European Avalanche School : About Us

About Us & The EAS Team

In 1990 the British Mountaineer Guides Associaton liased with the Canadian Avalanche Association with a view to developing avalanche awareness training for Mountain Guides.

Our avalanche programmes have developed and their reputation has spread. The avalanche course has been available to professional and committed skiers for a number of years and has become an integral part to professional organisations throughout Europe.

History

In 1990, The BMG Avalanche Group was formed. This group recognised that the Canadian Avalanche Association had the most relevant sytem for Avalanche study. We invited Phil Hein, an avalanche expert in the CAA, to help us develop a system which suited our needs. In January 1993 Phil Hein was invited over to Europe.

In Chamonix, the BMG Avalanche Group along with Phil Hein used the Canadian Avalanche Associations methods and system as a model to develop a new programme which was adapted to the European Alpine environment and which considered the needs of British Mountain Guides.

The European Avalanche School has been created from this foundation and is now running a programme of avalanche awareness courses in Sweden, Finland, France and Scotland.

The EAS Team

The Directors of the European Avalanche School are all UIAGM Guides and between them have over 50 years of Guiding experience in many mountain regions of the world.

Steve Jones	Catriona Reid
Steve lives in Switzerland. It is difficult to find a slope in the Alps that he hasn't skied. This gives him an outstanding practical foundation for teaching of snowcraft and route choice. He has also worked in Canada, Peru and the Tein Shan. He is particularly interested in avalanche rescue and the recording of avalanche events and is involved in the development of European avalanche education since 1990 when the first course began.	Catriona is an alpine and telemark skier with many years of back country skiing from the wild Scottish Highlands to the European Alps to the vast Canadian Rockies. From coastal to mountainous areas, she's an outdoor enthusiast. Catriona's role is to answer your queries and to ensure that the organisation runs smoothly.
Mark Diggins	Bob Barton
Mark is both an alpine and telemark skier and works skiing and climbing all over the world. He is a graduate in Environmental Science and Director of High Exposure, a company providing adventure film support. He has a great interest in the practical problems of route choice and decision making in avalanche terrain. In co-operation with Phil Hein of the Canadian Avalanche Association and with the British Mountain Guides Association he spearheaded the movement towards the establishment of an avalanche education in the European Alps. He lives in the Scottish Highlands.	Bob is a Cambridge science graduate fascinated by the challenge of trying to out-guess nature. He has skied through the Alps, in Alaska, Greenland and Svalbard, done several Himalayan first ascents and is co-author of the definitive book of Scottish avalanche - "A Chance in a Million?". He was trained by Andre Roch, one of the Swiss pioneers of avalanche education. He lives in the Scottish Highlands.

European Avalanche School

Avalanche training and courses

About Us & The EAS Team

History

The EAS Team

Steve lives in Switzerland. It is difficult to find a slope in the Alps that he hasn't skied. This gives him an outstanding practical foundation for teaching of snowcraft and route choice. He has also worked in Canada, Peru and the Tein Shan.

He is particularly interested in avalanche rescue and the recording of avalanche events and is involved in the development of European avalanche education since 1990 when the first course began.

Catriona is an alpine and telemark skier with many years of back country skiing from the wild Scottish Highlands to the European Alps to the vast Canadian Rockies. From coastal to mountainous areas, she's an outdoor enthusiast.

Catriona's role is to answer your queries and to ensure that the organisation runs smoothly.

Mark is both an alpine and telemark skier and works skiing and climbing all over the world. He is a graduate in Environmental Science and Director of High Exposure, a company providing adventure film support.

He has a great interest in the practical problems of route choice and decision making in avalanche terrain.

In co-operation with Phil Hein of the Canadian Avalanche Association and with the British Mountain Guides Association he spearheaded the movement towards the establishment of an avalanche education in the European Alps. He lives in the Scottish Highlands.

Bob is a Cambridge science graduate fascinated by the challenge of trying to out-guess nature. He has skied through the Alps, in Alaska, Greenland and Svalbard, done several Himalayan first ascents and is co-author of the definitive book of Scottish avalanche - "A Chance in a Million?".

He was trained by Andre Roch, one of the Swiss pioneers of avalanche education. He lives in the Scottish Highlands.