“When Bernie and I first met in 2011 he told me he was hiking up Bloody Mountain and yesterday it was still one of his favorites,” the skier’s partner wrote after his death
Credit: Bernie Rosow/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Bernie Rosow, a beloved skier and veteran employee of Mammoth Mountain, died on April 23 after collapsing on Bloody Mountain
- According to photographer Christian Pondella, Rosow was acting normally until he said that his back hurt and collapsed on the slope
- “Bernie we will always live in your spirit,” Rosow’s partner, Amber, with whom he shared 8-year-old son Alex, wrote on social media
A beloved skier and veteran employee of Mammoth Mountain died from what seemed to be a sudden heart attack while backcountry skiing in the Sierra Nevada. He was 45.
On Thursday, April 23, Bernie Rosow collapsed at around 9:30 a.m. local time while climbing Bloody Mountain, the Mono County Sheriff's Office shared in a news release, per The San Francisco Chronicle. At the time of his collapse, he and a few others were headed toward the summit ridge at approximately 11,400 feet.
“Everything was normal, just a typical day,” photographer Christian Pondella, who was with Rosow at the time, told SFGate. “Just out of the blue, he said, ‘My back hurts, it hurts between my shoulders.' ”
“It happened so quick,” he continued. “Two minutes before that he was having normal conversations.”
Credit: Bernie Rosow/Instagram
After Rosow allegedly sat down on the slope and stopped responding, his friends texted 911, prompting a massive rescue mission. While rescue helicopters and snowmobiles made their way to Rosow's location, his friends spent hours performing CPR to keep him alive.
“Despite the strong and extensive efforts of all involved — especially his group's initial efforts prior to [rescuers'] arrival — we are saddened to report that he was ultimately pronounced deceased,” the sheriff's office said, per the outlet.
Rosow, who shared many of his skiing adventures on social media and amassed more than 101,000 followers on TikTok, is survived by his partner, Amber, and their 8-year-old son, Alex.
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Credit: Bernie Rosow/Instagram
“We lost Bernie yesterday,” Amber wrote on Instagram alongside a black-and-white throwback photo of their family of three. “Alexander‘s favorite person in the whole world, and my love. He was out doing what he loves to do hiking with friends up Bloody Mountain to ski down.”
“We presume a heart health incident and passed quickly,” she continued. “When Bernie and I first met in 2011 he told me he was hiking up Bloody Mountain and yesterday it was still one of his favorites. Last weekend he told Alex the mountain got its name because of its red rocks. Bernie we will always live in your spirit. This has always been Alex's favorite photo of us. We love you so much.”
Amber also took a moment to thank “the people that were with Bernie in his final moments, and everyone that helped out that day” on Rosow's Instagram Stories — including Pondella, Elliott Bernhagen, Danila Shipilov and Amber Henshaw.
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