Rod Newcomb, founder of the American Avalanche Institute and former co-owner of Exum Mountain Guides, passed away in his Jackson Hole home surrounded by family at the age of 91 earlier last week. Over the course of his nearly eight decade career in the mountains, Newcomb brought about profound changes in avalanche science, forecasting, and education, alongside an impressive skiing and mountaineering record. The best estimate for the number of times he climbed Grand Teton is more than 400.
Newcomb first arrived in Jackson Hole in the summer of 1953 and worked for the Grand Teton Lodge Company. He became enthralled with the landscape and made his first summit of Grand Teton in 1954. Newcomb did not do a winter in Jackson Hole until 1959 because there just was not that much to do in the winter back then. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort did not open until 1965. Already a talented mountaineer, Newcomb began working for Glenn Exum in 1963, founder of Exum Mountain Guides. Newcomb spent a winter on the Alta Ski Patrol in 1964 and a winter on the Vail Ski Patrol in 1965 before returning to Jackson Hole to work as an avalanche forecaster until 1971.
After a few years working as a research assistant in Silverton, Colorado, Newcomb saw a deficiency in the number of avalanche education programs in the country. In 1974, Newcomb founded the American Avalanche Institute, and taught avalanche courses all over the country until 2012. By many accounts, Newcomb stayed curious for his entire career, always interested in what other instructors thought about certain topics or how he could bring new information into his own teaching. Some of that new information came from the International Snow Science Workshop, a biennial research conference on avalanches. Newcomb was involved in organizing early workshops and was a member of the steering committee.
There is a saying in the guiding community that “there are bold ski guides, and then there are old ski guides, but there are no old, bold ski guides,” and at 91, Newcomb was certainly an old ski guide, with a commitment to safety for his entire career. Through his work as an avalanche educator and mountaineering instructor, he has reshaped how we think about safety in the mountains today.
Rest in powder, Rod Newcomb.
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