Contributing Hosts

We believe that more voices on the podcast will bring a diverse array of perspectives and thoughts to the community, so we lean on a little help from our friends around the world.

Wes Gregg

Wes Gregg is an aspiring Avalanche Professional living in the Cariboo Mountain Range, in Williams Lake BC. With over 10 years of experience exploring the mountains around the Cariboo Regional District, as well as trips to other mountain ranges, Wes finds his passion in teaching other people about avalanche safety, snow science, and most of all, how to enjoy yourself and get home safe at the end of the day.

Originally hailing from Northern Ontario, Wes followed the call of the mountains out West and landed in the Cariboo in 2008.  After years of coaching competitive Freestyle Skiing, Wes found a new passion in exploring the mountains around the Cariboo region, and beyond. This passion led Wes to pursue one avalanche safety course after another, and Wes continues to gain experience with the goal of helping people safely experience the mountains.

In his spare time, Wes can be found adventuring with his wife and two young boys, or working at his full time career as a Network Technician for Telus Communications.

Dom Baker

Dom Baker grew up in Victoria, BC and spent most of his time there staring at the snowy peaks of the Olympic Mountains of Washington state. After ski bumming a bit in BC and NZ and working in a cat skiing lodge for a while he became a ski patroller and then avalanche forecaster at Whitewater Resort near Nelson, BC. Eventually he got a job as an avalanche worker with the BC Ministry of Transportation, a job that keeps him learning and engaged to this day. In his spare time you'll probably find him skiing or biking with his wife and kids or exploring the backcountry somewhere.

Matthias Walcher

Matthias is a graduate of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and the SFU in Canada, where he specialized in alpine natural hazards - specifically in snow and avalanches. He has already worked professionally in South and North America as well as for various European avalanche warning services. Currently he is the Operations Manager of the Austrian Association for Snow and Avalanches, is involved in the training of the Tyrolean Avalanche Commissions and works on different projects in Austria and abroad.

PODCAST GUESTS

Drew Hardesty

Drew has been a forecaster for the Utah Avalanche Center since 1999. After receiving a BA in Political Science from the University of Colorado in Boulder, he took a commission with the US Navy as an Intelligence officer during the first Desert Storm. Subsequent to working abroad, he spent a number of years working and guiding for NOLS and Outward Bound in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Alaska. Drew now spends his summers as a climbing ranger in Grand Teton National Park and went to Washington DC in 2012 to receive a Valor Award for his part in a dramatic rescue of 17 lightning strike victims near the summit of the Grand Teton. Drew is often described as a story-teller at the forecast center, infusing his forecasts with haiku, metaphor, allegory, even references to the Book of Job.  He cites Cormac McCarthy, the whale hunter Herman Melville, the dry-fly fisherman Norman Maclean, the French aviator Antoine de St. Exúpery, and Bashō as literary inspiration.  His passions include dip-netting kings out of the Copper, breaking trail, and following his son through the trees at Alta.

Noah Howell

Noah Howell has been skiing powder in the backcountry and chasing personal ski mountaineering projects all over the planet for nearly 20 years.  For 10 years, he skied, filmed, and produced with Powderwhore Productions.  In 2013 he was named one of Backcountry Magazine’s “50 Icons of Backcountry Skiing.  He is currently guiding, traveling, and adventuring while still capturing it all on film and in written word for his blog noah howell.com.  He is also a dedicated contributor to Ascent Magazine, and wildsnow.com. 

Kevin Grove

Kevin is a Associate Professor of Physics and Engineering at Central Oregon Community College and the Science Department Chair.  He is a Central Oregon Avalanche Association board member and is the director of COAA's professional observer program.  Kevin has been climbing and skiing for over 25 years and is stoked to be a new dad.  He has a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University.

Kirk Bachman

Kirk’s passion for snow started with skiing as a young boy growing up in the mountains of Idaho and Wyoming. He worked for the Idaho State University Outdoor Program in the late 70’s. Upon graduating he moved to the Stanley, ID where hehas lived and worked in the Tetonsand Sawtooths asa climbing and ski guide since that time.  Kirk founded Sawtooth Mountain Guides in 1985 and constructed the first “Yurt Hut System” in North America. As an active mountain guide he has established numerous firstascents/descents on skis and snowboard in the Sawtooths and Tetons, as well as doing exploratory ski descents in the Andes of Ecuador over a ten year period. His guiding has taken him to Canada, Alaska, New Zealand and throughout South America. Kirk has served as an Avalanche Education advisor to AIARE while serving as the Chair of the Education Committee for the American Avalanche Association (AAA)  for the last ten years.  He is certified as an Alpine and Ski Guide for the American Mtn. Guides Association,  Level 2 Course Leader for AIARE, and a certified instructor by the AAA.  In 2013, Kirk sold his interest in Sawtooth Mountain Guides but continues to guide there on a part-time basis and teaches Avalanche courses for the guide service in winter and serves as an advisor for the company.  He continues to reside in Stanley, Idaho and works as an adventure consultant with his wife, Kelley, two dogs and a cat. 

