Dave Hamre

Through numerous company name iterations, David Hamre has been an avalanche consultant since his work establishing the Seward Highway Avalanche Program in 1979 under his original company, Alcan Avalanche Services. Avalanche consulting work has ensued in some form since then, through David Hamre and Associates, Inc. (1985 to 1995), followed by Chugach Adventure Guides (1995 to 2008) and finally through David Hamre and Associates, LLC (DHA), (2008 to the 2025 transition to ARS).

After a year on the ski patrol, Hamre was awarded the new position of Snow Safety Director at Alta, UT, in 1972. He was then 20 years old. After 5 years at Alta, he set his sights farther north, first with a year in Canada and then a move to Alyeska Resort, Alaska, in the fall of 1977 as the Snow Safety Director. The demand for avalanche consulting work caused him to decide to leave Alyeska Resort in 1982.

In 1985, Hamre began work as an employee of the Alaska Railroad, where he was the Avalanche Program Manager. This work required a full-time, seasonal effort at first and turned into a full-time, year-round position in 1996 with the addition of more complicated and demanding infrastructure related to avalanches. At the railroad, he was engaged in the development of projects with an emphasis on avalanches, the development of technologies suitable for avalanche risk reduction, and managing an artillery-based risk reduction program. There were also ample opportunities to engage in avalanche consulting work during his entire 37 years at the railroad.

A full resume of his experience is available on request. It includes the creation of numerous avalanche risk mitigation programs, original research into slush flow avalanches, development of structural avalanche defenses, development of weather stations and avalanche detection systems, calculating avalanche risk for highways, analysis of alternatives to artillery for avalanche risk reduction, and many other tasks. He has presented papers at the International Snow Science Workshop many times and sat on the Steering Committee for the 2012 event in Alaska.

Staff

Don Sharaf

Co-owner/Senior Consultant

Avalanche Risk Solutions presents the perfect opportunity for Don to draw on his 35 years as an avalanche professional. Years of glacier mountaineering and backcountry ski guiding led to over 20 years of mechanized ski guiding and operational forecasting. Avalanche… (Read more)

Dave "Grom" Richards

Co-owner/Senior Consultant

Dave has been working in the avalanche and risk mitigation business for 25 years. He has experience working in helicopter skiing, highway mitigation, legal risk management, and as the Director of a large ski resort avalanche program at Alta Ski… (Read more)

Aleph Johnston-Bloom

Avalanche Consultant

Aleph is based in Girdwood, Alaska. Before joining David Hamre and Associates (now Avalanche Risk Solutions) in 2022, she worked locally forecasting for the powerline and for six seasons as the Lead forecaster for the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center.… (Read more)

Kiira Antenucci

Business Manager

Kiira Antenucci is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has worked as a professional mountain guide since 2019, with experience as a ski guide and backcountry avalanche forecaster across a variety of snow climates, including the intermountain ranges of… (Read more)

Beth Cleary

Avalanche Consultant

Beth graduated from Alaska Pacific University with a Bachelor of Arts in Outdoor Studies. During her time at APU her studies focused on Snow and Avalanche Science. Beth worked for Alaska Mountaineering School for 10 years. She guided over a… (Read more)

Chantel Astorga

Avalanche Consultant

Chantel has over two decades of hands-on experience in snow safety. She started at Snowbird as a Ski Patroller, where she gained a deep understanding of avalanche operations and mountain hazard management. She later spent 15 years forecasting for Idaho… (Read more)