Women’s Mentorship Panel: SEATTLE

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Women’s Mentorship Panel: Seattle

This event has passed. We apologize that a recording is not available for the Seattle webinar. Learn more about the AIARE Women’s Mentorship Program and stay tuned for future events like this here. If you would like to further support this program, consider donating, or purchasing the Mammut Barryvox S beacon from our store. All sales go directly to the program!

Featuring panelists Brenda Walsh-Hollom, Irene Henninger, & Julie Ann Holder

February 22, 2022

Brenda is an American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) course leader and American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) apprentice ski and alpine guide. She works for a variety of guide services in the Pacific Northwest, and she owns a small business, Verascapes, which offers inclusive leadership training for outdoor leaders. She has certifications as a Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Field Technician from Colorado Mountain College, Risk Management Training from NOLS, and Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell. Brenda is the daughter of an immigrant parent, grew up in West Germany, learned about the outdoors as an adult, traveled to four continents as a mountain guide, including summitting Mt. Everest, and is a parent. Brenda wants to help more women join the avalanche education field and is excited to share what she has learned from her journey. 

Irene’s background as an avalanche professional began with 24 winters of ski patrolling between Montana and New Zealand. She concluded her last few New Zealand winters managing the Snow Safety team at The Remarkables, one of the largest ski areas in the country. Meanwhile, Irene instructed a handful of introductory avalanche courses and Rec Avalanche 1 and 2’s from 2010-2019. After a brief sampling of ski guiding in the Wasatch Range just before Covid hit, Irene joined the NWAC team in 2020 as an avalanche forecaster, where she’s currently working for her second winter.

Julie Ann “Julz” moved away from Appalachia in 2014 and spent her first snow-covered winter in Bozeman, Montana, where she grew a soulful passion for skiing. For five winters, she explored and grew to understand the nuances of an intermountain snowpack, toured many days in the mountain ranges of southwestern Montana, ski patrolled at Big Sky Resort, and attended a few graduate-level snow science courses at Montana State University. Her passionate curiosity for understanding and bringing higher awareness to decision-making in avalanche terrain led her to pursue instructing AIARE courses in the winter of 2019. Now, she is in her third winter of living in the PNW and working full-time as an avalanche educator and ski guide. Also a WEMT, Julz teaches wilderness first responder courses part-time and offers medical training specifically geared towards backcountry skiing and riding. Julz’ relates to the land from the North Cascades to the Salish Sea as home.