John Jensen

From ASAR-Wiki

Our team mate and friend John Jensen died Sunday, March 6 2005 in an avalanche training accident in Aspen, Colorado. John was taking his level 2 avalanche class with a company called Aspen Expeditions.

They were traversing a chute in the Five Fingers Basin when John (third in a line of six) was swept away taken about 3,000 feet down, and was buried about 4 feet under. The effort made to rescue him was swift and very professional. The surviving members of the group made it down to the toe of the debris pile within 20 minutes, even taking off their skis to climb over rock bands exposed by the avalanche path. He was dug out very quickly, and was found to be unconscious. CPR was performed by his companions, but they were unable to resuscitate him. Mountain Rescue Aspen evacuated his body.

John was a very dedicated team member, and was so interested about learning about backcountry travel and technical rescue. He was a gentle, thoughtful, intelligent young man, and entirely passionate about Search & Rescue. He really wanted to be as big an asset to the team as he could. He had an amazing attendance record at meetings and trainings, as well as missions.

Our team is a tight knit group of volunteers, and we have a sense of kinship and comraderie that runs deep. John Jensen will be sorely missed.