André Roch (21 August 1906 in
Hermance,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
– 19 November 2002 in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
) was a Swiss mountaineer,
avalanche researcher and expert, skier, resort developer, engineer, and author. Roch is best known for having planned and surveyed the
Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
* ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'')
* ''Populus da ...
,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, 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
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...
. 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 in 1928 and later became the president of its Geneva section.
[ ] While a university student at
Reed College
Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...
in
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
in 1931,
Roch was a member of the Cascade Ski Club. On 26 April 1931 Roch, together with two fellow members of the Cascade Ski Club,
Hjalmar Hvam and Arne Stene, became the first to descend on skis from the summit of
Mount Hood
Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...
.
Beginning in 1931, Roch made the
first ascent
In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...
of many routes in the
Mont Blanc Massif. Over the course of his life, Roch made 25 first ascents in the Alps and 27 first ascents in Asia.
Mont Forel in
Schweizerland, East
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
was first climbed by a Swiss expedition led by André Roch in 1938.
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, pioneered the route on
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
which
Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...
and Tenzing Norgay used to reach the summit the following year. Two members of the 1952 expedition,
Raymond Lambert 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
The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
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
Classifications of snow describe and categorize the attributes of snow-generating weather events, including the individual crystals both in the air and on the ground, and the deposited snow pack as it changes over time. Snow can be classified ...
pack that occur in the United States, and it was his lectures and published papers that prompted the
US Forest Service 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
William Meade Lindsley Fiske III (4 June 1911 – 17 August 1940) was an American combat fighter pilot and Olympic bobsledder. At the 1928 Winter Olympics, 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics, Fiske won gold as driver for the US Bobsleigh at the Win ...
consequently hired Roch to come to Aspen, Colorado, to assist in development of a ski resort. Roch conducted a survey of
Hayden Peak, 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 or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
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,
Franz Klammer and
A. J. Kitt.
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.
Filmography
* ''
Demon of the Himalayas'' (1934)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roch, Andre
1906 births
2002 deaths
Alpine guides
Avalanche researchers
Sportspeople from Geneva
Swiss mountain climbers
Engineers from Geneva