Hearn family: Gratitude for the Roaring Fork Valley

Words cannot describe our gratitude and appreciation for this amazing community here in the Roaring Fork Valley. We are forever grateful for the love, support, and unbelievable effort you have given our family over the past few days. It was the hardest two days of our lives with a miracle ending. We came out with tears of joy and smiles on our faces that will never fade.

This valley is home to the most amazing individuals. The moment the word got out my mother was missing the phone calls and texts offering whatever support was needed came flooding in. Tuesday morning (June 11) was the most terrifying moment, showing up to the search area knowing that had to be the day. It wasn’t long before the entire parking lot was full with eager, strong, loving friends.

The grit and determination on the faces of the volunteers reinforced our belief that we could get her down, and to safety. A lot has changed in this valley over the years, but the core love and support of this local community obviously remains strong and true and reinforces our belief that we want to raise our two young girls here, as we were, and the Roaring Fork Valley is indeed the best pace in the world to live.

While there is not enough room to name everyone who assisted with food, phone calls, text messages and well wishes in this letter, a special thanks goes out to the staff and alumni of The Aspen Valley Ski Club, The Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol, The Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol and Trails Crew, Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department, Mountain Rescue Aspen, the staff of Aspen Valley Hospital, Aspen Ambulance, our immediate and extended families, and Mike Sampson, Emily Crofton, and Johnny Rossman for finding her and showering her with the loving comfort she needed until the dedicated members of Mountain Rescue Aspen reached her, treated her, and extracted her.

Throughout this entire ordeal it was comforting to see all the familiar faces from years past and new ones from the present and the three or four generations of people come together to give us their love support and energy to save the Hearn family!

Love, the Hearn family

(Letter sent by Gillian Hearn)

Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club