Sisters of the Snow

In a realm where safety is the number one priority, avalanche forecasters must be able to clearly communicate, asking for second opinions without a second thought. In the northern Rockies, winter backcountry conditions can change in a heartbeat, and seasons can shift dramatically in the span of a 12-hour period. Because of those variables, consistency in communication is key.

That holds particularly true for the snow scientists predicting potential avalanches in the high country of Glacier National Park, where they spend each spring keeping a watchful eye on the equipment operators clearing snow from the upper 14 miles of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, a precarious section of alpine highway with notable exposure to avalanches and their steep, destructive paths. Ask anyone to characterize the success of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Glacier National Park Avalanche Program, which has recorded no avalanche-related injuries or fatalities in its 22 years of operations — despite having reported 1,168 avalanche days, and 607 avalanches that have directly impacted the road — and effective communication will top the list.

For the Sun Road avalanche forecasting team this year, however, communication is not a problem. 

“None of us brought ego to it,” said Maddey Frey, one of the avalanche forecasters for the National Park Service (NPS) in Glacier National Park. “We’re really happy just to spend time together and learn. Everything is an open discussion.” 

This spring’s team consisted of three seasonal snow scientists, working from April to the end of May. The road’s avalanche hazard forecasting program is a collaboration between the United Stated Geological Survey (USGS) and NPS, and this year the park service hired two forecasters — Sarah Williams and Frey — and the USGS hired one — Erika Birkeland. 

The season marked the first time in the program’s history that the team was made up of all women forecasters. 

Erich Peitzsch, a USGS supervisory research physical scientist who’s worked for the program since 2007, trained the first-time seasonals. He took the group through the program’s historical data, poring over archival forecasts and the around 700 documented avalanches the program’s accumulated since it formally launched in 2003, sharing on-the-ground insights that come with time on the job.  

“It’s been a bit rejuvenating actually, to train these new folks,” said Peitzsch. “They’ve got great backgrounds and they’re all very quick to pick things up and assimilate all of that information.” 

Williams was born in Bozeman, starting to ski when she was 2 at Bridger Bowl Ski Area before moving to the Flathead Valley in middle school. She worked on the trail crew in Glacier, ski patrolled at Moonlight Basin (now part of Big Sky Resort), and went to school, earning a master’s in physiology and doctorate in occupational therapy. 

Despite the academic titles, Williams always found herself wanting to be in the backcountry. After spending some time working in home healthcare, Williams said she realized that her true passion lied among the mountains. 

“Skiing has always been a through-line,” said Williams. “Eventually I just realized to be able to pursue a passion was such a unique opportunity.”  

She’s now on her tenth year working as a wilderness ranger in Glacier during the summer. She interned at the Flathead Avalanche Center in 2021 and worked as a forecaster there for the past two seasons until seasonal positions were cut this year. 

Birkeland was also born in Bozeman, where she grew up skiing in the backcountry and at Bridger Bowl. She joined ski patrol, monitoring the slopes while she plugged away at her undergrad in geography, folding in snow science classes with the rest of her earth science curriculum. She graduated in 2023, staying on at Bridger and teaching avalanche courses for Friends of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. During the off seasons, she’s spent the past four summers working as a guide on Mount Rainier in Washington state. 

“I knew that I wanted to stay in the world of avalanches,” said Birkeland. “It’s just been evolving over the past few years, and it’s been fun.” 

Frey grew up in Kalispell, graduating from University of Montana in 2014 with a master’s degree in mathematics and her teaching license. She decided to take a year off, heading to Snow Basin Ski Resort in Utah to put on a ski patrol helmet for a season. 

“I just thought, ‘I’ll try this,’” Frey said. “And then I was hooked.” 

She’s stayed seasonally in Utah ski patrolling ever since, apart from a few seasons taking her ski patrolling skills overseas to work at New Zealand ski resorts through an exchange program with Snow Basin. 

When the forecasters all met for the first time in April, their shared backgrounds in ski patrol, love for the snowy mountains, and growing up in Montana proved to be a solid baseline. With the shared goal of keeping the road crew safe, they instantly hit it off. 

“We’re all kind of nerds about weather, we love to be outside, and we all love to ski,” said Williams. “That common element of joy is very unique.” 

