Simon Horton

Simon started with SARP as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the fall of 2017. His research explores ways to aggregate weather and snowpack data into regional snowpack summaries. By studying the techniques guides and forecasters use to summarize snowpack conditions, he will generate an operational tool that mimics this process with data from numerical weather and snow cover models. Simon completed his PhD in Avalanche Mechanics at the University of Calgary and has worked in the avalanche industry as a ski hill forecaster and as a public avalanche forecaster with Avalanche Canada.

Your can reach Simon at simon_horton@sfu.ca.

John Sykes – PhD student (Geography)

John started his career as an avalanche professional in 2011 working as a mountaineering guide and avalanche educator in Alaska. Feeling the draw to further his education in snow science John completed a MSc at the Snow and Avalanche Laboratory in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University from 2016 to 2018. His research focused on decision-making in backcountry skiers by looking at GPS tracks and survey responses. At SARP John is continuing to research decision-making in avalanche terrain by developing new avalanche hazard maps and analyzing GPS tracks of heli-ski guides. The goal of his research is to work towards a new decision-making tool for both professional and recreational backcountry skiers based on the observed decisions of expert guides.

You can reach John at john_sykes@sfu.ca.

Florian Herla – PhD student (Geography)

Florian came to SARP with a strong background in meteorology. While he initially focused on glaciology during his undergrad, he specialized in atmospheric dynamics during his Master’s degree at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. At SARP he has the opportunity to merge his theoretical background with his practical experience as an outdoor enthusiast and IFMGA mountain guide in-training. He will build on the established infrastructure of numerical snowpack modeling and integrate solutions to evaluate and correct the modeled snow stratigraphy based on operational snowpack observations. The ultimate goal of his research is to integrate lessons from the human avalanche risk assessment process to extract meaningful information on the avalanche hazard from numerical snowpack models for practitioners.

You can reach Florian at florian_herla@sfu.ca.

Stan Nowak – PhD student (School of Interactive Arts and Technology)

Stan started working with SARP in the fall of 2017 as a Master’s student. His initial curiosity in visualizing snowpack simulations led to a series of collaborations that has since grown into PhD work developing visualization tools for operational avalanche forecasters. Having an academic background in cognitive psychology, a professional background in visual analytics, and a passion for recreating in the outdoors, Stan naturally took to the work and culture of SARP. His research is focused on the development of visual analytics systems that address uncertainty and ambiguity in avalanche forecasting and other complex analysis domains.

You can reach Stan at stanislaw_nowak@sfu.ca

Anne St.Clair – PhD student

Anne started working with SARP in the fall of 2017 as a master’s student in the Resource and Environmental Management program. For her master’s research, Anne examined differences in how backcountry recreationists incorporate avalanche hazard information into their travel decisions. The resulting use patterns revealed connections to stages of learning that can inform prescriptive, stage-based solutions for risk communication design. Anne is continuing her research with the SARP program as a PhD student. For her doctoral studies, she aims to better understand meaningful differences in how people process information to manage avalanche risk in their environments. Through Indigenous-led research collaborations, Anne is eager support an improved collective understanding of mountain knowledge systems and to move towards more targeted, equitable, and effective communication strategies. Anne works with Avalanche Canada as a public avalanche forecaster and with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) as an Instructor Trainer and Education Committee member.

You can reach Anne at anne_st_clair@sfu.ca.

Katie Fisher – Master’s student

Katie joined the SARP team as a Master’s student for the fall 2018 term. She holds a degree in Integrated Science from UBC, and has worked as an environmental consultant for the past four years. As a member of SARP, Katie will work with Avalanche Canada to improve safety messaging in their public avalanche bulletins. In addition to avalanche safety, Katie’s general research interests include risk communication, disaster response, and emergency management planning.

You can reach Katie at katie_fisher@sfu.ca.

Heather Hordowick – Master’s student

Heather joined the SARP team as a Master’s student for the fall 2019 term. She holds a BSc in Civil-Environmental Engineering from the University of Alberta, and has worked in engineering consulting for the past four years. Heather hopes to leverage her technical skill set from her engineering background, and operational experience as a search and rescue volunteer, while investigating practical applications of numerical snowpack models in her research.

You can reach Heather at heather_hordowick@sfu.ca.

Amélie Goulet-Boucher – Master’s student

Amélie joined the SARP team as a Master’s student for the fall 2019 term. She holds a degree in International Business and Marketing from Bishops’ University. She has worked in Communications and Marketing for Parks Canada and more recently has become an ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide. As a member of SARP, Amélie will work with improving safety messaging in the social media, public sphere. In addition to avalanche safety, Amélie’s general research interests include human factors contributing to avalanche accidents and hopes to continue working at the intersection of academia and her extra-curricular activities.

You can reach Amélie at amelie_goulet-boucher@sfu.ca.

Abby Morgan – Master’s student

Abby joined the SARP team in the fall of 2019. She has a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in Maine. For the past five years she has been working primarily in outdoor recreation resource management, and has also worked as a tail guide at a cat skiing operation. As a member of SARP, Abby hopes to examine how backcountry recreationists use different components of Canadian avalanche bulletins to help make this risk communication tool more effective in the future.

You can reach Abby at abby_morgan@sfu.ca.

Rosie Langford – Master’s student

Rosie joined the SARP team as a Master’s student in Fall 2020, after working with the group as an undergraduate student on numerous projects since 2017. She holds a BSc in Physical Geographic from SFU and has worked for the past three years in avalanche education and with a local outdoor mentorship program with an interest in understanding and facilitating safe, empowering, fun, and trustful relationships in the outdoors. At the foundation of Rosie’s research interests is examining what is required for risk communication tools to reach a diverse group of users (recreation and non-recreation alike) in a meaningful way.

You can reach Rosie at rosemary_langford@sfu.ca.

Grant Statham (Parks Canada) – Adjunct Professor

Grant is a Mountain Guide and Avalanche Forecaster who started out as an ice climber and ski patroller back in 1986, then completed his ACMG/IFMGA certification in 1993. For his first 17 years Grant pursued alpine climbing, international expeditions, helicopter skiing and waterfall ice climbing before starting to work for Parks Canada in 2003. Following the 2003 Connaught Creek avalanche tragedy, Grant led Parks Canada through a decade of innovative changes to their public avalanche warning systems, often in consultation with Dr. Pascal Haegeli. Today Grant is employed by Parks Canada as an avalanche forecaster and rescue specialist in Banff National Park, and also works independently as a consultant doing avalanche program reviews, risk and safety consulting, public speaking and expert witness services.

James Floyer (Avalanche Canada) – Adjunct Professor

James is an Avalanche Forecaster who supervises the Public Avalanche forecasting operations of Avalanche Canada. He has been involved in avalanche research since 2001, investigating computer assisted forecasting for his MSC at the University of British Columbia, and layer detection in snowpack penetrometer signals for his PhD at the University of Calgary. Through his work with Avalanche Canada, he has traveled extensively within western Canada (and beyond), and has met a large number of recreational winter backcountry users. He is interested in technical aspects of snow avalanche science including snowpack modeling, as well as human elements such as influencing behaviour and risk communication.