Kenneth Hewitt is professor emeritus of geography and environmental studies and Research Associate@the Cold Regions Research Center@Wilfrid Laurier University. He received his Ph.D. in geomorphology from London University. His research focuses on risk and disaster theory, with a particular emphasis on the social geography and human ecology of vulnerability and response to catastrophic risks. He began investigations of glaciers in the Karakoram Himalaya in the 1960s and developed an interest in large landslides there after witnessing a major event in 1986. As this article was being prepared to go to press, he was continuing his research in the Upper Indus Basin and was awaiting word of helicopter availability to visit the site of the January 4, 2010, Atabad rockslide. Address: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5. Email: khewitt@wlu.ca