Nick Jogolev died this past weekend while hiking the Manitou Incline. His family is remembering him as a loving father and husband.
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — A man’s family is remembering him as a loving father and husband after he died this past weekend while hiking the Manitou Incline — one of Colorado’s most challenging hiking trails.
Coral Jogolev said her husband, 48-year-old Nick Jogolev, was a gentle giant, introverted and very smart. Most of all, he was a great dad to their blended family of seven, now all missing him so much.
“His kids were his world,” she said. “He’s got the biggest smile on his face. He’s so happy.”
On Saturday, Nick — who would have turned 49 years old next week — was out with their 9-year-old son on a Cub Scout hike at the Manitou Incline. The trail consists of 2,768 steep steps, with an elevation gain of 2,000 feet in less than a mile.
“He trained for a hike,” Jogolev said. “I know there’s people who just go and do that incline and they’re not prepared. We’ve done it every year since we’ve been a part of this Cub Scout pack, and they’re a great pack. They train for it using the Parker Incline, the Castle Rock Incline.”
“It was around the 900th step, passersby saw him sitting with Sasha, our 9-year-old, and he looked very pale,” Jogolev said. “He was offered Gatorade, drank the Gatorade, got up and that was it.”
Jogolev said that Nick had no health conditions, took no medications and didn’t drink or smoke.
That day on the trail, she said, there was a combat medic and doctors hiking close by along with first responders.
“If anybody would have been able to save him, they were there,” she said. “And there was just nothing anybody could do, from what we know.”
What to do without him, she said, is hard to comprehend.
The couple have seven kids in the home. Two from her previous relationship, three together and two nieces they had guardianship over. Jogolev said one of their kids has significant special needs, so she stays home to care for them while Nick worked in IT. Their full house now feels emptier without him.
“He’s a great dad,” she said. “When I say he lived for his kids, he really did.”
Now, they’ll all have to find a way to live, to move forward without Nick.
“We’ve got a long road ahead of us and a tough one to navigate going forward,” Jogolev said.
For Jogolev, this loss has been especially hard on her two oldest kids. She said her ex-partner, who the entire family was very close with, died just 10 days before Nick. She said losing Nick and so soon after another death has the whole family reeling.
They’re hopeful an autopsy will be able to provide some information about what happened to Nick on the incline and help them to heal.
For more information, including how to help Jogolev’s family, they’ve set up an online fundraiser.