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Remembering Rod Newcomb

📸 This clear snow crystal card has been passed down through three generations of avalanche eduators. Betsy Manero

In November 2019, my house burned down. But this story isn’t about the house fire. It’s about a snow crystal card.

At the time, I was a young ski guide working for Jackson Hole Mountain Guides in Grand Teton National Park, living paycheck to paycheck. The loss of my guiding gear, including my snow study kit, was devastating. Loupes, thermometers, Roush block cords and those tiny, folding rulers might be cheap on their own, but the cost of all of them together adds up.

I put out a call to the local guiding community, asking for help, and longtime Exum guide, avalanche instructor and editor of the Avalanche Review Lynne Wolfe answered. A few days later, I was sitting in her home office, surrounded by stacks of Avalanche Reviews. In a back closet, she pulled out a few old Exum uniforms—which I wore that winter with medical tape over the logo—and a bag of crystal cards. The cards were the old, clear kind, which had been replaced with black or dark blue versions at least a decade before.

“Rod Newcomb gave these to me,” she told me.

Newcomb is a name that every Teton guide knows. He was the founder of the American Avalanche Institute, a past owner of Exum Mountain Guides and a pioneer in snow science, backcountry skiing and mountaineering. The card Lynne was offering felt like more than just a tool, but a token.

I never met Newcomb, but I carried his card for the rest of my guiding career. I attached a lucky yen I’d found on the streets of Hokkaido to it and slid it behind a modern blue card in my kit. When making decisions, I thought of the card. What would Rod Newcomb do? It was a physical reminder, one which kept me safe in the backcountry for years.

Newcomb passed away early this week at the age of 91, but generations of guides and educators continue to teach his lessons. Some, like Lynne, learned from him directly, while others, like me, had the knowledge passed down to us through his mentees like a clear snow crystal card.

—Betsy Manero

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