In this episode of The Avalanche Hour, Caleb Merrill makes another appearance to sit down with Mark Staples, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, and avalanche researcher/educator Bruce Jamieson. The group discuss heavyweight topics in the avalanche industry such as snow-surface energy exchange, near-surface faceting, and communicating avalanche hazard.

Staples recounts his path from powder skiing to avalanche work, his research on snow-surface energy balance, and his experience connecting with varied user groups. Jamieson describes collaborating with Staples on educational videos and credits Karl Birkeland’s 1998 papers for focusing attention on near-surface faceting. Staples also contrasts surface hoar (vapor deposition) with near-surface facets (metamorphism of existing snow grains), and they cover conditions that promote growth, including cooling to a clear sky and relative humidity. The conversation also explores simplifying avalanche problem types, terrain-based risk management, the public’s interest in science, and learning from accidents.

Thanks to the sponsors of the show!

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

Arva

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating

Join us for our sixth installment of Slabs ‘n Sluff with your hosts Sara Boilen and Dom Baker! Sara and Dom discuss the joy of powder turns in low hazard terrain, slope tests on small features and the upcoming spring skiing season. They also review recent episodes from March and take a look at what is coming up for April on the Avalanche Hour Podcast. Tune in to hear from the ISSW 2026 organizing committee about everything to look forward to from Whistler next fall.

Sara Boilen holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Denver (2011). Professionally, she works with individuals who have had interactions with the justice system often in the spirit of helping to make sense of behavior and context. She has taken her professional interests and merged it with her recreational interests to contribute to the field of avalanche sciences in her free time. She is specifically interested in human-related problems and solutions. Dr. Boilen has presented at seven Snow and Avalanche Workshops and at ISSW in Norway. She has written articles for The Avalanche Review and was a co-author on the recently proposed conceptual framework for human factors in avalanche terrain. She lives in Northwest Montana and will carry dessert for you to the top of any mountain her skills will take her to.

Dom Baker is an avalanche technician with the BC Ministry of Transportation at Kootenay Pass, occasional avalanche course instructor and adventure buddy to his kids.

Episode Summary:

- Sara and Dom discuss winter weather patterns, adapting to rapidly changing ski conditions, and look ahead to spring

- Review of the last month of programming, highlighting interviews that captured the hosts imagination or got us thinking

- Safely poking around on small features to build a better picture of the avalanche hazard

- The ISSW 2026 organizing committee drop by for a chat

- A voicemail from a listener.

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea

Production: Dom Baker, Bob Keating

Summary of the Conversation:

-Exploring the societal pressures as human factor on professional athletes

-Sasha shares how she balances decision making in the backcountry with a very mindful approach inclusive of her nervous system

-Sasha cracks the code on the best Human Factor Hack; creating mindful presence in a meditative, naturalist inquisitive approach to the mountains.

-Sasha talks about the preventative nature of choosing backcountry partners by engaging in conversations that share each others unique stress signatures and what each partner needs in high risk scenarios.

Sasha is a professional skier and meditation teacher, and the founder and director of Mountain Mind Project. She has spent her lifetime training her mind and body. Sasha has competed at the highest level of skiing and mountain biking, winning the Freeskiing World Tour and competing on the Freeride World Tour and Enduro World Series. In high school, she was invited to travel with the National Development System and race internationally in the recruitment pipeline for the U.S. Ski Team. She’s always loved the mental game.

Her meditation practice grew out of her time as a competitive athlete. Sasha saw – in herself and those she loved – how accidents, trauma and life’s load can compound over a career. During years of illness and chronic pain, Sasha became a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher by the UCSD School of Medicine MBPTI.

Sasha’s style of meditation is to engage fully within the inherent risk of life, refined from her time spent in the inherent risk environment of mountains. Her mission is to normalize that the health in mental health can be cultivated – through deep relationship to self, others and the natural world from meditation practice.

Sasha is the daughter and granddaughter of Vietnam war refugees and keeps one foot planted in the Mountain West of the U.S. and the other in the Mekong of Vietnam.

Thanks to the sponsors of the show.

Legacy Sponsors:

Darren Johnson Avalanche Education Memorial Fund

AVSS

Drone Amplified

Partner Sponsors:

CIL Avalanche

Safeback

onX Backcountry

Episode Sponsor:

OpenSnow

Music: Ketsa

Artwork: Mike Tea

Production: Caleb Merrill, Bob Keating