Jonathon Spitzer

Jonathon grew up in the Pacific Northwest learning to ski, climb, and hike in the Cascades.   He received a B.A. in recreation and business from Western State College of Colorado.  During college in Gunnison, CO, Jonathon’s passion for the outdoors grew.  He started working with AIARE in 2003 and took his first AMGA course in 2004.   Jonathon developed a strong desire to share his love of outdoor adventures with others as he progressed through AMGA guide training courses.   Jonathon became an AMGA/IFMGA guide in 2007 at the age of 26, and was one of the youngest American’s to receive this certification.  Today, Jonathon lives in Salt Lake City guiding around the world, while specializing in the heli-ski industry.  He also works for the AMGA and AIARE teaching professional courses for future guides and avalanche forecasters. Jonathon was selected to present a paper on communication in the workplace as a means to reduce risk in the avalanche industry at the 2016 International Snow Science Workshop in Breckenridge, CO. 

Nick Meyers

Bill Nalli

Joe Stock

Joe is an internationally certified, IFMGA Mountain Guide with a passion for mountain adventure in Alaska. He has been climbing and skiing around the world for 30 years with significant time in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Alps, Andes and western North America. Of all the places he's visited, the mountains of Southcentral Alaska are his favorite. Joe has an undergraduate degree in geology and geography from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and a graduate degree in watershed science from Colorado State University. The second edition of his guidebook for backcountry skiing in Southcentral Alaska, The Alaska Factor, was published in 2016. Joe lives in Anchorage with his wife Cathy and their Really Bad Orange Cat.

Helon Hoffer

Scott Savage

Nancy Bockino

Craig Gordon

Sarah Carpenter

Sarah has a passion for the outdoors.  She’s been working in the field of snow and snow science since 1998, when she started as a ski patroller at Bridger Bowl in Bozeman, MT.  As an owner of the American Avalanche Institute, Sarah teaches avalanche courses throughout the west.  Sarah also works as a ski guide in the Tetons during the winter, sharing her love of skiing with others while wearing a huge smile on her face. During the summer and fall, Sarah works as a mountain guide throughout the western US, as well as internationally.

Karl Birkeland

Weston Deutschlander

Lynne Wolfe

Michael Silitch

Michael Silitch is the Executor Director of the BRASS Foundation for Snow and Avalanche Safety which was created by the US Ski Team and two families, the Astles and the Berlacks, who lost their sons in an avalanche January 5, 2015 in Soelden, Austria.  Michael has spent almost twenty years guiding and living with his family in the Alps and is a member of the Swiss Mountain Guides Association. He has been a guide’s instructor for the American Mountain Guides Association, American Alpine Institute, and Colorado Outward Bound School.  Michael has taught AIARE courses in Switzerland. He loves ski touring and fondue. One of his favorite trips is the Haute Route and he loves ski mo racing as well.

Rod Newcomb

Rod Newcomb is the founder of the American Avalanche Institute. Rod founded AAI the winter of 1974/75. He is a former forecaster at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and an avalanche researcher in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Rod has been a backcountry skier since 1961. Rod has taught avalanche courses all over the country, to thousands of recreationists and professionals alike. He was the recipient of Honorary Membership by the American Avalanche Association, the highest honor given to avalanche researchers and practitioners in 2004. More recently, he was the recipient of the AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDES ASSOCIATION LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN GUIDING AWARD.  Bio courtesy of AAI.

Sean Zimmerman-Wall

Sean spent the majority of his youth in the forested hills of Tennessee and discovered skiing at a young age.  Deciding to venture west in 2005, he enrolled at the University of Utah and began his tutelage as a mountain professional at Snowbird Ski Resort.  Graduating with a degree in Marketing and Tourism in 2008, Sean also transitioned to full-time ski patrolling and began honing his skills under a variety of great mentors.  2011 became a pivotal year as he joined the Patagonia Ski Tours guide team and focused on year-round winter adventuring.  In addition to his roles as Co-Owner and Lead Guide for PST, Sean leads snowcat skiing and alpine tours at Snowbird Backcountry Guides.  However, his true passion is education and he is a lead instructor for AIARE (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) and works closely with the AAA (American Avalanche Association).  

Alex Taran

Hans Hjelde

Hans started his snow and avalanche career as a ski patroller at Eldora in Colorado, where he worked for four seasons.  He then moved to the Northern Wasatch of Utah, where he continued his patrol career at Snowbasin, where he has also worked as a ski guide, avalanche forecaster and dog handler for the last 20 years.  At some point, Hans realized there was snow in the southern hemisphere, during the summers, and worked for 11 seasons at Mt. Ruapehu in New Zealand as a ski patroller, ski guide, backcountry avalanche forecaster, and snow safety officer.  He has also worked 3 tours as a volunteer climbing ranger on Denali, 1 season as an avalanche consultant and snow safety officer at Gulmarg Ski Resort in Kashmir, and also has part time heli-ski guided for Ruby Mountain Helicopter Experience for the last 9 years. 

