Crosier Mountain Fatality
David Neils and his dog Autumn looking for mountain lion tracks in an area northeast of Crosier Mountain.
Update: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/kristen-marie-kovatch-killed-by-colorado-mountain-lion
What happened on Crosier Mountain on New Year’s Day is a heartbreaking tragedy. Kristen Marie Kovatch lost her life while out on the landscape many of us know and love, and our deepest sympathy is with her family, her friends, and all who are now carrying this sudden and unimaginable grief. Nothing written here can lessen that loss. There are moments when words simply fall short, and this is one of them.
While details are still emerging and nothing has been officially confirmed, the circumstances point toward a possible mountain lion encounter. If that proves true, it’s important to say this with clarity and care: encounters like this are extraordinarily rare. But rare does not mean impossible, and when they do occur, they are devastating. This is not a story that can be reduced to headlines, fear, or blame. It is a tragic intersection of a human life and a wild animal in a shared landscape—one neither fully controls.
Wild places are not theme parks, and wild animals are not villains. At the same time, a human life lost is not an abstract statistic. Two truths can exist at once: we can grieve deeply for this woman and her loved ones, and we can acknowledge the reality of living alongside large predators in Colorado. Simplistic explanations don’t honor the complexity of either the human loss or the wild animal involved.
Right now, the most important thing is compassion—for the grieving, for first responders, for the community shaken by this event. In time, there will be space for learning and reflection. For those who want thoughtful, science-based guidance on safely recreating in mountain lion country, the Cougar Fund provides excellent resources here:
https://cougarfund.org/about-the-cougar/living-with-cougars/
Today, though, let us lead with empathy, humility, and respect—for a life lost, and for the wild places we choose to walk within.
