Northern Rockies Snow & Avalanche Workshop
November 8th, 2025
10:00 am- 5:00 pm at the
Whitefish Performing Arts Center
What is NRSAW?
The Northern Rockies Snow & Avalanche Workshop (NRSAW) is an annual event bringing together experts and backcountry users to share knowledge, research, and stories that improve avalanche awareness and mountain safety. Attendees can visit vendor booths, connect with the backcountry community, and enter a raffle supporting local avalanche education. Organizers encourage backcountry users, guides, recreationists, and anyone interested in safe winter travel to attend this important community event.
2025 Speakers
Zahan Billimoria
Raised in the Alps with roots in the Himalaya, Z is an international mountain guide, Patagonia ambassador, and passionate adventure skier and rider based in Jackson, WY. In 2015, Z and three friends were climbing Mt. Moran when they were caught in an avalanche that claimed the lives of two of them. This pivotal moment began a long journey of exploring his relationship with risk and the mountains. Each year in the Tetons, Z leads the Big Mountain Snow Safety Course, where, alongside a team of instructors, he shares his approach to making high-consequence decisions.
Pascal Haegeli is a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, where he leads the SFU Avalanche Research Program. Together with his team of passionate and enthusiastic people, he works on a wide range of avalanche safety related research projects that range from snowpack and avalanche hazard modeling to avalanche terrain exposure mapping, accident analyses and risk communication. He has been working with the North American avalanche safety communities and other international partners for more than 20 years.
Lydia Willoughby spent last winter as the FAC Intern, experiencing the ins and outs of public avalanche forecasting. Her favorite days are the ones that end with tired legs and contentment. She works managing operations at Wild North Guides and is a certified AIARE Instructor with local tour and guiding experience.
Joseph Messina has been a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Missoula since 2019 and became the point of contact for avalanche weather in 2024. Before moving to Montana, he spent nearly 25 years in Colorado, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University. During that time, he worked as a professional ski patroller for many winters, as an avalanche forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, a hydrologist for the Colorado Snow Survey, and a field technician for Storm Peak Laboratory, a mountaintop atmospheric observatory. In his free time, Joseph enjoys skiing.
Ron Simenhois joined CAIC in 2016. Sliding down snow-covered hills in a plastic bag first sparked his interest in hills and snow. He eventually moved to Colorado to explore bigger mountains and more sophisticated sliding equipment. Ron has worked as a ski patroller and avalanche forecaster in Colorado, New Zealand, and Alaska. His curiosity and tendency to ask many questions have led him to collaborate with North American and European scientists on applied research projects. His work includes developing the Extended Column Test and other avalanche forecasting tools. Ron enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and two kids.
Julie Ann (“Julz”) Holder is the founder of Grounding Truth Holistic Guiding, a Bellingham-based company offering season-long mentorship in backcountry skiing. An AMGA Certified Ski Guide, Wilderness EMT, wilderness medicine instructor, and AIARE Course Leader, Julz has honed her skills across the Southeast, Alaska, Montana, and now the North Cascades, which she calls home. An educator at heart and a guide by passion, she is dedicated to empowering women in the backcountry and values the deep connections formed through time in the mountains.
