From the Director

Adaptability is the word that best describes this past season. Weather, personnel, the pandemic—the SAC and the Friends adapted. Three feet of snow and great travel conditions before Halloween, sounds great. Ten to twenty feet of snow falling before January 10th, bring it. Mother nature flirting with pitching a proverbial snowfall shutout from early January through the end of March, ugh. Over 50 inches of snow in April and 2 feet in the first few days of May, par for the course in this bizarre season. I don’t recall having to choose between morning powder face shot missions in the mountains or pleasant afternoon biking/fishing/golfing outings in the valleys as many times as this spring!

While the weather was schizophrenic, the SAC staff and Friends of the SAC were anything but.

• Longtime Friends Executive Director Stephanie Eisenbarth accepted a dream position with another Wood River Valley non-profit organization. Steph left the Friends in a far better position than when she began. Thank you for your leadership and efforts Steph!

• Dawn Bird took the Friends ED reigns and orchestrated a smooth transition while the Friends launched a new website and moved towards completing significant upgrades to their fundraising program.

• Friends Governing Board President Steve Butler passed the baton to Ryan Guess, and the Friends welcomed several new Board members. The organization did not skip a beat.

• Ethan, Chris, and Ben knocked it out of the park, delivering timely, accurate, digestible avalanche information via our myriad of communication platforms.

I’m truly fortunate to be surrounded by such capable, energetic people working at the avalanche center, moving the Friends of the SAC forward, and providing amazing community support for our program. Thank you to all who make the Sawtooth Avalanche Center what it is. I wish you happy adventures this spring and summer, whether on snow, water, dirt, sand, or rock.

Scott Savage - Director, Sawtooth Avalanche Center