A man died after crashing his snowmobile in the Midnight Mine Road area on the backside of Aspen Mountain on Saturday evening, law enforcement officials released Sunday morning.
According to a Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office press release, 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 three miles up from Castle Creek Road, the press release says. 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 the adult man involved in the snowmobile crash was dead, the press release states.
According to Bruce Benjamin, an investigator with the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, the man reportedly went off of the road and crashed. Benjamin said the man’s identity, including his age and where he is from, is being withheld until his family is notified.
Another snowmobiler was traveling with the man, the press release says, and was interviewed by law enforcement officials as part of their fatal crash investigation. The Pitkin County Coroner’s Office is also conducting an investigation into the cause and manner of the man’s death.
Benjamin said more information on the fatal crash may be released to the public as early as Monday.
The fatal snowmobile crash 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 apparent accident at the top of Little Annie Road in June 2019.