The Avalanche Hour Podcast

Episode Highlights:

- A wide ranging conversation touching on community, connection, loss, grief and decision making.

- Field updates from Snow and Avalanche Workshops from Utah ProSAW, South Central AK SAW and Bend SAW

- Highlights from episodes from November and upcoming episodes in December

- Current community events

- No more AI art! This is a sneak preview of our new Season 10 artwork - stay tuned for an exciting announcement! 

In the third installment of our monthly Slabs ‘n Sluff series, hosts Sara Boilen and Dom Baker sit down for a dynamic conversation covering the themes of building community through shared experiences, mentorship, decision-making, and loss. They discuss highlights from podcast episodes from November and look ahead to upcoming episodes in December.  The conversation highlights the significance of building connections & supporting one another, especially in light of recent losses in the avalanche community.

Hear from voices in our community as they prepare for the upcoming winter season and highlight takeaways from attending fall snow & avalanche workshops. 

Sara and Dom discuss preseason training for professionals and recreationalists and have a question for you:  What does your preseason training look like?  How do you prepare for a fun and safe season of shredding?  What skills do you brush up on every season before the snow stacks up?  Call our voicemail line at 541-406-0221!

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

Safeback 

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating 

Do all heroes really wear capes? No, and the professionals who specialize in avalanche rescue never would - although they often wear red...sans tights - but they deserve a heartfelt thank you. This episode is a special opportunity to hear directly from those who show up when we need them most. We hope to never have to call them, but should listen closely to what they have to share with us. 

In this episode, Michael Ackerman, Dave Richards, Chrissie Oken, John Reller, and Jeremy Jolley bring you the Season 10 Rescue Roundup.  There’s something for everyone in here - whether you are a seasoned patroller or a recreational skier hoping to never need to be rescued.  

Episode Highlights:

- New GPS-enabled emerging technology for more powerful transceiver searching capabilities. Flux lines a thing of the past? PRO transceiver tests?

- How do you shave seconds or minutes during a rescue?

- Train constantly and accurately, but during a rescue, slow down. There are no excuses not to train with your transceiver.

- How to get involved with your local Search & Rescue (SAR) group.

- Technology advancements in the Search & Rescue field. 

- Airbag packs.

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

Arva Equipment 

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating

Photo: In memory of Jiggs.

Avalanche SAR dog for Snowbasin Ski Patrol, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue. Handler - Eric Landreth.

In loving memory of a legend from our community, we dedicate this episode to you, Wendy.

From Wendy's family: '“I don’t get tired, I go hard!” Are the words six year old Wendy said to her uncle when on a hike. That was the way Wendy lived her life and achieved her dreams. The rest of us felt so lucky to scramble, climb, pedal, ski, or snow machine behind her, trying to keep up on another Wendy adventure.

Wendy was born on October 31, 1973 in Salt Lake City, Utah and she touched the sky on November 6, 2025 in Park City, Utah under a super moon, giving us a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains.

Wendy accomplished so much in her life. An incomplete list: 2002 and 2006 Olympic Winter Games athlete in cross country skiing, 4 World Championships participation, 6 National Championship wins, a coach at the University of Utah XC ski team 2006-2008, an intern for the Utah Avalanche Center, a master’s degree in atmospheric science from University of Utah leading to a career in avalanche forecasting, the Director of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center 2010-2025 and an air resource meteorologist for the US Forest Service deployed to wildfires.

But beyond these amazing achievements, the most significant, however, is her sincere and genuine smile, infectious laugh and the positive energy behind it that had such an impact on so many during her life with us. She was the rock that drew the best out of all of us. She was a force of nature that we will all miss. Her spirit will stay alive in all of the hearts she touched. Energy doesn’t die, it transfers."

A note from Andrew Schauer at the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center:

"[Wendy] shared with us at our last staff meeting just last week, that people had been asking her what’s on her bucket list? She said the only thing she wanted to do was “work at the avalanche center with all of us”. She has built something remarkable, and we are lucky to be able to carry the torch. Wendy set an incredibly high standard for trust and respect among our team and within our community. During her 15 seasons at the avalanche center, she built a solid foundation of partnerships and systems that will benefit our community well into the future. See Andrew's full note here.

A few stats about Wendy:

- She started at CNFAC during the 2010/11 season

- 742 forecasts

- First Chugach Avy fx: 02/06/2011

- Final Chugach Avy fx: 04/13/2025 (High danger, P1: Storm Slab/ P2: Deep Slab!)

