Meet the Speakers — Avalanche Awareness Night in Golden, 11/18
Our free Avalanche Awareness Night at Connects Workspace in Golden (Wednesday, November 18) runs three tracks at once — and the people leading them have spent their careers in avalanche terrain. Here's who you'll be learning from.
Awareness Track (main stage) MC Chris Peterson + Warren Hanson
Chris Peterson — Legend...
Chris grew up in Boulder and studied Adventure Guiding at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia before returning to Colorado to patrol at Loveland, instruct for NOLS, and complete the Avalanche Science Program at Colorado Mountain College. Today he's the Snow Safety Foreman at Loveland Ski Area, an EMT, and an Avalanche Technician with Colorado Rapid Avalanche Deployment — and he still finds time to teach recreational avalanche courses.
Ski/General Advanced Track — MC Anthony Potter
Anthony Potter — CMAH & Post-Rescue Medical
Anthony is a full-time Loveland patroller — forecaster, mechanized ski guide, and CRAD Technician with Flight for Life. An EMT and avalanche instructor for multiple Colorado providers, he holds a Natural Resource Management degree from CSU, and has spent twelve summers as a raft guide, safety kayaker, and river ranger for the USFS and BLM.
David Norick — Backcountry Skiing Chile and Pro Panel
Dave patrols Arapahoe Basin, is a W-EMT, and chases the backcountry on skis or sled. He'll take us south of the equator with stories and lessons from backcountry skiing in Chile — and he's on the Pro 1 panel too.
The Pro "Ask Me Anything" Panel
Five + working avalanche professionals, no scripted answers. Bring your questions.
Warren Hanson - Awareness and Pro Panel
Warren is the Snow Safety Supervisor at Arapahoe Basin, where a gap-year lift-ops job turned into a decade on patrol — five years as line patroller, five as Avalanche Forecaster and Technician. He holds Pro 1, Pro 2, and ProAvSAR certifications, patrolled The Remarkables in Queenstown, New Zealand, and serves as a CRAD Avalanche Technician for Summit County. The last four years, snowmobiling has taken hold of him too.
Paul Kooyman - Pro Panel
Snowmobiler and Pro-Patroller at Loveland Ski Area. Doesn't ride a turbo sled, so he saves some fresh pow for everyone else.
Mike Wallace - Pro Panel
Mike came to Colorado in 1993 and fell hard for the ski mountaineering life. A 20-year veteran ski patroller with 8 seasons as Snow Safety Director, he forecasts for Jones Pass Guides and teaches AIARE avalanche and rescue courses around Vail Pass, Fremont Pass, and Summit County. His certification list runs deep: A3 Professional Member, AVPRO (Level 3), AIARE Course Leader, PROSAR, OEC Technician, and seven years as a CRAD dog handler.
Motorized Advanced Track — MC Lee Blazek
Lee Blazek — ISSW 2026 Snowpit Tests & Large Scale AutoATES Mapping
Owner, lead avalanche instructor at Avalanche Savvy, and Colorado School of Mines Graduate Program in GIS - with over
20 winter seasons across both hemispheres — helis, cats, sleds, and skis. Lee builds large-scale avalanche terrain (ATES) maps of Northwest Colorado from LiDAR using the autoATES model, and he's bringing the newest snowpit research for motorized users straight from ISSW 2026.
Ian McDougall — Mountainside Snowmobile Mechanicals
From Colorado Mountain Rentals — the field fixes that get your sled home when it breaks 10 miles from the trailhead.
Greg Marshall — Importance of Snowmobile Clubs & the CSA
Board Member of the Summit Snow Riderz Club. Greg covers why snowmobile clubs matter — grooming, access, and advocacy — and how the Colorado Snowmobile Association ties it all together.
It's free, doors open at 5pm with food, drinks, vendors, and a raffle. Grab your seat on Eventbrite — only 130 spots.
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