Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center hires its first full-time employee…

Avalanche forecasting is not actually an office job.

Sure, Chris Bilbrey, the new director of the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center, will spend a lot of time in the office. On the one hand, someone has to type up the forecasts and post them online. Then there’s the scheduling, the planning and thinking about growing the center – all of that has to be done, and the job falls to Bilbrey.

But he will also be outside. The tasks include getting to know the region’s snow cover in detail. It’s not enough to pay attention to the weather.

“I believe it is critically important that we as forecasters watch, touch and taste the snow,” Bilbrey said in an interview.

Bilbrey, 44, moved to Sandpoint this summer to take the helm of IPAC, the avalanche forecasting and education company for northern Idaho and far northwest Montana.

His arrival is an important milestone. Bilbrey is the first permanent, full-time director of the center, which has long been made up mostly of part-time staff, volunteers and Forest Service employees on temporary assignments.

The U.S. Forest Service’s decision to hire a full-time director will relieve staff who had been splitting the director’s duties and allow the center to expand its forecasting offerings this winter. It also means there is someone who can begin planning for the center’s growth and the future of avalanche forecasting in the region.

“It’s just huge to have someone full-time who is able to do all the little things that we couldn’t do,” said Jeff Thompson, an avalanche forecaster who has worked at IPAC since 2016.

Gabe White, chief executive of the nonprofit Friends of IPAC, which supports the center, said Bilbrey has already updated security policies and made other decisions to improve the center’s operations.

He also said the hiring shows the Forest Service recognizes the growing interest in backcountry winter recreation in the region and growing support for the nonprofit.

“They saw our growth and wanted to keep up,” White said.

Avalanche danger is a constant concern for those who venture into the backcountry in the winter. Last year there were 27 avalanche deaths in the United States. Two of these were in northern Idaho – one near Mullan in January and one in the Pack River basin north of Sandpoint in March.

Meteorologists help backcountry users understand the risks and how they change over the winter. Kelly Lynch, chairwoman of the Spokane Mountaineers’ backcountry skiing committee, said forecasts often help skiers rule out places they would consider and provide insight that would not otherwise be available.

“The forecasters are there much more regularly than we recreational athletes are,” Lynch said. “You can see the changing snowpack.”

IPAC is one of 26 avalanche centers across the country. Its forecasts cover the Silver Valley as well as the Purcell, Cabinet and Selkirk Mountains, and the center also conducts educational programs throughout the region.

Centers in places like Colorado and Utah are much larger and have had solid full-time staff for years. Not IPAC. Instead, the company has long operated with a spartan team of temporary federal employees and part-timers funded by the nonprofit.

White said given the staffing constraints, he was always impressed that the center released forecasts just as often, usually about twice a week. Last winter, the center produced 112 forecasts over a 20-week period.

The nonprofit, which runs avalanche safety courses and partially funds forecasting operations, has seen an increase in donations and membership in recent years. Companies have signed up as sponsors. Web traffic for the forecasts has increased, as has interest in their avalanche safety classes.

Meanwhile, IPAC’s leadership was in flux. In 2016, the Forest Service hired Thompson as a part-time director. However, funds for this role quickly ran out and a restructuring had to be undertaken in order to retain him as a forecaster. For several years he and another forecaster shared director duties.