Show Notes
Tune in for candid stories and a humorous take on the roots of Canadian avalanche work. Bruce Jamieson is joined by Larry Stanier to interview Roddy McGowan. Roddy McGowan is a veteran Canadian mountain guide and avalanche professional who carved out his career the hard way, starting as a ski bum in Whistler in the late 1970s before working his way onto ski patrol at Lake Louise and into the renowned avalanche program at Rogers Pass. Known for his persistence, he failed multiple guiding courses before eventually earning his credentials and going on to guide, and complete major ski traverses across western Canada. Over decades in the mountains, he combined hands-on experience while collecting a lifetime of stories—from early dirtbag winters to serious close calls that shaped his perspective on risk and decision-making. Now retired from guiding and living in Japan, Roddy stays connected to the mountains, still observing snow and reflecting - often with wit - on a career in the mountains. Larry has worked in the avalanche patch since 1982, beginning his career as a ski patroller in the early years at Blackcomb ski area. He started ski guiding in 1986 and is a long standing IFMGA Mountain Guide, working all over the world from Kyrgyzstan to the Japanese Alps. He also then worked for many years in the avalanche consulting business for Chris Stethem and Associates, and for over 20 years taught courses for the Canadian Avalanche Association. Larry has also conducted inspections of helicopter and snow cat skiing operations for Helicat Canada and HeliskiUS. This episode contains lessons on how avalanche safety knowledge developed through experience, mentorship, mistakes, and reflection—not just formal science
Tune in to hear stories from the Canadian avalanche industry of the 80s and 90s - including Blackcomb and Rogers. Roddy McGowan reflects candidly on the “human factors” leading to a significant avalanche burial of a snowcat. The development of avalanche science and standards under the rigorous leadership of Fred and Walter Schleiss at Rogers Pass. Stories from ski traverses with minimal equipment by modern standards, and the ensuing adventures.
Thanks to the sponsors of the show.
Episode Sponsor: Propagation Labs
Legacy Sponsors: Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund AVSS Drone Amplified
Partner Sponsors: CIL Avalanche Safeback onX Backcountry Use the code avalanchehour to receive 30% off a year of onX Backcountry Elite or Premium
Music: Ketsa Artwork: Mike Tea Production: Angie Lake
Support the Show, Buy some Merch!
More from The Avalanche Hour Podcast
In this episode of The Avalanche Hour, Caleb sits down with Chilean guides Manu Oliveres and Cristóbal Cattan in Las Trancas, Chile, to talk about skiing, guiding, and the rapidly evolving avalanche culture in South America. Both are deeply involved in the local mountain community and search and rescue, and their paths reflect a growing professionalization of avalanche education in Chile. They talk about learning to guide in the Andes, traveling abroad to gain experience in different snowpacks, and the challenge of building professional avalanche education and forecasting infrastructure in a region where those systems are still developing. The conversation also explores what it means to make good decisions in a changing backcountry culture. With more people entering the mountains through skiing, snowmobiling, heli-skiing, and social media, Manu and Cattan describe the need to move beyond simply having rescue equipment toward developing stronger avalanche knowledge, communication, forecasting, and decision-making. They share lessons from their own avalanche experiences, the importance of mentorship and learning from other snow climates, and why there are no shortcuts on the path to becoming a mountain professional. At its core, this is a conversation about a community building an avalanche culture from the ground up—and the value of sharing knowledge along the way.
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
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.”
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.
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