by Tele Mike Russell
I'm sure that you heard about the passing of the prolific American Mountain Guide Rob Coppolillo, who died in a crevasse fall last week. He was one of my foundational mentors for ski mountaineering and rock climbing.
He guided me one on one on a handful of paid missions, then we became friends and just started backcountry skiing and rock climbing as friends. He was the first guide who didn't treat me differently because of my cultural background. If anything, he pushed me harder and further than I even knew that I could go. He was always giving me advice about where to ski around the world. Much of my seven continent ski idea came from Rob and reading Backcountry Magazine.
When he lived in Boulder, he would say things like "Hey, I need you to come visit my kids. Boulder doesn't have any diversity, and I want them to meet you so that they can see diversity and normalize the perception of Black men doing positive things as opposed to how they are portrayed on TV or in the movies."
He was dead serious about his request. I laughed about his request, honored it because I also knew that Boulder was challenged for diversity, so I would occasionally stop by his house to hang out with his family.
I only found out about Rob's passing yesterday in the weirdest way. I am here in Moab guiding a group of 32 African Americans to mountain bike Porcupine Rim and the surrounding area. We contacted a guide service to help guide such a large group. One of the mountain bike guides is also a ski guide. He ended up telling me about Rob on the Porcupine Rim train. That was a helluva time to find out about this incident. Rob was a very special being who really embodied the definition of kindness.