Volunteers with the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group spent about six hours Monday recovering the body of a 31-year-old man who fell from a cliff north of Anchorage the day before while out with his family.
About 4:15 p.m. Sunday, a woman called 911 and said her boyfriend, Jamarus Spires, had just fallen from a cliff along Eklutna Lake Road, police said.
Dean Knapp, a volunteer with the rescue group, said a pullout near where Spires fell, around Mile 1.4, is only about 45 feet from an unstable cliff ledge.
"It's frighteningly close to the road," Knapp said. "You could just walk over there and be in big trouble."
He described the cliff as an "almost vertical" 400-foot drop to the Eklutna River.
Knapp said volunteers attempted to recover Spires' body Sunday night. They reached the bottom of the cliff and confirmed Spires was dead. They put his body in a body bag. They hoped a helicopter could retrieve the body, but the pilot said the canyon was too narrow, Knapp said.
It grew dark and the cliff was too unstable.
"The cliff where he fell is just horrible rock," Knapp said. "Even if no one is there, rocks just pop off of that all the time."
The Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department, Mat-Com, and air support from the Alaska State Troopers were also involved in the response.
Eighteen rescue group volunteers returned around 9 Monday morning. They used a pulley system to retrieve Spires' body, anchoring the ropes to two vehicles parked along the road.
Knapp said the rescue team completed the recovery around 2:45 p.m.
"The edge of that is very dangerous," Knapp said of the cliff near Mile 1.4. "You should just not walk out to the edge to get the view."