History with SnowBrains: The Incredible Notes from a Swiss Avalanche Researcher’s Travels to Western USA in 1949

In 1949, the ski industry in the United States was just beginning to emerge. The first chairlift in the U.S. started spinning at Sun Valley in 1936 as a way of boosting railroad tourism and a handful of other ski areas had been established with rope tows and T-bars. The Forest Service issued the first Special Use Permit for a ski area to Alta in 1938 and as lifts began creeping into higher elevation terrain, more and more skiers began getting caught in avalanches.

Though avalanche accidents involving roads, railroads, and mining operations had been documented since at least 1874, there was little knowledge at the time about avalanche risk. At the invitation of Minnie Dole, who founded the National Ski Patrol ten years earlier, Andre Roch from the Swiss Federal Institute for Research on Snow and Avalanches made a trip to the U.S. in the winter of 1949 to visit western ski areas, give lectures on snow science, and train ski patrollers and forest service personnel on how to monitor snowpack conditions and search for buried avalanche victims. The report from that trip has been recently digitized and offers a fascinating glimpse into the early days of skiing in the USA—in fact, the trip Roch took would make for an epic ski road trip even by today’s standards. 

Colorado

Roch’s trip began in Colorado with visits to Berthoud Pass, which closed down in 2002, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, and Aspen. Roch had actually helped plan Aspen’s ski area on an earlier trip to the U.S. in 1936. During Roch’s Colorado stay, he observed differences in wind slab formation between the four resorts, made observations on the importance of types of tree cover on avalanche formation, and concluded “on account of the dry and cold climate Colorado seems to be the most dangerous State of the Union for avalanches.” 



Backcountry skiing appeared to be as popular in Colorado in 1949 as it is today. Much of Roch’s report from his Colorado portion of the trip addresses what to do about avalanche risks outside ski areas, and how much responsibility ski areas should take for out-of-bounds travelers. At the time, ski areas were inclined to completely close out-of-bounds terrain and make it a crime to leave the ski area, but Roch advocated instead for public education about the dangers of avalanches, and regular reports on the current risks of avalanches, a precursor to today’s avalanche forecast centers. While in Aspen, Roch taught ski patrollers how to conduct probe line searches for buried avalanche victims and helped establish the use of explosives for reducing avalanche hazard in the ski area. 



California

Roch then continued on to California, where his first stop was a prospective ski area called Mineral King, located in what is now Sequoia National Park. There, he assessed the avalanche danger and the potential for the development of a ski area in the subalpine valley. Mineral King would later host a battle in the 1960s and 70s between the Sierra Club and Walt Disney, who wanted to develop a ski area there. But, Roch’s visit and report makes clear that the idea for a ski area at Mineral King dates back to at least the 1940s.

Roch’s report on Mineral King closes with an intriguing line: “The Olympic games of 1956 were attributed to Italy at Cortina d’Ampezzo, but California should not loose the hope of holding the Olympic games of 1960 at Mineral King.” Though a ski resort would never be developed at Mineral King, California did host the 1960 Winter Olympics, at what is now called Palisades Tahoe. Roch certainly could see the potential for Northern California, which is incredible considering “Squaw Valley” had just opened in 1949 with one lift (which was the world’s longest double chairlift at the time), along with two rope tows. Incredibly 11 years later, when it hosted the Olympics, it still only had the one chairlift and lodging for just 50 people.



“[Palisades Tahoe], near Reno, is a nice bowl stretching in gentle hillsides from a flat meadow to the top of [Washeshu Peak]. A chair lift is built up to a slope below a shoulder in front of [Washeshu Peak]. The difference in elevation is over two thousand feet and makes it actually the best skiing place in California,” wrote Roch in the opening to his report on what is now Palisades Tahoe. With just a single chairlift where the current Wa She Shu Quad is today, Palisades Tahoe may have been in its infancy, but Roch saw the potential.



After a climb up to the shoulder of Washeshu Peak with Wayne Poulsen, one of the resort’s founders, Roch advocated for a second chairlift to bring skiers to the much steeper terrain on what is now the Sun Bowl, North Bowl, and Chicken Bowl areas. Upon seeing the vast amount of avalanche terrain surrounding the chairlift in Olympic Valley, Roch recommended the use of explosives instead of construction of snow fences or retaining walls to mitigate avalanche risk. Did Roch see the legendary ski terrain for what it was back in 1949 and want to preserve it? Or was he reluctant to add extensive artificial constructions to the relatively untouched alpine landscape? Either way, we may have Roch to thank in part for the development of world class skiing on KT-22 and in the surrounding steeps. Palisades Tahoe did wind up building the second chairlift, called the Jig Back Tram, but today this terrain is serviced by the Headwall Chairlift. 



Roch also spent a few days at neighboring Sugar Bowl and Mount Rose. Though Roch had no comment on avalanche problems at Sugar Bowl, he was interested by the design of the Disney Lodge and by the chairlift, which had both terminals on inclined rails so that the terminals could be raised up in the case of heavy snow. The Disney Lodge is still in use and the upper terminal from this unique lift design is still visible today near the top of the Disney Lift. Roch visited long before the construction of the Lincoln Lift, but we can only imagine what he might have though about the avalanche danger and skiing possibilities in the Palisades or the Sisters.





