Share Your Memory

I first encountered Rob in the summer of 2021. As I sought to build my skills in the mountains I found The Ski Guide Manual.  Through this thoughtful guide Rob explained frameworks with a style that made the technical accessible.  He drew you in for both the uphill and the down.

Later that year I put a face to the name as I watched him present a keynote for the Northwest Snow and Avalanche Workshop.  He shared how he had gone full send into the work of Nobel prize winning behavioral economists like Kahnemann and Tversky.  He did the heavy lifting of making these complex findings applicable to decisions I would make with my team in avalanche terrain.  

Later that week I emerged from Cripple Creek backcountry into a steady Seattle rain.  Passing me on the sidewalk someone suddenly called out, "Hey Skimo!!".  I looked up to a seemingly familiar face.  "Weren't you the…

When I was in Boulder at the end of this May, beginning of June, it was both a joyful and sad situation, "seeing" Rob everywhere, and recalling all our times there, both awesome and challenging. 

Rob and I are both writers and even back in the 2970 21st Street (the sign actually read "21th Street" at the Edgewood Dr. entrance for a very, very long time!) days, we would occasionally read our stuff to each other, or ask for a critique, Rob often returning something I wrote to me with the advice: "Just stick to Penthouse Forum, Annie L., you'll get rich!" 

We also wrote letters to one another when I was back in Wisco for a few months after Casey and I broke up. He was a good friend.

Back in those same days, I wrote poetry (I have since I was super young and still do), and I would go to Penny…

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 t…

I’m crushed to learn of the death of my friend and longtime Elevation Outdoors Magazinecontributing editor Rob Coppolillo (Vetta Mountain Guides). I first met Rob when he was working for Andy Hampsten running cycling trips in Italy. We rode and laughed and hit it off immediately. Rob was the consummate mountain guide, dedicated to safety and education and bringing his clients to incredible spots and back home. He loved pizza, Italy, his family, the mountains, skiing, and laughter. We will dedicate the May issue of Elevation Outdoors to his memory. My heart goes out to his wife, sons, whole family, and all the people around the globe to whom he brought his joy of life. We had talked about climbing in Chamonix together—maybe the Cosmiques Arete with me trying lead and him backing me up. Now, I feel I have to go and do it and laugh to the mountains in…