It's a good question crispb7, one that we've all considered at some point. My current solution is to avoid crossing over by putting the hihat at the 11 o'clock position around the snare and by playing hi-hat patterns with the left hand (still a goal, not a reality).
In the past, when I was playing loud rock I raised the hihat to its upper limit. You need lots of distance between the hihat and snare if you're laying heavy on the side of loose hihats (playing with the wrist broken and fingers facing the ceiling) and doing rimshots all the time on the snare with wide arm movements.
At other times I tried the Charlie Watts method of not playing the right hand on the hihat at all when you make a snare stroke with the left (he lifts the right hand completely out of the way).
I think the advice of the others above was to build up finger strength in the left hand so you can play powerful strokes without raising your wrists high. That'll work but not for heavy metal unless you're heavily miked!
Here's a clip of Garibaldi, the best with 16th note patterns. He's got very little distance between the snare and hats. But he's not playing loud rock. Notice the bend in the right wrist, so he's coming over and down onto the top of the hihat. And notice that the snare is in close to his body so that the right hand is over top the left hand stick, not the left hand wrist. He also tilts the snare.
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