Birkeland described the joy of being with friends during the slow moments sitting above watching the road crew, and a comfort in the tough moments and high-pressure decision-making, knowing that she had a team she could rely on. 

“It’s nice to hang out with people you like, and I think also to have teammates you’re comfortable with voicing opinions or asking questions is super helpful,” said Birkeland. 

Snow scientists, ski patrollers, forecasters, and other avalanche professionals across the United States sign up as members of the American Avalanche Association, known as A3, a nonprofit organization that governs avalanche education in the U.S. and sets the standards for both recreational and professional avalanche training countrywide. 

In 2019, the last time A3 surveyed their membership, between 10% and 20% of ski patrollers were female. For avalanche forecasters, the number was smaller, in all totaling less than 5%. 

Though A3 doesn’t have current data, Jayne Nolan said she believes that has changed since, based on interactions working closely with avalanche centers across the states. 

“I think historically, this has been a very male-dominated industry,” said Nolan. “I would venture to guess that if we were to pull on membership now and do the same survey, we would see growth in the number of women that are a part of this industry.”

One possible factor, Nolan said, is a more even distribution of work in the home between women and men. Avalanche forecasting can involve uncertain hours and demanding work depending on the season, and for mothers historically carrying the brunt of childcare and work at the home, it was likely hard to commit to these kinds of jobs, Nolan said. 

“I think that doesn’t mean that forecasters who are out there aren’t moms today, but I think it’s a different era of how we raise our kids,” she said. “Both moms and dads show up really differently today than they did 20 years ago.” 

Another component, she said, is the barrier-breaking snowball effect of seeing other women in the field. 

“I would say that young women growing up in communities where there are jobs for forecasters and for ski patrollers and women in those jobs, that it encourages them and opens their eyes to say you know, ‘I could do that too,’” said Nolan. 

“We’re fortunate that we get to work with really great people, female and male across the U.S.,” Nolan said. “I think the nature of the job is really challenging, but it’s also a pretty cool job. Being outside, having a scientific background, and being able to be a good communicator because at the end of the day, that’s a huge piece of it, right? You have to be able to communicate to the public. And I think that lends itself to having good people in those roles.” 

As their brief season came to a close this spring, the forecasting crew began to reminisce on their two-month whirlwind experience forecasting up the Sun Road. With a below-average snowpack this season, and one that melted fairly quickly, the season came with its own unique challenges for the crew. 

“Every season is different and dynamic,” Frey said. 

The forecasters recalled days with zero visibility, bone-chilling snow and rain, the road covered in slick ice that would turn a car horizontal, and surprise glide avalanches they didn’t count on. Three avalanches hit the road from Triple Arches and further above, including a large glide avalanche from the chute above Triple Arches that left debris for the road crew to disperse before continuing downward. 

The season went without any vehicle damages or injuries, and the forecasters achieved the program’s goal, which they attribute to support from Peitzsch and seasoned road equipment operators such as Brian Paul, the road crew foreman, and Christian Trinell, the road work leader. 

“It’s kind of crazy, and it’s very cool to be incrementally every week going further and further up the road, and now we’re at the top and those places we were are inaccessible now,” Frey said. 

USGS leads the program, with Birkeland and Peitzsch often collecting data while out in the field, analyzing and translating it into actionable datasets that help inform their forecasting. With the program operating during the spring season, wet snow avalanches are the forecasters’ immediate focus, while USGS’ specialized data has gone on to inform avalanche forecasting programs around the world at international and regional snow science workshops. 

As most ski patrol jobs end before spring season, Birkeland said she was fascinated watching the changing snow level in the late season.

“It’s been really cool and interesting working in the snow in the spring and just watching how quickly things change and how quickly the snow level rises,” Birkeland said. “To me it feels like it’s gone by fast, and I wish it wasn’t ending.” 

Williams is the only member of the team who will stay in the park for the summer season, starting as a park ranger come June, expressing excitement over the chance to watch the seasons change in the park. 

With avalanche hazards at a minimum, Peitzsch will continue to monitor solo until the road crew finishes setting the guard r ailing along the Sun Road and clearing gutters lingering debris getting it ready for visitors. 

“It’s been great to bring in everybody with their different backgrounds, and bring the knowledge they’ve learned from other places,” said Peitzsch. “Hopefully they can take the knowledge that they learned here back to those operations and help them with, for example, wet snow forecasting.”