(1904-1977) Montgomery “Monty” Atwater was an avalanche researcher who provided services to Walt Disney Productions c. 1969 when the company was researching methods of avalanche control in Mineral King, where Disney planned to build a ski area. Atwater established the first avalanche research center in the Americas, and helped develop a pneumatic cannon for launching avalanch control explosives. He managed avalanche control for the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley and alpine skiing World Championships in Chile in 1966.