The Avalanche Hour Podcast

In this episode, Sean Zimmerman-Wall sits down with John Littleton.

John's passion is teaching people about snow science and how to travel safely in the mountains. He is a US Navy Veteran and an American Institute for Avalanche Research & Education (AIARE) Course Leader and Instructor Trainer. John holds his AIARE Level 3 Certification and is a professional member of the American Avalanche Association. Having called Lake Tahoe home for almost 20 years. John has been both a Professional Ski Patroller at Palisades Ski Resort and an Outdoor Educator teaching Experiential Education at the Primary, Secondary, and College levels.

Support for this episode was provided by

Wyssen Avalanche Control

Gordini USA

OpenSnow

IPA Collective

Sunshine is a certified ski guide, avalanche educator, river guide, father, and husband who currently lives in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley. He talks about his early days of backcountry skiing in Colorado before exploring Oregon's Wallowa Mountains as a ski guide for Wallowa Alpine Huts. 10 years ago, Sunshine was guiding a group of guests out of the Schneider Cabin on the South flank of Cornucopia Peak when an avalanche was triggered and tragically took the lives of one of his guests and his tail guide. Sunny spent the night with two other guests who were critically injured before being evacuated the next day. Through our discussion, he provides an honest reflection of the event and of the process of moving forward with his life and guiding career. We are grateful for his contribution to our community through sharing his story, which will undoubtedly help others.

EPISODE 8.16

Experience a unique adventure in this episode as Tele Mike and Brooke take us from the exhilarating rush of heated side-by-sides to the awe-inspiring helicopter rides over Alaska's snowy peaks. This episode isn't just about skiing; it's a profound journey of transformation and discovery.

Tele Mike's story begins on the East Coast, where a life-altering moment reshaped his destiny. Witnessing the fall of the Twin Towers firsthand, he was engulfed in a moment of introspection, realizing the fragility of life and the importance of pursuing one's passions. This epiphany led him to Colorado just four months later, where he plunged headfirst into the world of skiing.

From an enthusiastic instructor to an adept practitioner of ski mountaineering, Tele Mike's evolution is a narrative of resilience, passion, and an unbreakable bond with the mountains. He shares his rich experiences, discussing not just the thrills and spills but also the critical moments of close calls and rescues that define the spirit of mountaineering.

Join us in this inspiring episode as Tele Mike and Brooke bring the exhilarating world of skiing to life, sharing stories that resonate with adventure, life lessons, and the unyielding call of the wild.

About Tele Mike:

“Tele Mike” Russell has never seen a snowcapped mountain that he did not want to climb and ski. Fierce and soulful, Tele Mike is a big mountain Telemark Skier who is passionate about climbing technical routes and skiing exposed backcountry mountain descents on a global scale.

Tele Mike finds gratitude and restitution in guiding and showing anyone how to access the beauty of the mountain in a way that is safe, connected, empowering, and accessible, regardless of ability levels. His ultimate motivation is to amplify ALL voices in the backcountry ski community regardless of an individual’s labels or demographics. And due to his African and Native American heritage, Tele Mike has meticulously curated many mountain experiences for BIPOC communities in an effort to provide positive mountain experiences to underrepresented groups, in an effort to bring about sustained physical and mental wellbeing, and inner peace, while overcoming generational fears of open spaces.

Tele Mike also loves to use his artistry to create short cinematic heartfelt mountain adventure films to show people of color that there are other people adventuring in the mountains who look like them, enjoying safe open spaces.

https://us.scarpa.com/community/blog/article/mentee-spotlight-michael-russell

Socials:

The Avalanche hour Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/theavalanchehourpodcast/

Guest - https://www.instagram.com/tele.mike

Links:

To learn more about Mike, check out his mentee profile at the link below:

https://www.scarpa.com/community/athletes/mike-russell

Here Just a Few Of Mike’s Adventures:

Lumpy Ridge:

https://vimeo.com/395827392/4489393b93

Tele Heli Skiing Alaska:

https://vimeo.com/516090629/a72873871d

Freedom Land:

https://vimeo.com/430556554/9708078b8e

Keep Loving the People:

https://vimeo.com/417072442/e150445532

Sponsors for this episode:

