Hiking accident takes life of part-time resident

“There was no question this was an accident”

A part-time Mt. Crested Butte resident fell to her death last week while hiking on Crested Butte Mountain.

According to Mt. Crested Butte police chief Hank Smith, on Thursday, August 28 at approximately 2:30 p.m. 64-year-old Rosalind Jackson fell from a promontory overlooking Paradise Bowl, near the mid-way station of the High Lift at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR).
“She apparently fell while just standing there. Her husband heard her yell ‘Oh no,’ but he turned around and she was gone,” Smith says. The husband was the only witness to the accident.
Smith estimates the woman fell approximately 75 yards over the ridgeline cliff. He said she is a part-time resident who spends half of her time in Sarasota, Florida.
According to CBMR communications director Todd Walton the couple was not in a prohibited area. “They were in a public spot on trail by the Paradise Cliffs,” Walton says.
After the woman fell, Walton says, “The husband immediately made contact with a lift attendant. Within 15 minutes we had someone on scene providing care.”
Smith commends the quick response of CBMR personnel. “They had people there almost immediately,” he says.
Smith says a search and rescue team and emergency medical technicians also responded to the scene, after the police were contacted by CBMR. Efforts to revive the woman were unsuccessful.
Smith says the police department interviewed the husband and a family friend. “There was no question this was an accident,” he says.
He says the response and recovery created a somber mood. “I think all the rescuers had a hard time with this one. I think very quickly everyone understood they had been childhood sweethearts.”
Walton says the woman’s family has been informed of the incident.
The lifts at CBMR officially closed for the summer season on September 1.