A 40-year-old man visiting Aspen from Washington, D.C., was identified as the person who died Saturday night after crashing his snowmobile on the backside of Aspen Mountain.
The Pitkin County Coroner’s Office said Sunday night that John Boyd, 40, died in the crash in the Midnight Mine Road area. The cause and manner of death are under investigation.
Boyd was on vacation, and his sister Jessica Livingston said Sunday night in a statement to The Aspen Times on behalf of the family that Boyd was “wildly charismatic and leaves a long wake of grieving family and friends. He lived a full life in his 40 years. We are beyond devastated by his loss.”
According to a Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office news release sent out Sunday morning, dispatchers received a 911 call from the Midnight Mine Road area at 7:21 p.m. Saturday reporting a snowmobile crash with serious injuries.
Sheriff’s Office personnel alerted Mountain Rescue Aspen, which responded with multiple snowmobiles to the incident on Midnight Mine Road, about 3 miles up from Castle Creek Road, the news release said. Two Aspen Mountain ski patrol members also responded on snowmobiles from the Sundeck area.
Rescue officials arrived on scene within 30 minutes of the 911 call and determined Boyd was dead, the news release stated.
According to Bruce Benjamin, an investigator with the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, Boyd reportedly went off the road and crashed.
Another snowmobiler was traveling with Boyd, the news release said, and was interviewed by law enforcement officials as part of their investigation.
Pitkin County Deputy Coroner Eric Hansen said Sunday afternoon there weren’t many more details about the fatal crash to release.
Hansen said an autopsy will be conducted and that the snowmobiler with Boyd at the time of the crash reportedly said the two were just going down a hill at normal speed when it happened.
“It’s just a tragic accident,” Hansen said.
The snowmobile crash Saturday night was in the area on the backside of Aspen Mountain near where Jerome “Jerry” Hatem, a longtime member and organizer of the Gentleman of Aspen Rugby Club, was found dead underneath a snowmobile after an accident at the top of Little Annie Road in June 2019.
