A beloved local ski instructor and coach for emerging racers had a lasting and wide-reaching effect on his community, according to friends, colleagues and family. Rohan Verplank “lit up the world,” said his mother, Barbara Frame, “and he seemed to get along with most everybody.”
Verplank, an instructor for the Aspen Skiing Co., was 48 years old when he died on the mountain at Snowmass Ski Area Thursday morning. Snowmass Ski Patrol responded to the incident, which occurred on an intermediate run in the Two Creeks area, according to statements from SkiCo’s parent company Aspen One and the Pitkin County Coroner’s Office.
The cause and manner of death are under investigation by the coroner’s office. The statement thanked ski patrol, SkiCo, Snowmass Village police and Aspen Valley Heath emergency room staff “for their quick response and assistance they provided.”
“Our hearts are broken to share this news,” a statement from Aspen One said. “Our deepest condolences are with the individual’s family and friends, as well as with all of our employees who knew and worked with him.”
Verplank grew up in Crested Butte with two brothers; he was both a ski racer himself and an avid hockey player who competed in that sport in college. He worked at the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club throughout the 2000s, coaching what was then known as the J4 age group — now U12.
It’s clear, from news coverage of those skiers and their races, that he held his athletes in high regard: “The kids in this club are unbelievably talented and driven,” Verplank said in a 2005 Aspen Times story. Later, as an instructor for SkiCo, he gravitated again toward teaching young skiers. As his brother Rueben Verplank put it: “He just loved kids, and they seemed to like him a lot too.”
Pat Callahan, who hired Verplank at AVSC, said that Verplank instilled a confidence and excitement in his athletes that came through in their racing. He also made training fun: “I think it’s a big reason a lot of kids stayed with it,” Callahan said. Many current club staff were either coached by Verplank or worked alongside him, according to an email that AVSC Executive Director August Teague sent to employees Thursday evening.
“He got people to love the outdoors, love the sport,” said Callahan, who later became Verplank’s colleague again as instructors for SkiCo. And according to Teague, “His impact on our athletes, their families, and our broader community was profound and lasting.”
“He was one of those coaches who shaped not just skiers, but people,” Teague wrote. “The lessons, encouragement, and care he gave so freely continue to echo through our programs and our culture.”
In addition to his coaching and instruction, Verplank worked on the course crew for local World Cup ski races, where he would oversee a specific section of the run on the mountain. He was known not just for the work he did but for “the way he went about it, and the effect he had on other people around him,” said Jim Hancock, who was the chief of race for the Aspen events for decades.
Amid the intensity and pressure of these international-caliber races, “his calmness radiated through the crew and really helped us keep an even keel,” Hancock said.
Callahan, who was for many years chief of course for those races, said that as news spread about Verplank’s death, he’s heard from other World Cup crew members as well as “friends and former coaches and former racers” — “so many people” whose lives were touched by Verplank’s upbeat, friendly presence.
Verplank was “always happy, always positive,” Callahan said. Funny, too: “We’d go on these ski trips, and he’d have the coaches, the parents and the kids all in tears, laughing. He could just light up a room with his jokes and his humor.”
“You always hear that cliché like, ‘Oh, such a great guy,’” Callahan said. “But with Rohan, it was absolutely true.”
Verplank is survived by his two children, 14-year-old Harper and 12-year-old Violet Verplank, as well as his partner, Liz Kara, two brothers, Rueben and Rhya Verplank, mother Barbara Frame and extended family, according to Rueben. After years of living year-round in the Roaring Fork Valley, Verplank split his time between this community and Florida, where his children reside.
“The kids were his life,” Frame said.
(Editor’s note: Reporter Kay Williams works for AVSC as a Nordic coach.)