9:03 a.m. - ALLEGHANY COUNTY, N.C. --An ice climber who fell to his death Thursday along the Blue Ridge Parkway has been identified as a Boone man. 

(Photo from Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation-facebook)

WXII television reports that the climber has been identified as 59-year-old Ralph Fickel, of Boone.  His body was recovered after he slipped and fell along the Blue Ridge Parkway Thursday near Sparta. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation facebook page says that Fickel was a former employee of the National Park Service.