Join us for the 2024 Eastern Sierra Snow and Avalanche Workshop!

This event is free and open to the public. We would love to see you there in person.

When: November 16th, 2024 | 9:00 AM- 2:00 PM

Where: Page Event Center at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab

 

 

Schedule 

Clancy Nelson, Lead forecaster ESAC – ESAC Operational Updates and 2023/24 Season Recap

Scott Quirsfeld, MMSP – MMSP Infrasound system and its impacts on mitigation work

Nata De Leeuw – Wind Slab or Storm Slab, When Do We Use Each Term?

Lynne Wolf, Editor of The Avalanche Review – Updates from the American Avalanche Association

Brittany Whitlam, NWS Reno – New products at the NWS and 2024/25 Winter outlook

Round Table Discussion focused on formal and informal Methods of Communication

– Featuring Steve Mace, David Reichel, Lynne Wolf, and Nate Greenberg

 

 

Clancy Nelson, Lead Forecaster at ESAC – Clancy grew up in Mammoth with skis on his feet. His experience with snow safety started in 2007 as a professional ski patroller for Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. He spent 9 years as an observer for ESAC before starting his forecasting career in 2016. Clancy spent 4 years in Montana worrying about deep slabs and surface hoar for the Flathead Avalanche Center before happily returning home to the East Side and ESAC. 

 

 

Scott Quirsfeld, MMSP – Scott moved to Mammoth from Taos, New Mexico in 1998 to become a Mammoth Mountain Ski Patroller.  Since then he has grown to become a manager on ski patrol overseeing the Avalanche Rescue program including the Avalanche Rescue Dogs.  He’s also going grey maintaining the mountain weather stations.   When Scott is not ski patrolling he’s out skiing, bike riding, or enjoying the eastside in whatever way suits the day. 

 

 

Nata De Leeuw – Nata began her avalanche career as a ski patroller at Castle Mountain Resort in Alberta, where she worked her way to becoming a route leader and eventually a forecaster. She then moved to Montana to study snow and avalanches at Montana State University. She recently graduated with a Masters degree studying the physical properties of wind transported snow, and now works for the American Avalanche Institute.

 

 

Lynne Wolfe, Editor for The Avalanche Review – Lynne is the long-time editor of The Avalanche Review, an avalanche educator, and a retired mountain guide. She can be persuaded by dark chocolate, hazy IPA, and strong coffee. She lives in Driggs, Idaho, with her husband Dan Powers and the Lucky Dog, whose photo is hidden somewhere in every issue of The Avalanche Review.

 

 

 

Britney Whitlam, NWS Reno – Brittany is a meteorologist and avalanche weather focal point at the National Weather Service office in Reno, NV. She graduated with her BS in Atmospheric Science from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT in 2022, where she found her passion in fire weather, mountain meteorology, and snow science. 

 

 

David Reichel, Executive Director at the Sierra Avalanche Center – As soon as possible after UC Berkeley, David moved to the mountains. He took his first avalanche course that winter in the Rockies, and he’s been exploring snow-covered peaks ever since. Back home in the Sierra he has taught about a bazillion avy courses and ridden his splitboard all over Tahoe. David also guides and instructs avalanche courses on Mt. Shasta and has spent over ten Augusts enjoying empanadas and powder in Argentina. In 2014, he founded the California Avalanche Workshop. He has worked for the Sierra Avalanche Center since 2017 and been the Executive Director since 2020. 

 

Nate Greenberg, President of the ESAC Board – Nate Greenberg grew up in Southern California and began skiing at the age of two. After graduating from UC Davis, Nate moved to the Eastern Sierra in 2000, where he still resides (in Crowley Lake) with his wife and two kids.  

As an advocate for education and awareness, Nate helped establish the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center in 2005 (for which he still serves as President), and then went on to co-author the first definitive, full-color ski guide for the Eastern Sierra in 2008 (Backcountry Skiing California’s Eastern Sierra). In his professional life, Nate served in official roles for Mono County for more than 22 years before becoming the Chief Administrative Officer for Inyo County, CA in 2022. 

 

 

Steve Mace, Director of Operations at ESAC – Steve grew up skiing in Golden, Colorado. He began to venture outside the gates in his mid-teens and never looked back. While attending college in Durango, Colorado, he continued to push his skills and knowledge, earning his turns in the San Juan mountains. He has skied across the globe, from Japan to the Himalayas, where he helped start a ski school in Gulmarg, Kashmir. Before moving to the Eastside to pursue his career in avalanche forecasting Steve worked as a ski guide in the Wallowa Mountains of eastern Oregon and as a member of the Snow Safety department at Mt Hood Meadows.