To think that they give up their comforts and give up their safety for the sake of another human being - isn't that just America?"
The three-day search occurred in some of the most rugged, inhospitable terrain in Colorado, said Butch Knowlton, director of La Plata County's Office of Emergency Management.
The rescue team included members from La Plata County Search and Rescue, the Civil Air Patrol, Colorado Mounted Rangers, New Air Helicopter, the American Red Cross and private citizens.
The body was recovered Friday evening.
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