Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 24, 1994 TAG: 9412220002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: HAYSI LENGTH: Short
Kurt J. Varnhagen, 27, of Milford, Mich., died Saturday after his raft capsized when it hit a rock, said Game Warden G.K. Steele of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
The river is known by rafters as one of the wildest stretches east of the Mississippi River.
Varnhagen, whose trip was organized by Mountain Streams and Trails Outfitters of Ohiopyle, Pa., was thrown from the raft along with two others. He was swept under a rock and got caught in a tree that had washed downstream, Steele said.
The other two boaters and the river guide were not injured.
Varnhagen's death was the second fatality since organized whitewater rafting began on the river in the mid-1980s.
- Associated Press
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB