I met Chris in the fall quarter of my junior year at Colorado State University.  I used to hang out with a few of my fellow physics undergrads every week where we would rotate cooking dinner and hosting the group.  On one of the weeks I hosted, my friend Brenda asked “hey I know a cool guy that we s

Chris was visiting CO once a month as part of a drug research study at a medical campus here. This meant that I got to see him a lot over the last few years. He was able to spend thanksgiving with us last year with our friends the Negleys. This is a photo from that day. I am grateful for these vis

I met Chris when I did my PhD at UNIS on Svalbard. I remember him as very kind and fun guy. I never will forget our lovely kayak trip from Barentsburg back to Longyearbyen. We hitched a boatride to Barentsburg with our kayaks, it was Chris, me, David who also worked at UNIS, and Joey from Sportsente

Chris was the most incredible person, and I loved him with all of my heart. We had amazing adventures together, across three continents. For a time, we were colleagues, friends, and partners all at once, which had its highs and lows, but mostly highs. Our relationship evolved as we tried to pick up

I met Chris while doing my Masters in Vancouver and remember so many fun moments with him and friends , barbecues on the beach, watching the Tour de France at odd hours and Chris always being followed by Jed. I can still hear Chris laughter in my ears and remember his wonderful sense of humour. He

Chris and I were roommates during grad school for a year when we lived in a small basement apartment in Vancouver together with Jed. I had to duck under certain sections not to hit my head. We hung out a lot during his time in Vancouver, which overlapped with mine. Then ran into each other a coup

So many great memories playing golf back in high school. His smile and jokes were always appreciated and he was a great person to be around! Sorry to hear of his passing and sending peace and comfort to all those grieving.

I first met Chris in 2012 at the EGU meeting in Vienna. He taught me a lot about fracture mechanics and I subsequently read all of his avalanche papers. I'd see him at the AGUs in San Francisco and enjoyed hearing about his pivot to working on glacier fracture at JPL, Arctic work at UNIS Svalbard, t

I was lucky enough to work with Chris during college when he also tutored me in physics. We went on a few awesome dates, our conversations endless. He was so thoughtful and brilliant. His legacy will live on in those of us who had the chance to know someone so special.

I got to know Chris when we were introduced by a mutual glaciology friend and we got to work together on a paper looking at fracture in an ice shelf in Antarctica. Chris was stunningly smart and great to work with - I felt lucky to just be part of the team, but Chris made me feel like an integral co

I met Chris for the first time in person in 2017 during a RemoteEx workshop in Iceland but had heard from several friends what a scientific and joyful force he had been at UNIS, Svalbard, for several years. In Iceland, I saw how easily Chris made friends, how astute he was in his observations, and h

I am Chris's youngest sister, Stacey. Abbey is our middle sister. Abbey, Stacey & Chris In July we celebrated our parents 50th wedding anniversary in Fort Collins. Chris and Abbey were home for a few weeks, the whole fa

First encounter — exploring darkness It is mid-November, 11 AM and it is pitch dark and cold. We are picking up fat bikes at a friend’s premises and ready to roll in Adventdalen valley for couple of hours. It is the fat bike day, and our friend Thomas, who runs his small tourist company, organizes

I had the opportunity to meet Chris in Svalbard; he was my supervisor for my master’s thesis, in 2017. I still remember when I emailed Chris, asking if he was willing to supervise me after having spent a spring in Longyearbyen and having fallen in love with the Arctic. He had no hesitation. He was t

Just before the helicopter started up.

I shared an office with Chris (and Jed) in the Geography Department at UBC for a couple of years. We shared the comraderie of being office mates, grad student cohort hijinx, Vancouver critical mass bike rides, and backcountry skiing. Chris was freaking brilliant as his resume and papers read, but

When Chris came to Gooderham to hang out with Tim again, he and I talked about trying windsurfing; we both never done it, and Tims place is packed with water toys.How hard could this sport be ? it's all about balance and counter balancing . 2 strong brghtminded guys can surely figure this out . Tim

Whether we met in Svalbard, Norway or conferences, you shared your enthusiasm and your fun for work and the outdoor. You had such a chill brillant attitude cruising through the joy and hinders from fieldwork, work and life. You left a legacy with the AGF212 course that was hard to take over in 20

I met Chris early on during his Grad school days in Vancouver and was lucky enough to share many adventures with him - and learn from him, about music, life, the outdoors. My fondest memory of Chris is the weekend we spent in Seattle at the Bumbershoot music festival in 2004. We took in so much mus

I knew Chris mostly professionally where we saw each other at meetings and conferences. But what I remember most was attending a calving workshop. It was at that workshop where I got to know Chris booming laughter that would spontaneously erupt. Years later I remember wandering around aimlessly a

Chris's lovely family hosted a memorial for him in Fort Collins on Sunday (Dec 17th; more photos to come). Abbey put together this amazing slideshow for the occasion. I recommend watching with a tissue in hand.

In 2015, a TV production company from the UK talked a somewhat reluctant Chris into appearing in a documentary series called, "Ice Town: Life on the Edge". If you know Svalbard, it's pretty amuzing. If you don't know Svalbard, it's also pretty amuzing. Chris bellyached comically about having to d

I met Chris when he came to me for physical therapy in June 2022. Immediately, I was excited to work with him. His background in research meant our sessions were filled with discussions regarding statistics, physics and biomechanics. He always challenged me for the evidence to support the crazy inte

JPL recently posted a lovely announement of Chris's passing, which I thought I should share (link below), and it inspired me to provide a little more info about Chris's research for those who might not be familiar with it. In a nutshell, Chris started out looking at the mechanics behind how/why a sn

I worked with Chris at the Trailhead Tavern in Fort Collins for several years. I have fond memories of talking with Chris on a wide variety of topics while closing the bar, including Chris trying to explain Chaos Theory to me after several too many beers. At the time we were both very fond of an a

Here are some photos of Chris having fun.

Last time we saw Chris was summer of 2022 I believe . Yes he walked with a cane and a limp ( and dealt alot of pain) we remember helping Chris do his crossword puzzles on his iPad. He would throw out " 4 letter word for .....whatever....we always screwed him up with the hilariously wrong dirty answe

I met Chris at AGU circa 2005 (I'm forever in your debt Joe Shea). Our annual meet-up in San Francisco instantly became a highlight of my year. When he moved to Svalbard in 2014, his arrival coincided with the fieldwork I had planned in Ny Alesund, and I asked him if he wanted to come along. Of c

First time my wife and I met Chris was when he spent time at Tims cottage in Gooderham Ontario. (we have a cottage down the lane from Tim's ). we heard that Chris had some kind of PhD and that he was some kind of Engineer at NASA. we were expecting "a big bang theory " kind of person who may conver

Chris and I went to grad school at UBC together, and his fondness for microbrews was formational for me. This memory, however, involves fieldwork: for one of my first PhD research trips to the Bridge Glacier, part of the Lillooet Icefield, I invited Chris and Faran Anslow to join me. The plan was to