The Aspen community is mourning the loss of John Galvin this week and hopefully the healing process can begin now that the 57 year-old has been recovered by fellow members of Mountain Rescue Aspen.
An extremely complex recovery effort, the coordinated extraction employed the help of a blackhawk helicopter along with multiple sight teams as well as one team on the ground. Ultimately it took MRA personnel roughly an hour and a half in the field to complete the recovery mission.
Full Mountain Rescue Aspen Release:
Pitkin County, Colorado – April 10, 2018 – The body of Mountain Rescue Aspen (MRA) member John Galvin was successfully recovered today from Maroon Bowl. An 11-member recovery team from MRA went into the field at 0800 hours. Six members were positioned on top of Aspen Highlands to spot and act as a backup rescue team, while four members were inserted into the field via a blackhawk helicopter from the CO Army National Guard’s High Altitude Aviation Training Site.
The recovery operation was successfully completed at 0912 hours and all members of the field were safe and out of the field by 0933 hours.
Galvin and another skier were involved in an avalanche on Sunday, April 8, 2018 in the Maroon Bowl located just outside of the Aspen Highlands Ski Area boundary. Recovery teams were unable to conduct a mission on Sunday or Monday due to adverse snow conditions in the Maroon Bowl. The decision was made to conduct the recovery mission on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 early in the morning using guidance and information from snow-safety professionals from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.