A couple years ago, Vince Matthews, the director of the Colorado Geological Survey, enlisted 22-year Colorado Avalanche Information Center veteran and founder Knox Williams on a quick Colorado road trip.
They visited coffee shops, diners and radio stations in small towns on the Western Slope, where Williams’ daily avalanche forecasts had reached biblical status.
Before Williams began offering those forecasts in partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation in 1992, there were 16 avalanche-related deaths on Colorado highways. There has not been one since.
“It was like I was traveling with royalty on that trip,” said Matthews, who heads the department that oversees the avalanche institute. “Everywhere we went: ‘Knox is here. Hey, Knox is here!”‘
Williams is undeniably the king of Colorado avalanche data. He founded the CAIC in 1983 with an $80,000 budget and one employee. Today, as he steps away from the center to pursue other snowy ventures, the CAIC has a nearly $700,000 budget and 13 employees who craft fastidious prognoses of snowpacks from remote but trafficked mountains in the state.
And although he never would admit it, being a modest and unassuming fellow, the 62-year-old Williams likely saved more lives than any other state employee during his 22-year reign as the monarch of Colorado avalanches. His avalanche knowledge has been crucial in a state with the most avalanche-prone and deadly snowpack in the world. Colorado is the only state in which the avalanche death rate per 100,000 users is going down.
“He’s a legend. He’s saved countless lives for sure,” said Brian Gardel, a backcountry skier whose www.mountainbuzz.com website is a gathering place for thousands of the state’s most ardent skiers and kayakers. “He’s raised an entire state’s consciousness when it comes to avalanche danger.”
Last month Williams handed his crown to the next generation. Ethan Greene, a snow scholar, plans to inject a new energy into Colorado’s avalanche forecasting, a daunting job that changes daily with minute shifts in weather.
“This is a young man’s game, and the people making the biggest strides in skiing and snowboarding are the young guys like Ethan,” said Williams, who this month begins a one-year stint with the Northwest Avalanche Center in Seattle, after which he will return to Colorado. “I’ve done what I wanted to do, and it’s time to move on and let the younger set work to reach the younger people we are trying to educate.”
Now, under the direction of Greene, the center plans to provide more raw data to the growing number of experts who can interpret statistics relating to snow stability.
The center also aims to attract more novice users with short, simple reports that hopefully will increase awareness of the inherent dangers involved in every backcountry ski outing.
“The more information we can provide, the more eyes we can open,” Greene said.
Learn more — Visit the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website at .