Brian Lazar

Brian has been working in the field of snow and avalanches for the last couple decades. He began backcountry skiing in Colorado as a college student, and later as a mountain guide; and as an avalanche educator, curriculum developer, and as former Executive Director with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE), and member of the American Avalanche Association Education Committee. After a decade or so of guiding and teaching in a variety of snow climates on both sides of the equator, Brian returned to graduate school where he earned a MS in Engineering, studying snow and ice mechanics in Alaska’s Chugach, and conducting research at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. He worked for many years as a consultant to the ski industry, investigating snowpack runoff and potential changes to seasonal snowpacks as a result of climate change. Brian has been the Deputy Director of the CAIC since 2010. In the summers, you can find Brian complaining about the heat, planning his next trip to the snow, and trying to keep up with his wife Michelle and two kids on mountain bikes.

Erich Peitzsch

Jake Hutchinson

Jake has spent nearly 30 years working and playing in avalanche country.  He worked over 20 years as a professional ski patroller and dog handler in The Wasatch and has been teaching recreational and professional avalanche courses for the American Avalanche Institute since 1999.  His experience includes forecasting for the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park and volunteering as a high-altitude ranger on Denali.  He is currently the GM of Gym Jones in SLC, UT and spends his time exploring the capabilities of the human mind and how the gym can be a tool to unlock a person's true potential

Liam Fitzgerald

Liam grew up in and around the San Francisco Bay area. He served in the military from 1963-67, and upon return to civillian life, he was hired on the Squaw Valley Ski Patrol in November 1968, where he worked for three seasons. He found his way to Snowbird in June 1971, where he started as a Ski Patroller during the opening season. A month or so later, he was given the job of Snow Safety Director. He worked in that capacity for 27 years, and then took a job with the Utah Department of Transportation in November 1998. Liam ran the Highway Avalanche Safety Program in Little Cottonwood Canyon for 16 years until November 2014 when he retired. He now lives with his wife Pam on Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho. Liam has two children, a son Tom who lives in Seattle, and a daughter Allanna who is a freshman at the University of Idaho.

Billy Rankin

Billy is the Snow Safety Director and Risk Manager at Irwin Guides. He has been an outdoor professional since 1992 when he arrived in Crested Butte with his focus on guiding and education. He began with Outward Bound in 1994 and has lead mountaineering, river, sea kayaking, and canyon courses in Colorado, Utah, Mexico, and Alaska. Billy was a forecaster for the Crested Butte Avalanche Center for 10 years. He worked for 10-years on the Crested Butte Professional Ski Patrol and previously worked as a Snowcat ski guide for Irwin Lodge. He is a certified level 3 Avalanche Practitioner, a certified AIARE Avalanche Instructor and teaches avalanche courses locally and for the Silverton Avalanche School. Billy is a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician and teaches wilderness medicine for the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS. During the off seasons Billy may be found Heli-ski guiding for Irwin in Iceland, playing in the Elk Mountains, kayaking through the Grand Canyon, and travelling the globe.

Ted Steiner

Ted Steiner has been working in the snow safety arena since the mid-80s when he began ski patrolling.  Patrolling, teaching avalanche education, and academics were Ted’s main focus during the 90s. In 2000 Ted was hired by the Glacier Country Avalanche Center as their initial Executive Director and, with an ever increasing demand for avalanche education, became the GCAC’s first Education Director in 2002.   

Beginning in 2003 Ted began assisting BNSF Railway (Railway) officials with avalanche related risk management in regards to safe Railway operations during a large magnitude avalanche cycle.  Then, in 2004, following an avalanche caused BNSF train derailment, Ted became further involved with the Railway by assisting David Hamre in developing the current BNSF Railway avalanche safety program.  In January of 2005, Ted became the Railway’s first full-time avalanche safety consultant. 

The Railway Avalanche Safety Program, which is based out of Essex, Montana, has just entered its 14th season.  Ted continues to work on behalf of the Railway as an avalanche safety consultant while being employed by David Hamre & Associates LLC.  When not working in the realm of avalanche safety Ted enjoys being in the mountains and on the water with his family.

Roger Coit

Roger Coit lives in Salida, CO and is an Assistant Professor at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville.  He is currently the Faculty Lead for the Avalanche Science Program and also instructs EMS, Wilderness Medicine, and Outdoor Studies courses.   He has served as the Project Lead for the Avalanche Science Program development since its inception in 2014, working to build the program from the ground up in collaboration with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Prior to becoming full-time faculty in 2009, he taught as an adjunct instructor for the college since 1998, leading courses in recreational avalanche safety, wilderness medicine, and urban EMS.  He has been an educator since 1995 and has worked variably as a paramedic, EMS agency director, ski patroller, snow safety program coordinator, and river guide.

Graham Kane

Graham Kane is the Clinical Specialist for Eagle County Paramedic Services.  Graham is credentialed as a Flight/Critical Care Paramedic, and also works with Vail Mountain Rescue and Vail Ski Patrol.  He has trained the US Ski Team Physicians in Trauma Care and Resuscitation since 2005, and serves as Training Center Faculty for the American Heart Association.  He studied Snow and Alpine Hydrology at the University of Colorado, and served as a Research Associate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR).  Graham graduated from Central Washington University as a Mobile Intensive Care Paramedic in 1998, and has worked in Colorado for most of his EMS career.  He is currently a first year student in the Colorado Mountain College Avalanche Science Program.

