Utah, Jan. 22, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Dr. Micah Rosenfield said when he first heard what had happened to longtime friend Dr. Douglas Green he was “wrecked” by the news.
Green, a Sugar House resident, was killed in an avalanche Thursday. Green, also a physician, had been Rosenfield’s college dorm mate, and the two had later reconnected and renewed their friendship.
Green had even invited Rosenfield to join him on the slopes.
“Our text from Wednesday reads: ‘Are you off on Friday? We could hire a guide,” Rosenfield said.
“Me: ‘Pretty sketchy the backcountry with all that wind and snow.’ Him: ‘There are safe places to go.’
“I’m wrecked.”
Police said the avalanche occurred near Gobblers Knob, which is between Big Cottonwood Canyon and Millcreek Canyons, at around 2:40 p.m. The initial report was of an avalanche with CPR being performed on Green by at least one other skier in his group. Officers were able to find the party’s GPS coordinate when witnesses called 911.
LifeFlight transported Green, 49, and Tyson Bradley, 50, who was partially buried but in good condition, to Intermountain Medical Center.
“Douglas Green was my good friend, a lifelong friend,” Park City resident Rosenfield said. “He reconnected with me after recognizing me years after being dorm mates at Dartmouth. Over the past few years we have become close: skiing, talking, debating.
“He has a ton of ski buddies in the Salt Lake area,” Rosenfield said of Green. “He spent all the time he could skiing, and photos of him appear on the back covers of several books about skiing. If there was no fresh tracks here, he’d be on the road to B.C., or Colorado, or Washington.”
Rosenfield said Green grew up outside of Boston, spent winter vacations in Vermont skiing, went to Dartmouth undergrad, University of Vermont for med school, and the University of Utah for radiology residency. He worked at the U of U for many years, then moved to Seattle to take a job, but kept his house in Sugar House.
Rosenfield said Green always adjusted his schedule to take off mid-December through mid-March to ski, when he would stay at his house in Sugar House.
“His friends are from many communities, both by location and profession: family in Boston, friends here, workmates in Seattle,” Rosenfield said.
“He was a brilliant, careful, and thorough radiologist and a forward thinker. He had many articles published in the radiology trade journals. And he was the most well read, and broadly read person I know.”
Avalanche forecasters are at the site today determining the size of the scene.
