– November 19, 2002, Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

), was a mountaineer, avalanche expert, skier, resort developer, engineer, and author. Roch is best known for having planned and surveyed the Aspen

Aspen

Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 ski resort, and also as an adviser on avalanche management whose expertise was sought throughout the world.

Early life

Roch was born near Geneva, Switzerland in 1906, the son of an academic physician who would later become the president of the University of Geneva. He was introduced to mountain sports by his father, who was an avid climber, and he learned to ski at an early age. He won both the downhill and the slalom races at the 1927 Student Olympics in Italy. In his youth he traveled and pursued university education in the United States.

Mountaineering accomplishments

Roch became a member of the Swiss Alpine Club

Swiss Alpine Club

The Swiss Alpine Club is the largest mountaineering club in Switzerland. It was founded in 1863 in Olten and it is now composed of 111 sections with 110,000 members...

 in 1928 and later became the president of its Geneva section. While a university student in Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 in 1931, Roch was a member of the Cascade Ski Club. On April 26, 1931, Roch and two fellow members of the Cascade Ski Club, Hjalmar Hvam

Hjalmar Hvam

Hjalmar P. Hvam was a competitive Norwegian-American Nordic skier and inventor of the first safety ski binding.-Early life:...

 and Arne Stene, became the first to descend on skis from the summit of Mount Hood

Mount Hood

Mount Hood, called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States...

.

Beginning in 1931, Roch made the first ascent

First ascent

In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...

 of many routes in the Mont Blanc Massif

Mont Blanc Massif

The Mont Blanc massif is a mountain range in the western Alps. It is named after Mont Blanc, at 4,810.45 m the highest summit of the Alps. It is located in France , Italy , and Switzerland...

. Over the course of his life, Roch made 25 first ascents in the Alps and 27 first ascents in Asia.

In 1952, at the age of 45, he was the most experienced member of a group of four Swiss climbers who, along with Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay

Padma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...

, pioneered the route on Mount Everest

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

 which Edmund Hillary

Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...

 and Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay

Padma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...

 used to reach the summit the following year. Two members of the 1952 expedition, Raymond Lambert

Raymond Lambert

Raymond Lambert was a Swiss mountaineer, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached an altitude of 8611 metres of Mount Everest in May 1952. At the time it was the highest point that a climber had ever reached...

 and Norgay, reached to within 200 meters (656 feet) of the summit before being forced to turn back due to severe weather conditions and lack of oxygen.

He last climbed in the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 at age 84. Roch drew on these experiences to publish more than a dozen books on mountaineering.

Avalanche expert

Roch joined the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in the late 1930s and became head of the Section on Snow and Avalanche Mechanics and Avalanche Control. During this period, Roch published many scientific articles on avalanche prediction, snow pack evaluation, and glaciation. Roch contributed to advances in avalanche safety in the Alps, in Scotland, and in the US. He was the first to describe the different types of snow

Types of snow

Types of snow can be designated by the shape of its flakes, description of how it is falling, and by how it collects on the ground. A blizzard and snow storm indicate heavy snowfalls over a large area, snow squalls give heavy snowfalls over narrow bands, while flurries are used for the lightest...

 pack that occur in the United States, and it was his lectures and published papers that prompted the US Forest Service

United States Forest Service

The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...

 to set up facilities at several western sites to study avalanche safety and prevention.

Over the course of his career, he was a consultant on avalanche issues to private corporations, government agencies and courts in various countries.

His experience with avalanches extended beyond scientific observation, as he was personally caught in an avalanche on three occasions, and also was skiing with his son when his son was swept away by an avalanche. After he and his son had survived these events, his best-known quote became "The avalanche does not know that you are an expert."

Aspen Resort development

By 1936, Roch was already renowned as an expert on avalanche prediction, and also as a climbing guide. Colorado investors, Ted Ryan, and two-time Olympic bobsled gold-medalist Billy Fiske

Billy Fiske

William Meade Lindsley "Billy" Fiske III was the 1928 and 1932 Olympic champion bobsled driver and, following Jimmy Davies, was one of the first American pilots killed in action in World War II...

 consequently hired Roch to come to Aspen, Colorado to assist in development of a ski resort. Roch conducted a survey of Hayden Peak

Hayden Peak

Hayden Peak is a peak in the western Uinta Mountain Range. The mountain is home to mountain goats, pika, and many species of wildflowers. The peak is named for Ferdinand Hayden, an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century....

, and laid out trails for the resort that remains at Aspen today. While in the valley, he gave ski lessons and helped form what later became the Aspen Ski Club, (known today as the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club). The first ski trail, 'Roch Run', opened in 1937, but while awaiting further funding, World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 broke out and development halted. When the resort opened in 1946, a ski racing trophy, the Roch Cup, was awarded to the winner of the combined downhill and slalom race at Aspen. This trophy commemorating Roch has been won at various times by noted skiers including Billy Kidd

Billy Kidd

William Winston "Billy" Kidd is a former alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1962-70 and a pro racer from 1970-72...

, Franz Klammer

Franz Klammer

Franz Klammer is a former champion alpine ski racer. Klammer overwhelmingly dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons . He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel in dramatic fashion...

 and A. J. Kitt

A. J. Kitt

Alva Ross Kitt IV "A.J." Kitt is a former alpine ski racer. A member of the U.S. Ski Team for over a decade, Kitt retired from international competition following the 1998 season, at age 29. He had 21 top ten finishes and six World Cup podiums, which included one downhill victory...

.

Personal life

Roch was married twice. He had three children – one son and two daughters – with his wife Emilie Dollfus. Roch suffered personal tragedy when one of his daughters, along with her friend, were killed in a climbing accident in 1962. This accident would have taken Roch's life as well if a rope connecting him to his daughter had not broken.