Mark Mueller

I grew up just south of San Francisco and started skiing when I was in high school. With no clear path I moved to Tahoe, got a ski area job, and found my tribe. I became interested in the winter backcountry which included getting to know something about avalanches. While at Alpine Meadows working in the rental shop I got caught and injured in a serious avalanche when I was 20 years old- I was a very lucky young man. This only spurred by interest even further and led to getting a job on the Squaw Valley Ski Patrol after spending two years at Colorado Mountain College Leadville in the Ski Area Operations program. I spent 15 years at Squaw with 12 of those years as Ski Patrol Director. After I left Squaw I learned of the new highway avalanche forecasting program in Colorado. I spent a winter patrolling at Wolf Creek before hiring on with CAIC and have been with the CAIC highway forecasting program there for 25 winters and counting. I'm nearing retirement, but have a couple more winters in me before heading out to ski the world with my wife Sandy.

Jack Reuppel

In lieu of a bio writeup, Jack wanted to share some links associated with his interview. No doubt, many of these articles and biographies had much influence on the work Jack has done within the snow and avalanche world.

First Ski Instructor Bev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Johnson_(climber)

Renee Lang on  Vortex Generators https://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/objects/issw-1998-190-196.pdf

Laura Bakermans in SWARM  https://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/objects/P__8092.pdf

Bruce Jamison demos SWARM https://vimeo.com/25523324/description

Robyn E. Wooldridge The Effects of Explosives on the Physical Properties of Snow https://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/item.php?id=1690

Ingrid Reiweger acoustic emissions https://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/item.php?id=1772

Lorena Barba on Reproducible research https://youtu.be/uRvMkukbOcw

Lorena Barba on bias  https://youtu.be/vQH3ZGJ2mvY

Atlantic article https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-scientific-paper-is-obsolete/556676/

Anaconda https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/

JupyterHub https://jupyter.org/hub

Mark Dundas

Mark has been forecasting for the FAC team since 2015. Mark has over 20 years of snow safety and avalanche forecasting experience. This experience includes days lamenting over depth hoar at Berthoud Pass in Colorado as a guide and ski patroller to his time in Montana as a professional patroller for Whitefish Mountain Resort, a forecaster for Burlington Northern Sante Fe in Essex, MT, and the National Park Service with the Going-to-the-Sun Road avalanche program in Glacier NP. Mark has also been an avalanche educator for 24 years and is a professional member of the AAA. In the summer, Mark trades his skis for a beloved pick mattock as a trail crew supervisor in Glacier National Park where he has been working since 1995.

Evelyn Lees

John Sykes

John started his career as an avalanche professional in 2011 working as a mountaineering guide and avalanche educator in Alaska. Feeling the draw to further his education in snow science John completed a MSc at the Snow and Avalanche Laboratory in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University from 2016 to 2018. His research focused on decision-making in backcountry skiers by looking at GPS tracks and survey responses. At SARP John is continuing to research decision-making in avalanche terrain by developing new avalanche hazard maps and analyzing GPS tracks of heli-ski guides. The goal of his research is to work towards a new decision-making tool for both professional and recreational backcountry skiers based on the observed decisions of expert guides.

billy barr

billy grew up in Trenton, NJ and went to college at Rutgers University in NJ. He got to Gothic in May of 1972 to work on a water quality study and at the end of the summer decided to stay and moved into an old 8 x 10 foot shack where billy lived for 8 years after first completing his last semester of college. In 1980 he built a house next to the shack and has lived there since. billy did odd jobs- fire fighting, dish washing, plumbing and electrical work, until taking over the accounting at RMBL (Rocky Mountain Biological Labratory) . billy started compiling weather records in 1974 as sort of a curiosity and has been doing so since then.

Roger Atkins

Roger has a background in the physical sciences and a passion for powder skiing. Although experienced at backcountry travel and well educated in the technical aspects of snow and avalanches, at the start of his guiding career, Roger found it challenging to make confident decisions about skiing specific slopes. Competence depends on who you are and what you know; becoming competent involves personal development. Roger’s goal has been to find methods that balance technical knowledge with positive human attributes to improve backcountry avalanche risk management.

Joe and Mike Royer

Joe was working at Snowbird in the early 70's and would travel to Marin, CA in the off season. I-80 was a two lane road and always an adventure, a relief to make it to the next town. The Ruby Mountains were a stand out, and had to have some skiing. The exploring came in the mid 1970's and we are still exploring today. Seems like we are always learning something new. Some way to ski new terrain, or some way to make the experience better for our guests. The business continues to be a work in progress.

The greatest reward is being able to provide a backcountry experience to our clients and hear them say, "That's the best day of skiing in the my life!"

