Mark grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and began skiing in high school. After moving to Tahoe, an early encounter with an avalanche began a decades-long interest in the world of snow. His professional snow career began at Palisades Tahoe where he spent 15 years including 12 years as Ski Patrol Director. An opportunity to focus just on snow and avalanches opened up when the Colorado Avalanche Information Center began its collaboration with the Colorado Department of Transportation providing highway avalanche forecasters. Mark recently retired after serving 27 winters monitoring avalanche hazard on Wolf Creek, Monarch, Cumbres/La Manga, and Slumgullion Passes. 

Related experience includes one winter on the Wolf Creek Ski Patrol between Palisades Tahoe and CAIC. Mark served as Executive Director of the American Avalanche Association from 2001- 2013. 

Mark and his wife Sandy Kobrock (also an instructor with the Silverton Avalanche School) live in Pagosa and own Wolf Creek Backcountry and the Pass Creek Yurt operating in the Divide District of the Rio Grande National Forest. 

Retirement now affords us the opportunity to travel, see, and ski in the western US and beyond. Retirement also affords Mark to share his knowledge and experiences to students in an educational capacity.