The Avalanche Hour Podcast

Nikola and Stele are Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (HGSS) members.  The HGSS has been operating for over 75 years, primarily tending to cave rescues, ocean rescue, rock rescue, and more recently, avalanche rescue. It is a nationwide rescue organization with over 2500 members. The alpine terrain in the country is minimal, but the country is an exporter of avalanche victims. Including a prolific accident that killed a member of the organization and injured several others in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Nikola and Stele have been involved with HGSS since they were young adults and serve as lead trainers, organizing international workshops for their organization's avalanche commission. HGSS has gained status as an ICAR delegate organization, and as of 2019 they regularly bring US avalanche instructors over to teach their team the emerging standards of North America. Working with these two on several custom programs, I have gotten to know their team and admire the commitment they place on advanced alpine training, often traveling to neighboring alpine countries like Slovenia, Austria, Italy, and France to practice.
 Summary of their conversation: Nikola Brebric and Stele Stefanac give an overview of the history of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service highlighting:
- Their involvement over two decades
- How the dynamic contrast of the recreational opportunities influence training, education and prevention, and rescue operations.
- The way a significant event shaped their organizations approach to internal training
- How they have made connections across the globe to keep their team up to speed on the latest advances in Avalanche Search and Rescue.
Croatian Mountain Rescue Service Website

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.
Legacy Sponsors:
Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund
Drone Amplified’s Montis
The Guide Network

Partner Sponsors:
Austin Powder
Peak Visor
onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor: 
Arva Equipment 

Music: Ketsa
Artwork: Mike Tea 
Production: Caleb Merrill, Angie Lake

Tune in for a great evening of live storytelling from ISSW 2026.  Sara and Dom brought the Slabs 'n Sluff vibe to the Whistler audience and were joined by an amazing crew 8 of professionals from the snow and avalanche community.  The theme of ISSW is “A Merging of Theory and Practice” so we let our storytellers loose with a request to “tell us a 5-7min story of a time when theory met practice in your career.”

The stories:
Erich Peitzsch - “Mistakes were made but we continued learning…Right?!”
Erin Talor - “When practice precedes their: turning an unexpected situation into a learning opportunity”
Chris Kaipio - “The memory factor and risk taking.”
Helene Steiner - “Retreat!”
Jordy Shepherd - “To heliski or not to heliski: managing a significant buried persistent weak layer while running a relatively new heli-ski operation.”
Eeva Latosua - “There must be a rule for this.”
Drew Hardesty - “Backcountry avalanche forecasting: from theory to practice.”
Penny Goddard - “When theory doesn’t explain practice.”

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.
Slabs 'n Sluffs Season Sponsor: 
⁠Raide⁠, ⁠Safeback⁠

Legacy Sponsors:
Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund
Drone Amplified’s Montis
The Guide Network

Partner Sponsors:
Austin Powder
Peak Visor
onX Backcountry

Music: Ketsa
Artwork: Mike Tea 
Production: Caleb Merrill, Angie Lake

Season 11 is just around the corner, kicking off October 1st.  Join us for a shout out to one of our sponsors - Austin Powder, a major manufacturer of explosive products for the avalanche industry.  Hear a bit about the history of the company, a time when the North American avalanche industry was close to starting a winter season without an explosive supplier, and stay tuned until the end to hear some observations and insights on cornice blasting and case charging.   Learn about the history of the Avalauncher, and how mining rock blasting and avalanche control blasting are more similar than it might seem.  

Host Dom is joined by Braden Schmidt, Austin Powder Avalanche Global President and Michael Blancher, Austin Powder Technical Manager.  Both Braden and Michael have decades of experience in the avalanche industry and bring their expertise to their role supporting avalanche operations with technical blasting challenges.  

Braden Schmidt has worked in Explosives Avalanche Control Operations since 2004. He is a Professional Member of both the Canadian Avalanche Association as well as the American Avalanche Association, and a member of International Society of Explosives Engineers. He sat on the Explosives Advisory Committee of the Canadian Avalanche Association for 3 years before moving into his current role with Austin Powder Avalanche in 2018. He has conducted Avalanche control mission in Canada, USA and Europe and has also consulted on jobs in Iceland, Japan and New Zealand.

Michael Blancher has spent 29 years in the avalanche patch hunting frozen forms with the Ski Patrol at Whistler Blackcomb, then MOT Hwy’s Avalanche Weather Program Supervisor, now proudly serving the community with fresh Austin Powder.  
Episode Summary:
- Learn about how a nearly 200 yr old privately held company is helping keep ski hills, highways and infrastructure open by supplying explosives for avalanche control.
- Hear about the evolution of the Avalauncher, as well as insights on better techniques and technology for case charging and cornice control.  
- Consider how surface rock blasting and avalanche control blasting have more in common than it might first seem.
- Tune in to catch up on the latest from one of the avalanche industry’s best supporters.

Thanks to Austin Powder for supporting the show!

Music: Ketsa
Artwork: Mike Tea 
Production: Dom Baker, Angie Lake

Setting the Track
Juliana Garcia grew up climbing the volcanoes of Ecuador and became an international mountain guide—but skiing was the piece of the puzzle she still wanted to solve.
In this episode, Brooke Maushund sits down with Juliana Garcia. Juliana takes us through her journey from climbing Cotopaxi as a teenager to becoming an IFMGA guide, learning snow and avalanche science as an adult, and bringing that knowledge back to the Andes.
We talk about breaking into the guiding world as the first woman in several of her training programs, the mentors who helped shape her career, the evolution of avalanche education in Ecuador, and her work supporting the next generation of mountain guides.
From Ecuador to Colorado, Alaska, and beyond, Juliana's story is about persistence, curiosity, mentorship, and finding a way to keep learning—no matter how long the journey takes.
In this episode: Ecuador • Andes • Ski Guiding • Avalanche Education • IFMGA • Women in Guiding • Mentorship • Snow Science

Thank you to the sponsors of the show:

Legacy Support:
The Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund
Drone Amplified's Montis
The Guide Network

Partner Support:
Austin Powder
PeakVisor
OnX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:
A3 Avalanche Resilience Project

Unlike a lot of snow and avalanche professionals, Jerry Roberts spent a fair amount of time hanging out around San Francisco, soaking up the Buddhist-infused literary scene of the '60s. He developed a deep affection for some very old school snow enthusiasts: Basho, Issa, Buson, and other 18th-century Japanese poets. He went on to a lengthy career forecasting for the Colorado Avalance Information Center, the Colorado Department of Transportation, even Quentin Tarantino. Along the way, he's written a number of his own wintry haiku. He joins us to share stories and wisdom from a lifetime in the snowy mountains, as well as a few poems.

Jerry passed away in September of 2023.

Drew's writing for Jerry:
Summer's End
The Assistant Spiritual Director Gets a Promotion