- 452 observations

- First Chugach Avy Obs: Seattle Creek 11/20/2011

- Final Chugach Avy Obs: Seattle Creek 3/15/2025"

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

IPA Collective

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating 

Our November episode special is out now! Caleb Merrill sits down with Jayne Thompson Nolan with the American Avalanche Association (‘The A3’) and Dom Baker is back to chat with Joe Obad from the Canadian Avalanche Association (‘CAA’)

Our avalanche associations are the web that holds us all together. If you are a current or aspiring professional, or a member of the avalanche community, please consider supporting with a donation or becoming a member at:

A3 Membership: https://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/membership-levels

CAA Membership: https://www.avalancheassociation.ca/page/Member_Categories

Updates from the A3 include:

1. A3 Upcoming Events: https://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/events

2. A3 Supported Resilience Project & Grants 

3. Women’s Avalanche Network - Webinar Dec 3rd, to register for the Substack channel for updates visit here: https://womensavalanchenetwork.substack.com/

4. Welcoming new A3 staff and board members

5. Advocacy and partnership efforts between the A3 and public backcountry avalanche centers to garner support in the face of budget cuts

6. Recreation education restructuring

7. PRO 2 industry assessment results and changes 

Updates from the CAA include: 

1. New president, Wren McElroy

2. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Opportunities: https://www.avalancheassociation.ca/page/CPD_Opportunities

3. Spring Conference May 6th-8th in Penticton, BC 

4. Highlights on the CAA Industry Training Program (ITP) 

5. Developments with the InfoEx 

6. CAA is on socials - Instagram & Facebook to stay up to date

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating 

In Episode 10.4, Kim Vinet sits down with Johanna Wagstaffe for a conversation about the weather! Tune in for a great episode as two friends get together to talk about weather forecasting and assessing risk in the mountains. 

Kim and Johanna attended university together and studied earth and atmospheric sciences. Johanna went on to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as an on-air weather personality. Johanna is an expert science communicator and gives tips on using storytelling to unravel complex weather information to the public. There’s something for everyone in this episode as they unpack technical terms in easy-to-understand language and even hint at what climate change means for the future of avalanche forecasting.

Johanna is a meteorologist, seismologist and science reporter for CBC News. With a background in seismology and earth science, she has covered national and international weather stories, including major earthquakes, hurricanes and wildfires. She has also hosted several award-winning CBC science podcasts and is now working on climate and science explainer videos for the CBC. 

Johanna is a master of explainer video. Check out her YouTube playlist describing everything from the jet stream, to snowpack and trees or how the weather is changing with a changing climate. Planet Wonder is a series about discovering nature and hopefully inspiring people to want to protect it. Her newest project Here's Why, describes the latest in global weather events on a changing planet.

Highlights of the interview: 

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

Arva Equipment 

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating

In the second installment of our monthly Slabs & Sluff series, hosts Sara Boilen and Dom Baker dig into some particularly striking nuggets from this past month’s episodes and look forward to the season ahead. 

Slabs and Sluffs is a monthly round up of all things related to The Avalanche Hour podcast and our community more broadly. October is the month of getting ready for the winter season.  Join Sara and Dom as they dig into some of the gems from October’s episodes and talk about getting mind and body ready for the upcoming winter season.

Some highlights from the conversation:

• Normalization of Deviance - risk normalization and how it affects decision making.

• Possible and Probably - how words hold (or don’t hold) well-defined meaning.   

• October episode recap and highlighting of upcoming episodes for November.

• Physical preparation tips from Physio Lori Anne Donald of @mountainsportsclinic

  
  

Resources & links mentioned in the episode: 

1. Lori Anne suggested exercise, single leg pallof press on YouTube 

2. Skeena Cat Skiing & Boarding AIARE 2 + Avalanche Rescue Trip 

3. When Doing Wrong Feels So Right: Normalization of Deviance

   
   

Call us to be featured on the next Slabs n’ Sluff Episode!

What are you doing to prepare for the season ahead? Are you attending SAWs, are you digging out your avalanche gear and practicing? What apps are you using? What long-range forecasts are you believing… We’d love to hear from you, our community, for Slabs and Sluffs 3 dropping Oct 29.   Voicemail hotline:  1-541-406-0221

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating

SHOWNOTES

In Episode 10.3, Jake Hutchinson sits down with Tom Kimbrough to bring us our first Bio of a Legend this season. 

Roshi is the Japanese word for “zen master” or “old master.” For a generation or two of Wasatch avalanche hunters, Tom is both the old master and the zen master. His holistic approach to assessing risk in snow covered mountains is a culmination of a life as a curious avalanche hunter, public forecaster, climbing ranger and avalanche educator.

Tom’s career spans work on the Alpine Meadows and Alta Ski Patrols, a Jenny Lake Climbing Ranger, forecaster at the Utah Avalanche Center and instructor for the American Avalanche Institute. One of the first things Kimbrough learned about climbing was that climbers tended to be skiers in the winter. After a season on the lift crew at Badger Pass in Yosemite he graduated to the ski patrol. Soon he was patrolling at Alpine Meadows in Tahoe. Alta was next on his list and in 1987 he began working for the Utah Avalanche Center. He finished his avalanche career with Rod Newcomb’s American Avalanche Institute.

