Engineers and heavy equipment operators met with Colorado State Parks officials Friday to discuss creating a temporary cofferdam near Frog Rock to facilitate recovery efforts for missing raft guide Kimberly Appelson.
Appelson, 23 of Breckenridge and a first-year guide with Arkansas Valley Adventures, was thrown from a private raft carrying five people near Frog Rock north of Buena Vista July 11.
Stew Pappenfort, senior ranger with Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, said Mike Harvey with Recreational Engineering of Salida and Jason Carey with River Restorations of Glenwood Springs discussed using heavy equipment upstream from Frog Rock to use sediment and rock to divert water around the hazard.
"It would be very difficult to completely dry out the feature, but we can reduce velocity, allowing rescuers to safely get under the rock," he said.
State parks officials are seeking bids from heavy equipment operators. Miles Construction of Buena Vista met with officials Friday at the site.
Pappenfort said Frog Rock is on U.S. Forest Service land, but the upstream location where water would be diverted is on Bureau of Land Management land.
In order to create a cofferdam, environmental studies would have to be completed for both entities, he said.
Military personnel from Fort Carson were scheduled to be at the meeting Friday but were not able to attend.
Pappenfort said he wanted to discuss airlifting equipment to the site, which would mitigate some environmental impact.