Mike grew up in the family business of Ruby Mountain Helicopter Skiing in Lamoille Nevada. He was fascinated by every aspect of the business and spent his childhood winters helping wash the helicopter, taking out the garbage and learning how to drive a snowcat. Mike has been mentored by some of the best guides in the country who have worked for Ruby at some point during the last 20 years and who have helped him develop into one of Rubies lead guides. Continuing the passion, mission and dedication that his parents Joe and Francy have been providing guests at Ruby Mountain Heli Ski since 1977 is Mikes goal moving forward. One of Mikes favorite things about the winters in Nevada is the family vibe the business brings from all of the Ruby staff to all of the guests who walk through the door.

Robin Pendery

Robin grew up skiing and backpacking in the deserts and mountains of Utah with her family. After moving to Seattle, she fell in love with the local rocks and glaciers, and proceeded to dedicate her time to climbing. From day trips rock climbing, to longer mountaineering expeditions, Robin loves it all and spends most of her free time planning her next climbing or skiing trip. During the winters, she works on the Crystal Mountain Ski Patrol.

Sara Cohen

Sara Cohen has been working with dogs in the mountains for most of her professional track. She is the Program Director of the Avalanche Rescue Dog Program at Crystal Mountain and Board Member of Cascade Mountain Rescue Dogs. Sara is a lead guide for Alpine Ascents,  guiding summit climbs on the Cascade volcanos. Her lowland jobs keep her busy as well; she fits in some time working as a vet tech in Bellingham, Washington and as a pet dog trainer. She is a Certified Clicker Trainer (KPA-CPT) and beyond avalanche dogs and pet dogs has also had the opportunity to train service dogs. Sara’s passion lies both in the mountains and working with canines and their human handlers, and couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to bring it all together with a greater mission in the Cascades.

Don Sharaf

Don is closing in on 30 years of work in the snow. His professional work includes avalanche education, avalanche forecasting, heli-ski guiding, avalanche mitigation, glacier mountaineering guiding, and backcountry ski guiding. He co-owns the American Avalanche Institute and is developing his latest passion at Whiteout Welding. He lives in Idaho with his wife Julie who keeps him laughing at himself…and at her. During the summer he spends as much time as possible on remote Idaho rivers or on two wheels (from 0cc to 1150cc).

Brenden Cronin

Brenden Cronin is a ski bum to the core and has spent the last 14 years in the mountains of Idaho, Wyoming and Utah, Alaska and British Columbia. He has worked as a guide and manager of Togwotee Mountain Snowcat guides, a ground guide for Valdez Heli Ski guides, a snow ranger for the United States Forest Service, and an intern for Mustang Powder, near Revelstoke BC. Currently, he works as an avalanche forecaster for the Wyoming Department of Transportation and is back working part time for the Jackson Hole Ski Patrol. He also spent 6 seasons, as a snowmaker for Jackson Hole and believes that it is the most thankless and dangerous job in the ski industry. As an avid whitewater kayaker summers find him chasing the melting snow that he had his head in all winter.

Doug Chabot

Doug, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, received his B.A. in Outdoor Education from Prescott College in 1986. From 1990 to 1999 he worked as a professional ski patroller at Bridger Bowl Ski Area in Bozeman, Montana. Starting in 1995 Doug has worked for the GNFAC as an avalanche specialist. He's also a mountain guide and climber. Doug has been on numerous climbing expeditions to Alaska, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, resulting in many first ascents and new routes. In 2011, Doug co-founded Iqra Fund, a nonprofit doing education work for girls in northern Pakistan (www.iqrafund.org).

Danny Holland

Danny Holland is a photographer and video producer based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Originally from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, he moved to Jackson in 2009 to work as a post-production supervisor at Teton Gravity Research. Currently, Danny is a Producer at Stio, a Jackson based outdoor apparel company. You can find him mountain biking and alpine lake swimming in the summer and skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort or Teton Pass in the winter.

Laura Maguire

Laura Maguire grew up skiing and climbing in the Canadian Rockies and has worked at ski resorts and heliski operations across Western Canada. Her experiences managing risk in the mountains were a catalyst for her graduate studies in safety and risk management practices and continue to inform her research in snow safety.  In between ski seasons she earned a Master's degree in Human Factors & Systems Safety and is a PhD candidate at The Ohio State University where she studies human performance in high risk/high consequence work.  Laura's research connects theory and practice by studying complex work in the ‘natural laboratory’ of mountain environments to understand how experts work safely under conditions of uncertainty and dynamic change. She has published her work in the Canadian Avalanche Journal, The Avalanche Review, Neve e Valanghe and has presented at International Snow Science Workshops, WYSAW, USAW, Bend Snow & Avalanche Workshop and the Sierra Avalanche Center Bill Foster Memorial Professional Development Workshop.

