In what appears to be a brave effort to swim through the Grand Canyon, a 77-year-old Australian man died in the Colorado River, said the Grand Canyon National Park Service on Thursday.
Park rangers received a call Sept. 3 requesting assistance for a man who was on a river trip below Deer Creek Falls on the Colorado River, the National Park Service said.
Kenneth Reece of Tasmania, Australia, was swimming near the falls and was recovered from the water by other river trip members who attempted CPR, the park service said.
Rangers arrived at river mile 136 and took over resuscitation efforts. Those efforts were not successful, the park service said.
The rescue team recovered the body by helicopter. The Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine Reece’s exact cause of death.
No additional information was immediately available.
In a statement announcing Reece’s death, the park service said visitors should remember that swimming in the Colorado River is “very different from swimming in pools.”
