What happened to winter? With the lack of snow fall this winter, many of us may be wondering the impacts on our snowpack. Spend an evening learning from local experts about the state of our snowpack, winter weather forecasting, spring snow travel considerations and more.

Presenters:

Kreston Rohrig, Forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Kreston is a Colorado native with a true passion for snow and skiing. He got his professional start working as a ski patroller at Beaver Creek, where he was lucky enough to go on exchange and play ski patroller in France for a season. It was in France where he got hooked on being in large-scale avalanche terrain and eating good cheese. Upon returning to Colorado, Kreston migrated north to Big Sky, Montana where he continued patrolling and blowing up snow. From there he returned to his roots in Colorado and transitioned into the guide and avalanche education world. Kreston has worked and taught for multiple mechanized and backcountry guiding operations throughout Colorado and Alaska. He was the Snow Safety Director for a cat skiing operation and has spent the last three winters heli ski guiding in Haines, Alaska. When not skiing or digging in the snow, he is still on the end of a shovel working for his landscape company or adventuring with his wife and trusty hound.

Rich Rogers has been a full time ski patroller with Monarch Mountain for the past ten years and has been a part time cat skiing guide for six years. He has been an avalanche dog handler for six years and has been certified with C-RAD, Colorado Rapid Avalanche Deployment, for three years. Passionate about weather, Rich has also been involved with forecasting for the last three years and participated in the Colorado Avalanche Information Center Mountain Weather Workshop in both 2015 and 2017. In 2008 and 2009 Rich completed AIARE (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) Level 1 and Level 2 avalanche courses and in 2018 he completed the American Avalanche Association Pro Level 1 course. Rich is also currently enrolled in the Colorado Mountain College Avalanche Science Program. Rich has been backcountry skiing since 2008 and likes to remind everyone that he was born to ski since it snowed on the day he was born.

The program will take place at Salida Mountain Sports on Tuesday, April 3 from 6:30 until 8:00 pm. Suggested donation: $3. Please RSVP by emailing info@garna.org.