We are excited to announce the schedule of presenters for SAAW 2025!
This year’s SAAW will take place at the lodge at Hilltop Ski Area. Doors open at 8:30. Click on the speaker’s name for a brief description of their presentation.
9:00-9:10: Welcome, opening remarks
9:10-9:25: Latest News from the American Avalanche Association
Jayne Thompson Nolan, A3 Executive Director
Annual report on A3’s current initiatives, including professional development programs, industry standards, and efforts to strengthen collaboration across the broader avalanche community. Jayne will highlight key projects from the past year and what’s ahead for advancing avalanche safety, education, and research in the US.
9:30-9:55: Learning from an unprecedented season: A case study of the 2024-25 season at Turnagain Pass
Andrew Schauer, CNFAC Lead Forecaster
This presentation revisits the dangerous snowpack setup during the winter of 2024-25. A layer of well-preserved buried surface hoar was responsible for at least 46 human triggered avalanches from late February through late March 2025. The setup was responsible for multiple fatalities and led to the longest recorded string of Considerable avalanche danger in CNFAIC history.
10:00-10:25: 25/26 Winter Weather Outlook: A Return of La Niña – Will This Winter Actually Get the Memo?
Kyle Van Peursem, AK Pacific River Forecast Center
The 2024–25 winter was technically a La Niña, but Southcentral Alaska saw a warm, wet season more typical of a strong El Niño. This talk will explore why last winter strayed so far from expectations, whether this year’s La Niña might behave differently, and what it could mean for snowpack, stability, and skiing/riding conditions across the region’s mountains.
10:30-11:00: Coffee Break
Coffee and snacks provided at Hilltop
11:00-11:25: Slope Measurement for Humans
Featured Speaker Ian McCammon
How good are we, really, at determining slope angles? This presentation explores the accuracy of slope angle apps and manual inclinometers and shows how measurement error can lead to critical mistakes on slopes above 30 degrees. We’ll end with some simple advice on how you can improve your slope assessments in avalanche terrain.
11:30-11:55: How big is that avalanche? A simple method for estimating avalanche D-size based on start zone measurements.
John Sykes, CNFAC forecaster, SFU postdoc, Alaska Avalanche School board of directors
Estimating avalanche d-size is a challenging task because the d-scale is hard to visualize, avalanche information is often incomplete, and human bias can influence our assessment. This presentation will summarize existing methods for simplifying avalanche d-size assessment and introduce a simple method to estimate avalanche d-size based on the depth, width, height, and density of avalanche start zones. The goal of the presentation is to shift the debate about avalanche d-size estimation into a comparison of how accurately we can assess the physical characteristics of an avalanche instead of a subjective assessment of destructive potential.
12:00-1:30: Lunch
Lunch will be provided at Hilltop
1:30-1:55: Avalanche accidents: What are recent trends telling us?
Featured Speaker Ian McCammon
Standard avalanche safety advice has been with us for many decades. But recreation in avalanche terrain has changed dramatically over that time. This presentation examines trends in skier and motorized accidents and concludes with some recommended updates to what many of us learned in our avalanche awareness classes.
2:00-2:10: Improving the Communication of Future Snow Avalanche Models
Kristin Timm, International Arctic Research Center, UAF
This presentation will describe a social science research and science communication project that is intended to improve communication of future snow avalanche models for a variety of decision makers and uses.
2:15-2:45 Backcountry Comms: what we know vs what we understand
Jonathan Bryan, AMRG
Practical use of communication devices in backcountry emergencies. A SAR perspective on standard communications devices used in the backcountry. Practical applications and use to facilitate self and organized rescue efforts.
2:45-3:15: Coffee Break
Coffee and snacks provided at Hilltop
3:15-3:45: Avalanche Center Updates
Latest news from all of the avalanche centers across Alaska
3:50-3:55: Silver SAAW Award
3:55-4:00: Closing Remarks
4:30: Post-SAAW Social at Cynosure Brewing!
Debrief and catch up with your snow and avalanche community over a fresh beverage at Cynosure Brewing Co. in Anchorage immediately following SAAW.
Southcentral Alaska Avalanche Workshop 