In this episode, Jake and Tom talk about:

• The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche Accident

• Humility in the mountains

• Zen and the art of avalanche forecasting

A note from Jake: “More than once we mention Rod Newcomb in this episode. Between sitting down with Tom and the release of this episode, we lost Rod at the ripe old age of 91.  Rod was a friend, mentor and pioneer in our industry.  He shaped avalanche education in the US and was the first to see the need for pro specific education.  His influence on Tom, myself and so many others cannot be overstated.  A long life fully lived, thanks for everything Rod.”

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

Avalanche Risk Solutions

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea 

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating 

Bruce Jamieson’s interview with Scott Thumlert revolves around Scott’s career in avalanche research, guiding, as well as planning and engineering. Scott recounts anecdotes during his graduate studies of the stress in the snowpack under skiers and snowmobiles, and implications for tests like the extended column test. He discusses a more recent interest in improving the communication of avalanche likelihood and identifies some challenges in developing a new rating system. One of the challenges is validating the frequency of human-triggered avalanches. Specifically, when human-triggered avalanches are more likely, avalanche practitioners and winter recreationists avoid more avalanche terrain, so the number of avalanches available for validating may not increase as predicted. Scott also outlines the potential role of artificial intelligence in improving avalanche forecasting, but feels manual field work will continue to be needed. With colleagues, Scott is working on hazard mapping projects and related research into the effect of forest fires on extreme avalanche runout and hazard mapping for residential areas. As the chair of the technical committee for the 2026 International Snow Science Workshop, Scott outlines a new strategy – developed by the conference organizers - for merging theory and practice and how they plan to get more practitioners presenting case studies and applied research.  

Key Insights

• Scott’s graduate research focused on measuring the stress in the snowpack exerted by skiers and snowmobiles, highlighting the relationship between stress levels and triggering of slab avalanches.

• Effective communication of avalanche likelihood remains a challenge, with more ratings needed for lower levels of avalanche likelihood. While there is promise for improved validation of likelihood ratings, human triggering – which is very important – will remain more difficult than validating the frequency (and likelihood) of natural avalanches. 

• Artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance avalanche forecasting by improving data analysis, but Scott feels avalanche practitioners will still be required to verify the forecast. 

• The International Snow Science Workshop aims to merge theory and practice, encouraging practitioners to share real-world case studies and applied research.

Links to papers and resources mentioned in the interview:

Assessing and communicating likelihood and probability of snow avalanches. Scott Thumlert, Martin Stefan, Stian Langeland. International Snow Science Workshop 2024. Norway.

The likelihood scale in avalanche forecasting, Scott Thumlert, Grant Statham, Bruce Jamieson. The Avalanche Journal 122 (fall 2020)

Post-wildfire Analysis of Avalanche Hazard. Cam Campbell, Brian Gould and Scott Thumlert. The Avalanche Journal.

Can We Derive an Avalanche Terrain Severity Rating from Observed Terrain Selection of Professional Guides? A Proof-Of-Concept Study. Scott Thumlert and Pascal Haegeli. 2016 International Snow Science Workshop in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Terrain selection tactics in helicopter skiing – Managing avalanche risk during the 2022-23 deep slab season. Scott Thumlert, Craig McGee, Carl Trescher. 2023 International Snow Science Workshop, Bend, Oregon.

How do you stress the snowpack, Scott Thumlert. 2012 International Snow Science Workshop, Anchorage, Alaska.

How do you stress the snowpack (12 minute video)

Measuring the snowpack stressunder a falling skier (11 s video) Legacy Level:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified's Montis

Partner Level:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

Episode Sponsor:

Propagation Labs

Music: Ketsa

Art: Mike Tea

Production: Bob Keating, Caleb Merrill

PeakVisor Code

In the first episode of Season 10, Dom Baker sits down with Kirk Mauthner. Kirk shares his journey from a childhood in the Columbia Valley to becoming an accomplished mountain guide and rescue expert. He discusses the influences that shaped his passion for mountaineering, the challenges he faced in his career, and the importance of safety and communication in rescue operations. Kirk also reflects on his innovative contributions to rescue equipment and shares memorable adventures in remote locations, including the Wall of Walls project with Will Gadd. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes the significance of learning from experiences and the joy of exploring the mountains.

• Kirk grew up in the mountains and learned about risk and consequence at a young age, under the tutelage of his neighbour, the legendary Arnor Larson.
• A lifetime spent working with SAR groups on technical rope and mountain rescue, combined with a design sense and engineering background, led Kirk to develop many of the tools and techniques used in rope rescue today.  
• Kirk shares lessons learned during a career guiding and adventuring in far-flung places.
• Stay tuned to the end of the interview for Kirk's thoughts on lightweight rope kits for ski mountaineering and crevasse rescue!

Thanks to the sponsors of the show:

Legacy Level Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Level Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

Peak Visor 50% off Code

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea

Production: Bob Keating