Wyssen : https://www.wyssenavalanche.com/en/

OpenSnow - https://opensnow.com/ (Code: AvalanchePodcast)

Gordini - https://gordini.com/

Safeback -

Crew:

Host - Brooke “Shiny” Edwards

Producer - Cameron Griffin - https://www.instagram.com/backcountrycam/

Donate:

The Avalanche Hour Podcast - https://www.theavalanchehour.com/donate

The American Avalanche Association - https://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/donate

Music:

Ketsa - intro: solstice shack out/shaolin dub

Ketsa - outro: run come/shaolin dub

EPISODE 8.15

Martin Heuberger and daughter Anna(featured in episode 6.15) joins Matthias for an in-depth conversation. They explore the journey of this pioneering Austrian who ventured into the Canadian Rockies for heli-skiing. Heuberger delves into the challenges he faced in establishing a heli-ski operation, including learning the intricate processes involved. The journey was not without its hardships, as he recounts incidents of helicopters being lost and delayed rescue missions. Consequently, he collaborated with various operations to implement check-in procedures, utilizing radios to enhance the safety of crews working in the area.

He speaks openly and with vivid detail about encountering physical trauma and how individuals persevered through tough circumstances. He also sheds light on his collaboration with Mike Wiegele, highlighting their significant contributions to the growth and evolution of the heli-skiing industry. Additionally, Heuberger discusses the valuable lessons he brought back to Austria, such as advanced snow profiling techniques.

Socials:

The Avalanche hour Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/theavalanchehourpodcast/

Guest - https://www.instagram.com/

Links:

Stress Measurement Study - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165232X14002079

Sponsors for this episode:

Wyssen : https://www.wyssenavalanche.com/en/

OpenSnow - https://opensnow.com/ (Code: AvalanchePodcast)

Gordini - https://gordini.com/

Crew:

Host - Matthias Walcher

Host - Anna Heuberger

Producer - Cameron Griffin - https://www.instagram.com/backcountrycam/

Donate:

The Avalanche Hour Podcast - https://www.theavalanchehour.com/donate

The American Avalanche Association - https://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/donate

Music:

Gravy - Wildhorse

In this episode, I sit down with Josh Jespersen. Josh is the deputy director of operations at the Silverton Avalanche School, an IFMGA guide, and a former Navy Seal. We talk about his experience transitioning to civilian life, and how adventures in the mountains helped create perspective and purpose. Josh climbed and skied all of Colorado's 54 14ers in a record-breaking duration of 138 days, and we discuss how he worked to manage risk with such an objective-driven goal. He is the founder and president of Veteran's Outdoor Advocacy Group, an organization that works to enable access to outdoor adjunct therapies for all Veterans in need. We chat about why this is so important, and how the snow, avalanche, and guiding communities can get involved. We hope you enjoy our conversation.

Music by Ketsa

Veteran's Outdoor Advocacy Group:

www.voag.org

Thank you to the sponsors of this episode:

Wyssen Avalanche Control

Gordini USA

Open Snow

IPA Collective

In this episode, we start the hour by chatting with Joel Gratz, head meteorologist and founder of OpenSnow. Joel tells us why he started OpenSnow and how it can help streamline your weather analysis process to help lead you to your deepest days in the resort or favorite backcountry location. I then sit down with William Sherman of Safeback. Will is originally from Colorado, but now lives in Norway where he works for Safeback. For the last 6 years, Safeback has been developing a product to help extend the avalanche survival curve for victims buried under the snow who have a patent airway. Will explains the thorough independent research that backs the efficacy of the Safeback SBX product, we discuss how it works and how it is integrated into backpacks and vests. He is transparent about the limitations of the system and recognizes that new technology simply can't take the place of conservative decision-making in an uncertain backcountry environment. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Music by Ketsa

https://www.safeback.no/articles/product-testing/eurac-research-conduct-independent-medical-trial-of-safeback-sbx

Support for this episode is provided by:

Wyssen Avalanche Control

Gordini USA

OpenSnow

Use code: avalanchepodcast at www.opensnow.com to receive 30% off an all access year subscription to OpenSnow.

