WYSAW: Celebrating 10 Years of Commitment to Snow Safety in Our Community
10th Annual WYSAW, scheduled for October 18-19, will continue to enlighten, entertain and educate our regional backcountry community
In 2015, the Wyoming Snow & Avalanche Workshop was launched in the spirit of continued education and as an invitation to the local backcountry community to have open, honest conversations about adventure, risk, and consequence. Today, that original spirit and intent is as important as ever, as WYSAW reaches its 10th anniversary this October.
WYSAW’s tremendous value to our community is seen in the number of talented and thoughtful speakers who share their wisdom with attendees. Whether they live here in Jackson or travel in from abroad, many speakers are at the forefront of snow and behavioral science and human factors, offering their vast knowledge to all who take the time to listen and engage.
The event’s many stakeholders—Teton County Search & Rescue Foundation, Bridger Teton Avalanche Center, Central Wyoming College, and a steering committee consisting of professionals from across the winter backcountry spectrum—strive to create an event that is both enlightening, educational and entertaining. To top it off, WYSAW is held at the beautiful Center for the Arts every year near the end of October.
““I’ve been around and attended all the SAWs. In my opinion, WYSAW is the best one of them all.””
“I’ve been around and attended all the SAWs,” says Drew Hardesty, one of the original architects of WYSAW and longtime forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center. “In my opinion, WYSAW is the best one of them all.”
Learning about how to be safe in the backcountry is a lifelong journey. We know that accidents can happen to anyone. Sadly, this scenario played out in tragic ways during the 2023-24 winter, when many snow professionals perished in the mountains. In all, there were 16 avalanche deaths last winter in the United States. It goes to show that you can never know enough about snow and human behavior. To that end, WYSAW is intended to help backcountry users consider and evaluate new information to help improve their safety protocols.
The very first WYSAW came on the heels of tragedy in Jackson, when beloved community members Stephen Adamson Jr. and Luke Lynch died in a ski mountaineering accident on Mount Moran in the spring of 2015.
At the time, Stephanie Thomas, then executive director of TCSAR Foundation; Scott Guenther, then Jenny Lake District Ranger in Grand Teton National Park; then TCSAR volunteer Jake Urban; Hardesty; and Lynne Wolfe, the longtime editor of The Avalanche Review and former mountain guide, drew up plans for the original WYSAW. They knew the community was reeling and believed that the best way to move forward was to have a forum that would invite fresh ideas and considerations about best backcountry practices.
Wolfe has since emceed every WYSAW but one. She says that it was only natural that the birthplace of ski mountaineering in the United States would have an event where people of all backgrounds and experience levels can spend two days learning how to incorporate safety skills into their backcountry protocol.
“From my vantage point, I see into the audience, and I see a lot of familiar faces,” Wolfe says. “I see people being involved, asking really good questions, and I see people paying attention to the speakers. We have a multi-faceted community but the more we can foster important conversations and learn which questions to ask can only make all of us better.”