Jamie Laidlaw

Jamie Laidlaw grew up in the mountains of McCall, Idaho where he was raised to appreciate the outdoor lifestyle.  By the age of four, Jamie caught the racing bug and devoted much of the next 16 years of his life to travelling the country and chasing gates.  Between races, however, much of his free time was spent with his parents and their friends in the backcountry.  A bachelor’s degree and the Eastern Collegiate Alpine Circuit brought Jamie East to Middlebury College, Vermont. After college Jamie returned west where he ski patrolled at Snowbird, UT and spent his summers guiding the rives of Idaho.  An opportunity in Northeastern Nevada drew Jamie to the prestigious Ruby Mountain Helicopter Skiing where he worked for over a decade.  During the shoulder seasons when he wasn’t guiding, Jamie developed a passion for the niche sport of ski mountaineering.  He applied his technical skills learned from racing to some of the most demanding terrain in the world and logged first descents from the Arctic to the Himalaya.  Jamie’s exploits earned him a spot as an athlete for both Dynafit and The North Face where he continued his pursuits as an alpinist and expedition photographer. Constantly tinkering and refining the equipment on which his life often depended lured him into the world of product research and development.  Eventually, Dynafit tasked Jamie with designing skis for the North American Market.  Drawing inspiration from hydrodynamics and the Fibonacci sequence, he designed the award wining Chugach and Hokkaido skis. Jamie currently resides in McCall with his wife and daughter where he builds custom furniture and moonlights as an AIRE instructor with Payette Powder Guides.

Ed Adams

Don Carpenter

Aaron Hartz

Victor Mcneil

Greg Epstein

Eric Knoff

Doug Workman

Don Bachman

A brief history of my avalanche-related interest, career and colleagues – Don Bachman; April, 2015

 My interest in snow began with skiing at Dodge Ridge in California with my father, who worked for the Forest Service, in the early 1950s.  I was becoming able to comfortably turn left and right when I enrolled at Oregon State College in 1958 and joined the OSC Mountain Club, falling into the good company of Willie Unsoeld, Chuck Hollister, Steve Roper, Pat Callis and Art Judson.  I took an Advanced First Aid course and in January 1959 joined the Hoodoo Bowl Ski Patrol.  The following winter, Ross Petrie taught a Circle A National Ski Patrol course, and I began to learn about avalanches.

 In the spring of 1960 I drove to Tuckerman’s ravine and witnessed my first control mission.  The Forest Service Ranger was firing a .50 Caliber at the icicles on the headwall.  I opted to ski Hillman’s Highway to the left of the headwall, skiing out below the main face where I was picked up by my first avalanche; a wet slide (trigged by someone above) and carried slowly on the debris surface down to lunch rock and the cheers of the picnickers.  The lesson:  always look uphill when coming to an intersection.

 That fall of 1960, upon being kicked out of the OSC Forestry School, I fled to Golden, Colorado, at the invitation of Art and Millie Judson and thence to the Berthoud Pass Ski Area, where I became their weekday ski patroller under the tutelage of Ed Henion; ex-10th Mountain Troops enlisted man and denizen of Winter Park, whose wife Evy was an alternate on the 1948 Winter Olympic Team.  Ed was the “mountain manager” for the ski area.  Dick Stillman, also a 10th Mountain veteran, was a 1960 Olympic Avalanche team member, winter sports specialist for the Arapaho National Forest and avalanche researcher, who had established a snow and avalanche observatory at Berthoud Pass in 1950. 

Dick, my first real mentor, taught me how, where, and when to use explosives on the dozen or so avalanche paths on and adjacent to the ski area. His rules of thumb became basic guidance for the future. In exchange for bunk space in the snow ranger shack adjacent to the ski area garage, I maintained weather instruments and records and helped Whit Borland, Reserve Colonel in the US Army Corp of Engineers, dig and analyze biweekly pits from the study plot just off the ski area. 

 I enrolled in Colorado State University’s Forestry School the following year, but faithfully drove to Berthoud Pass each weekend to continue that association for a second winter (1961-62).  It was that winter I was caught in my second avalanche which released while I stood in an explosion crater at the top of the Timber South of the Trough path in the ski area.  Though only partially buried, I was mostly worried about the rush of rescuers who rapidly skied toward my head and shoulders in the debris which had slid 300 vertical feet through the trees to bottom.  I was dug out none the worse for the experience, but I learned a valuable concept; the possibility of a Post Blast Release (PBR) exists.

 That late spring I was drafted into the Army and ultimately stationed with the 11th Air Assault Division at Fort Benning, Georgia.  Among other lessons I learned through that experience was a familiarity with helicopters which would serve me well when I was later engaged in search and rescue and avalanche reconnaissance and control.  I was discharged in 1964 at age 25, and took a seasonal naturalist position at Rocky Mountain National Park.

 Georgetown, Colorado became my home in late 1964, when I tended bar at the Holy Cat and spent several days per week at Loveland, A-Basin, and Berthoud as a National Ski Patroller.  The spring of 1965 I skied several fourteeners and other peaks in vicinity, and went back to Rocky Mountain NP as a seasonal ranger in Wild Basin.  The following winter I took a patrol job at Crested Butte doing avalanche control work including assisting Snow Ranger Shammy Somrak with the 75mm Recoilless Rifle.  The next three years I was Patrol Director as well as lead avalanche person.  The following two summers were spent as Rocky Mountain National Park’s Longs Peak Ranger.  While owning and operating Tony’s Tavern, in Crested Butte and skiing for fun at the area and backcountry, in the spring of 1971 I got a call from the University of Colorado’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.  They asked if I would set up logistics for the establishment of a Bureau of Reclamation funded project on snow properties and avalanche assessment in the vicinity of Silverton, Colorado. I quickly went to Boulder for a briefing, thence to Silverton to arrange for an office and living space, and secured permission from a mining claim owner to use an old cabin, outhouse, and nearby meadow atop the notorious US Highway 550, Red Mountain Pass, for our observatory. 

