I was lucky enough to meet Rad soon after moving to Jackson in late 2020. While I only had the privilege of knowing him for a year, I can confidently say he heavily impacted my happiness in this community, and more broadly, my outlook on life. His genuine kindness, joy and welcoming nature made it impossible not to love him. To know him was to love him, simply. I feel so lucky to have seen him in recent days before the accident. I spent some time with him last Friday night while celebrating a friend’s birthday, and in classic Rad fashion, he approached me with the friendliest bear hug and proceeded to ask me all about my life: “How is work at the clinic? You been baking much? How is Sid? How is Louie? You happy to be done at Teton Tiger?” He was so genuinely interested and invested in everyone he surrounded himself with, and that is such a unique and special quality. Another memory that I will surely hold close to my heart forever… I was skinning up Snow King a few weeks back and there was someone slowly but surely catching up to me and bound to pass me. When I said “Good morning” as the figure passed in the dark, the person responded (clearly seeing I was quite tired): “Good morning. This part is always so hard. Almost to the easier part!” Immediately I said “is that Rad?” Not only did he have a distinctive voice, but who else would give that kind of friendly encouragement to a stranger at 6:30am? Sure enough, it was. He kindly waited for me and I encouraged him to continue as I was much more fatigued (of course, he was such a great athlete) but he waited for me and we continued on together. He led the way as we had to take off our skis to bootpack. All along asking questions about my work and my family and my dog and my day to day. We shared a beautiful morning on Snow King and while I turned before him, he wished me a good day and we said our farewells, making tentative plans to do an early morning skin again soon. It made my morning to see him. Already in a good mood due to the run in, I also received a text just a few hours later that said: I’m not sure there are many other people in my life that would follow up just to say “great to see you, have a great day.” This is who Rad was. An unendingly kind person with so much love for his friends, family, community and even strangers he encountered. A truly special soul. We were lucky to know him and this community certainly won’t be the same without him. All the love to Rad, his family and loved ones. All my love, Rosey Oppenheim