The body of a 29-year-old male climber was recovered from a boulder field in the Officers Gulch area off Interstate 70 on Sunday, Summit County Rescue Group said.

Officers Gulch is approximately 3.5 miles east of Copper Mountain.

SCRG was first notified of a missing person by a friend of the deceased at 10:33 p.m. Saturday. The reporting party said his friend had told him he would be doing a climb in Officers Gulch that morning, but did not specify the exact area.

The climber called his friend about 5 p.m., to say he was on a rock and headed back down shortly. When the reporting party had not heard from his friend later that evening, he drove to Officers Gulch and found his friend’s car still parked there. He called 911 to report him missing.

SCRG sent eight members to search for the missing party at approximately 11:30 p.m. Members searched along the bike path between Officers Gulch and Frisco, and along a climbers’ trail known locally as Halfway Rock. At approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, SCRG’s mission coordinator made the decision to continue the search at first light.

At 7:50 a.m., a team of two SCRG rescuers found the missing party’s body at the base of a cliff known as Officers Wall. A team of SCRG rescuers then set up a rigging system to evacuate the subject through the boulder field and back to the parking lot.

“SCRG and SCSO extend their deepest condolences to all the loved ones of the deceased,” rescuers said in a news release. “We would also like to note that the deceased and his family did several things right that helped us find him and bring him back to his family in a reasonably short period of time. By letting his friend know an expected return time, the subject ensured that a search began quickly and that searchers knew an approximate area to search. And by sending a video to his family and having a shared phone location app, he allowed searchers to pinpoint his location quickly once the family was able to share this information with us. These are practices other backcountry recreationists can learn from, and although this incident ended tragically, we also know that a search which continues for a long time or is unresolved altogether is an even more difficult situation for friends and family.”

The Summit County Coroner’s Office will release further information about how the man died and his identity after an investigation is completed.