 In the summer of 1971 I moved into the long term lease office/living quarters and our team began the research project.  Project instrumentation was sited and developed with guidance from INSTAAR’s climate specialist, John Clark.  Principal consultant was Ed LaChapelle who became my second real mentor.  Eventual Field Director and co-PI Richard Armstrong and I attended the first National Avalanche School in Reno that fall of 1971.  Rod Newcomb joined the project the following year. Project emphasis the next four years was captured in the publication, “Avalanche Release and Snow Characteristics.”  This was accomplished with the establishment of remote weather instrumentation, three study plots, systematic full data pit excavation, selected avalanche path release timers, fracture line profiles, and systematic activity observations of 156 avalanche paths which directly affect a 58-km section of the highway and 14 km of a county road and the Silverton environs.  We worked closely with the Colorado Department of Highways avalanche control personnel, including highway engineer and pack howitzer wizard Noel Peterson.

 At the end of these first four project years, in 1975 Art Judson suggested I come to Fort Collins and join the US Forest Service Avalanche Warning Center under the leadership of Knox Williams.  Those next four winters were packed with installation and maintenance of snow and weather instrumentation, weather and avalanche information archiving from the infamous blue and green sheets, developed by Judson,  occasional accident investigation, avalanche course instruction, and public avalanche advisories.  Other colleagues were RA Schmidt, Dick Sommerfeld, and overall Snow and Avalanche Project leader Pete Martinelli.  After the late spring 1979 “Snow in Motion Conference” which brought international delegates for a symposium in Fort Collins and tour around state avalanche hot spots, I left to return to Crested Butte, with hope for additional employment opportunities from a mountain setting.

 I did not anticipate a mountain/salt-water setting, but sure enough, I was soon driving north to Alaska that early winter of 1980 to take a position with the Forest Service in charge of the forecast and control program for the Seward Highway from Bird Flats to mile 23 north of Seward.  I hooked up with Jim Hackett, Dave Hamre, and Jack Morrow of Alaska Highway and had quite an intense winter of big avalanche cycles and road closures; pretty serious when 3,000 cars per day are trying to go somewhere.  I drove back down in late May, and was basking on a hot rock during a Dolores River-trip a week later when I decided  “I guess I’d rather be in Colorado.”

 I was to be close to Colorado for the following winter, on the recommendation of Rod Newcomb, I ran an avalanche control program for the Sun Oil - Murphy Creek, Wyoming drill site in the Salt River Range.  The Forest Service, while siting the rig and man-camp in an environmentally sensitive area, chose to site the rig and man-camp in the run-out zone of several 900-1200 foot avalanche paths over the a company- preferred environmentally sensitive wetlands location.  While the rig platform itself was not threatened, the camp and facilities were, and it was necessary to position an Avalauncher so blasting could be accomplished at a minimum of risk.  Minimized, except the explosive projectile trajectory had to be launched over the camp living area.  Art Mears had supervised the installation of cylindrical water storage tanks to block any debris from camp.  The only safe crew protection from a short round falling on the row of trailers was the community room, where persons would assemble during a firing mission – or on the floor of the drill rig itself.  The crews were outfitted and trained with Ramer Echo II rescue beacons whenever they stepped out of the man-camp trailers.   Fortunately it was a very light winter necessitating less than a dozen control missions.  The well was capped after bottoming out at about 16,000’.

 That spring, I was presented with the Avalauncher as a bonus, and headed directly to the International Speed Skiing venue in the high cirque at the headwaters of the Mmiddle Ffork of Cement Creek above Silverton.  Though the site had been recognized a couple of years earlier, it was not utilized to its potential due to delayed course preparation and avalanche danger.  Chris George and I were hired to rectify that situation and over the next two winters we developed an avalanche evaluation and control program that utilizeding a helicopter and the Avalauncher.

The site was located up the valley 1.5 miles above the Standard Metals Mine where we parked and staged the Helicopter and snowcat fuel depot.  Venue access was by snowcat shuttle, skiing or as Steven Stills learned in 1983 – walking.  Course preparation was accomplished with the help of grooming equipment from Pisten-Bully, and operators from Squaw Valley and Purgatory.  The winter’s avalanche debris with inherent high density made for ideal compaction and contouring conditions from just above the timing trap on down the run-out.  The 50 degree start area and in-run were prepared by a dedicated crew of Crested Butte gelandesprung jumpers under the direction of Bart Austin, and lived on-site for two weeks prior to the events in the support camp managed by Lois McKenzie from Silverton.  Helicopter logistics was performed by Thunderbird Helicopters, Bert Metcalf proprietor; while Archie Archuleta of the Crested Butte Fire Hotshot Helitac crew orchestrated the up-transport for skiers and workers to the starting line boot-pack.  Franz Weber set a new world speed skiing record of 129 mph, establishing The Velocity Peak course as world class.  The site is adjacent to the more recently established Silverton Mountain Ski Area. 

