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Man dies rafting Yampa

Amy Hamilton

A 64-year-old Nevada man died during a boating accident on the Yampa River on Tuesday.

Shirlie “Digger” Paice of Carson City, Nev., died after the boat he was riding in flipped over, according to a statement from the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office.

Twelve people were floating down the Yampa River in five boats during a private excursion in the Dinosaur National Monument, when one of the boats overturned. Dispatch re–ceived the emergency call from a satellite phone at about 7 p.m.



“(The man) was in bad health, and the cold water probably didn’t help,” said Sgt. Rick Holford of the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff deputies and emergency workers from the Nat-ional Park Service met the boating party about three miles down the river in Echo Park. The body was brought out early Wednesday and taken to Grant Mortuary in Craig.



Paice was wearing a life jacket at the time of the accident.

The river was flowing at 8,070 cubic feet per second at the time of the accident. Holford said that’s not a particularly robust water level for this time of year.

“I don’t know how experienced they were,” Holford said.

He said that having a satellite phone may have meant the group had some experience because it’s doubtful a cellular phone would have worked, considering the high canyon walls.


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