Oregon and Washington



While Roch did not find as many avalanches as he might have expected in Oregon and Washington, he was astounded by the sheer amount of snow. At Timberline Lodge, Oregon, Roch reported a maximum snow depth of thirty feet. It is unclear if Roch actually skied at Timberline, because he also reported the chairlift, along with several cabins and hotels, were almost completely buried under the snow. 



In Washington, Roch’s work turned advisory again. At Mount Baker he helped scout new ski terrain. At the time, Mount Baker Lodge only offered limited beginner terrain in the shadow of Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan. “The best downhill run is undoubtedly the run from Shuksan Arm down to Razorhone Creek, and all efforts should be made to build a chairlift there,” wrote Roch. The Shuksan Arm is a ridge running from Mt. Shuksan WNW towards the Mount Baker Ski Area. Chair 8 reaches up towards the Shuksan Arm and there are several backcountry ski lines down towards Razerhone Creek as Roch imagined, but Mount Baker wound up developing the area around Panorama Dome. 

After a brief visit to Stevens Pass, Roch studied avalanches affecting the highway at Snoqualmie Pass and advised on the construction of snowsheds and snow fences to try and prevent the road from being buried. Roch was amused by tourists who took the train from Seattle to watch ski jumping competitions through a huge window in the lodge. But before ski films, inspiration had to come from somewhere!



Utah



If anywhere in the U.S. had an avalanche program in 1949, it was Little Cottonwood Canyon and Alta, Utah. More than 50% of SR 210, the road up Little Cottonwood Canyon, is threatened by avalanches. The town of Alta was destroyed several times over by avalanches during the nineteenth century, including an avalanche in 1874 that killed sixty people. When the Forest Service issued the first Special Use Permit for the construction of a ski area in 1938, it also hired Douglas Wadsworth, the first Snow Ranger. 

Wadsworth quickly established rules for closing the road during heavy snowstorms and began experimenting with using explosives to artificially trigger avalanches. Wadsworth was succeeded by Sverre Engen in 1940 who introduced the idea that studying different layers in the snowpack could give insight into avalanche hazard. In 1946 Monty Atwater, a veteran from the 10th Mountain Division, took over the position, and was the Alta Snow Ranger during Roch’s visit in 1949. 



The year before Roch’s visit, Monty Atwater and Frank Koziol published “The Alta Avalanche Studies,” encompassing 10 years of avalanche observation and mitigation studies in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The report was the first of its kind in the United States, and even in Europe there were few examples of such long range studies at the time. Roch was rather impressed with the report, if not a little dubious of some of the conclusions or analyses. He wrote: “The avalanche problem at Alta is the most important one of all the places I visited and the persons in charge of handling the situation are among the most experienced in the USA. However, some of the conclusions are rather erroneous because they are not based on the scientific explanation of the occurring phenomenon.” 

Roch took some issue with Atwater’s earlier efforts at avalanche forecasting, preferring instead to offer a danger rating as was the practice in Switzerland. Both were interested in understanding what conditions led to avalanche formation, but where Atwater favored field observations of avalanches and the weather systems that preceded them, Roch was more focused on quantitative measures of the snowpack structure. Though Roch had visited the U.S. before, 1949 might have been the first time a two-way international discussion of avalanches took place. 

The Modern Version

Roch likely traveled by train for much of his journey in 1949, and unfortunately many of the train routes he used are not available today. Skipping some of the stops on Roch’s trip for lectures, or Mineral King because it never came into existence, here is a modern itinerary to visit the same ski areas that Roch did. It was one heck of a trip in 1949 and still would be today. 

Day 1: Mount Baker, WA



Mount Baker, WA Report: Spring Is Setting in but Mount Baker Is Still Going Off



Day 2: Snoqualmie Pass, WA



VIDEO: Deep Turns At Snoqualmie Pass, WA Following Major Winter Storm



Day 3: Stevens Pass, WA



Hometown Mountain Shoutout: Fear, Friends, and Freedom at Stevens Pass, WA



Day 4: Timberline Lodge, OR



Timberline Lodge, OR, Report: Soft Joyous June Turns



Day 5: Travel Day

Day 6: Palisades Tahoe, CA



Palisades Tahoe, CA, Report: Crush the Steep Slush



Day 7: Sugar Bowl, CA



Sugar Bowl, CA, Report: Slarvey in the Sunshine



Day 8: Mount Rose, NV



Mount Rose Ski Tahoe, NV, Opening Day Report: Love at First Sight?



Day 9: Travel Day

Day 10: Alta, UT



Alta, UT, Report: High Rustler My Favorite Run at Alta and One of the Best Inbounds Runs in North America



Day 11: Snow Basin, UT



Snowbasin, UT, Conditions Report: Big Lifts, Many Turns



Day 12: Aspen, CO



Aspen, CO Report: Sunset Powder Skiing



Day 13: Arapahoe Basin, CO



Arapahoe Basin, CO, Report: An Early March Powder Day



Day 14: Loveland, CO



Loveland Ski Area, CO, Report: Best Day of the Season After a 50″ Week-Long Storm





 

More from Zach Armstrong:



Why Ski Patrollers at Park City Initiated The Biggest Ski Patrol Strike In History

Forest Service Budget Challenges Threaten Avalanche Center Operations Nationwide

The Battle Over The Future Of Palisades Tahoe

How the Fatal GS Bowl Avalanche at Palisades Tahoe, CA, Happened and Why it Could Happen Again

How Eldora, CO, Ski Patrollers Finally Got Their Union



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