 For the next 6 years I functioned as an independent consultant engaged in a variety of temporary jobs, including a number of field and classroom assignments, accident investigations and expert witness retainers, helicopter skiing terrain assessments, an initial ski area feasibility study, and a couple of mine property avalanche assessments.  I also spent 3 winters as a groomer operator for the Crested Butte Ski Area, who would graciously give me leave for brief avalanche-related assignments.

 In 1989 I moved to Bozeman to take a position with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.  That job was over in mid-1991 and in the early fall of 1992, I was asked to join the staff of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.  The previous winter had seen a tragic avalanche which killed a Department of Transportation rotary operator while burying his partner for over 12 hours near the avalanche shed entrance of the East Riverside Path.  The Colorado Department of Highways engaged CAIC in a systematic forecasting program for their avalanche prone highway system, beginning with US 550.  I moved back to Silverton, selected Denny Hogan as my partner and initiated a forecast and evaluation program for the road from Ouray over Red Mountain and Molas to Coal Bank Pass.  This program also included Colorado Highway 110, up Cement Creek.  Our CDOT liaisons were Ed Fink from the State Office, Ted Vickers from the Durango Section and Gary King from the Silverton Barn.  CAIC staff from Denver were Knox Williams, Nick Logan, Dale Atkins and Scott Toepfer.  We set up study plots and remote weather instrumentation similar in purpose to the San Juan Project of the 1970s, but far more sophisticated and usable than those old analog days.  Denny and I developed protocols for highway closure and control that were adopted by CDOT and we accompanied all control missions including those utilizing the Avalauncher, artillery and helicopter bombing, the latter through contract with Telluride Helitracs with Mike Friedman, “Speed” Miller and pilot Tom Sharp.   We also assisted in development of systematic avalanche programs on US 141, Lizard Head Pass, US 160, Wolf Creek Pass and Colorado Hy 133, McClure Pass.  At the end of the 1994-95 season, I resigned to join Cathy Cripps and settle in Bozeman upon her completion of a Ph.D in Mycology from Virginia Tech.  Her specialty is Arctic and Alpine Fungi, in addition to fungi associated with white bark pine and snow-bank fungi.

 At the 1996 International Snow Science Workshop in Banff, Alberta the American Association of Avalanche Professionals Board of Directors determined that if the organization was to grow it should have an Executive Director rather than be dependent upon a volunteer president and in January, 1997 I drove out to Truckee and picked up all the records from Executive Secretary Peggy Rickets and became a part-time ED.  I remained in that position though spring of 2000 when Jeff Brown briefly assumed the position until Mark Mueller was appointed in 2001, and subsequently served through 2013. I was honored to receive the Bernie Kingery Award in 2000 and the Honorary Member Award in 2008.

 In 2003 I joined The Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies as Board of Director President as Executive (and MSU Master’s Graduate) Director Chris Landry developed its program at Silverton and observatory on Red Mountain Pass.  Chris is a renowned ski mountaineering pioneer, avalanche forecaster and Masters Graduate of Montana State University.  The  US Forest Service- permitted site, incorporating including the Senator Beck Basin, contains paired complete instrument arrays at 11,060’ and 12,180’, and a regional wind and temperature site one mile east at 12,225’.  These sites are at the alpine headwaters of three San Juan Mountain rivers near the continental divide.  Primary focus has been on hydrologic research, specifically dust on snow, while multiple summer and winter- hosted science and education users are accommodated.  I remained in that board position for ten years, and continue in an ex-officio role.  Jeff Derry, arctic and high mountain hydrology specialist has since succeeded Chris as ED.

 I’ve been fortunate to have had an organizing role for the International Snow Science Workshop at Aspen in 1986 and Bozeman in 2000 and participated in most ISSWs since 1982.  I have attended international conferences in Norway, Switzerland and Austria and have presented at a conference in northern Russia, 2001, at ISSW, 1992 and Society of Explosive Engineers in 2006.  That year, I also served under the Volunteer in Parks program for Glacier National Park in development of and Environmental Impact Statement for the avalanche mitigation program along the BNSF rail corridor which is now competently managed by Ted Steiner.

 I maintain an active interest in avalanche matters through attendance at ISSW meetings and web surfing of avalanche centers and in in active communication with American Avalanche Association principals and old colleagues.  I feel fortunate to have settled in Bozeman where there is a community of avalanche professionals with the USFS National Avalanche Center, Karl Birkland – Director and the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center staffed by Doug Chabot, Eric Knoff and Alex Marenthal.   Montana State University provides a Snow Science curriculum under the direction of Jordy Hendrikx, building on the pioneering work of Charles Bradley and John Montagne.

Doug Richmond

In the words of DPR: I am a 67 year old lifelong ski patroller and avalanche practitioner, living in bozeman montana and still trying to keep up on the job at Bridger Bowl.