EPISODE 8.12 Devin Gaan

In this episode, Brooke sits down with Devin Gaan who uses the pronouns she/her/they/them. She is a Hong Konger, trans, queer, and an artist, who also recently became a student again. She was raised in Hong Kong before her family moved to Seattle in 1992. Where she was supported by her family through transportation into the mountains, even though they took no interest. She finds culture is very important, but something that took years to learn to take pride in. However that appreciation made space for her to learn to embrace her queerness as well. She used to work in the tech world but found she loves to ski and snowboard and is pursuing a certification to become an AIARE instructor. She would love to be in the mountains as much as possible but in the past few seasons, have focused on the quality of the individual and herself. Fortunately for you Brooke and Devin have a rich history filled with valuable stories.

Socials:

The Avalanche hour Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/theavalanchehourpodcast/

Devin Gaan - https://www.instagram.com/Devinelleg

Sponsors for this episode:

Gordini - https://gordini.com/

IPA Collective - https://ipacollective.com/

Open Snow - https://opensnow.com (Code: AvalanchePodcast)

Crew:

Host - Brooke “Shiny” Edwards - https://www.instagram.com/wildworldwanderings/

Producer - Cameron Griffin - https://www.instagram.com/backcountrycam/

Music:

Intro: Lionheart/Shaolindub by Ketsa uk

Outro: Dragonstyle/shaolindub by Ketsa uk

Donate:

https://www.theavalanchehour.com/donate

In this installment of The Avalanche Hour Podcast; Wes Gregg has a chat with ski film legend, farmer, and father Chris Rubens. Rubens has been a globally recognized professional skier for the past two decades. Truly dedicated to the mountains and passionate about moving in them, Chris chooses to spend the majority of his time self-propelled in the backcountry, seeking beautiful lines to showcase for the world via film, photo and social media. Over the course of his career, he has perfected the skill of delivering high quality content that resonates with viewers around the world. These days, he strives to inspire his audience to take action living and playing with less impact on the climate.

Chris is able to continue his dream through the support from brands that he truly believes in. Take some time to check out the products/businesses he supports.

Atomic - Atomic.com

Pomoca - Pomoca.com

Picture Organic Clothing - picture-organic-clothing.com

Avalanche Canada - avalanche.ca

Revelstoke Mountain Resort - revelstokemountainresort.com

Music in this episode is provided by Gravy with the track Shabbadoobah from the album Mountains, Valleys, Places Between. You can find his tracks at gravytunes.bandcamp.com

Artwork by Mike Tea, miketea.com

This episode of The Avalanche Hour Podcast is proudly supported by:

Wyssen Avalanche Control

Gordini USA

6 Point Engineering

Beacon Guidebooks

Episode produced by Wes Gregg

In this episode, host Sean Zimmerman-Wall sits down with Emilie Drinkwater. Emilie is an AMGA/IFMGA Mountain Guide based in Salt Lake City, Utah but born and raised in New Hampshire. She guides year round, instructs pro and recreational avalanche courses for

the American Avalanche Institute, and is a member of the AMGA Instructor Team. Emilie has a great curiosity for remote mountains around the world and has traveled, climbed, and skied in

such notable locations as Alaska, Afghanistan, and India. If it were up to her, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea would be next on the list. Until then, she’ll continue enjoying the abundant backyard adventures to be found in the Wasatch and beyond.

Music by Ketsa

Support for this episode provided by:

Wyssen Avalanche Control

Gordini

Propagation Labs

Caleb starts out this episode catching up with Jayne Thompson-Nolan, the Executive Director of the American Avalanche Association. She lets us know about some updates and initiatives of the A3. Katie Warren drops in to chat about some of her experiences working as a Steven’s Pass Patroller, helping out with highway avalanche mitigation along Highway 2, and a transition of scale to regional backcountry forecasting for NWAC.

Thanks to the sponsors of the show:

Wyssen Avalanche Control

Gordini

6 Point Engineering

Beacon Guidebooks

Music by Gravy

www.americanavalancheassociation.org

www.nwac.us

www.evergreentrailruns.com