10/19/2026
Last week we were extremely honored to present Ron Simenhois with an A3 Special Service Award at the 25th Annual Colorado Snow & Avalanche Workshop.
Ron was originally recognized at the ISSW, but it was fitting to celebrate him in front of the hometown crowd!
A3's Special Service Award is given to individuals who have made outstanding achievements in service of the US snow and avalanche community. Ron was nominated by Karl Birkeland, Ethan Greene, Mike Cooperstein, Becs Hodgetts, Ned Bair, and Scott Savage for his development of the Extended Column Test (ECT).
Ron’s work with avalanches spans more than two decades, with time as a ski patroller in Colorado and New Zealand, a mine site forecaster in Alaska, and, most recently, as a highway forecaster, data scientist, and researcher for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center . In the early 2000s, motivated by crack propagation discussions, Ron thought up a small block test that might index both initiation and propagation, the Extended Column Test (ECT). Over the next few years, he worked with partners to gather data and fine tune the test, eventually presenting the research at ISSW and co-authoring a peer-reviewed paper. The ECT quickly became one of the most widely used tests in the U.S. and in many other countries worldwide.
While this award primarily recognizes Ron’s ECT work, he’s also done work on glide avalanches, storm snow avalanches, crack propagation, crack arrest, and propagation speed. He’s volunteered his time and skills to Doug Chabot for avalanche forecasting work in Central Asia, and he recently utilized a novel video magnification technique to track slope-scale crack speeds. This project landed him as a co-author of a paper on supershear that was published in the journal Nature, an achievement that would be a crowning accomplishment for most academic researchers. Ron has also accomplished many additional unpublished projects at the CAIC.
Throughout all of his work, Ron has maintained his curiosity, enthusiasm and humility. He is a deeply valued mentor in the industry, and he is always good for an interesting conversation and a laugh.
Congratulations, Ron!
