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Justin Ayer, engineer for the Eagle River Fire Protection District, works at a fire station along Beaver Creek, a short distance downstream from where Brake fell into a calmer area of the creek that horseback riders cross to get to Beano’s Cabin.

In spring, Ayer saw an incredible rise in the creek, which runs at a trickle during the winter.

“At this level, it’s pretty dangerous,” said Ayer, who worked with members of the dive team.

Two Eagle River fire engines and some other firefighters arrived minutes after Brake fell into the creek, he said. She was nowhere in sight.

Ayer still has a hard time imagining how Brake went missing, he said.

“It’s a tiny little creek in the winter,” he said. “That’s the thing that everyone said.”

Lt. Chip Carney of Eagle River fire also worked with members of the dive team to recover Brake’s body. Carney’s group started near the fire station and ended at Beaver Creek Chapel the third day of the search.

The next day, they went from the chapel to Elkhorn lift. That afternoon, they searched downstream from the scene of the accident, around 100 yards upstream from a water tank.

The number of authorities involved and the long hours spent looking for Brake made the search unique, Carney said.

“I have been a raft guide in the valley for 15 years and a swift water technician all those years and have never been involved in something that intense,” Carney said.

Searchers were in water up to their chests in spots — everyone did their best, he said.

“Its’ going to take the water level coming down until we can get in there and find her,” he said.

Shannon Cordingly, a spokeswoman with the Sheriff’s Office, declined to say when recovery efforts are expected to resume and under what specific conditions that would take place. Eagle County Sheriff Joe Hoy has said the search will resume when “more opportune conditions exist.”