Most of us don’t have jobs where the most critical part of what we do happens thousands of feet high in rugged mountains during severe snow storms, often at night, requiring the use of high explosives. Welcome to the job of a WSDOT avalanche technician.
Three years ago, a Vail Colorado ski patrolman and river guide visited the “avalanche.org” website checking for avalanche forecasting jobs and responded to a posting for a seasonal position posted by the WSDOT North Central Region in Wenatchee.
Brandon Levy was the successful applicant and rejoined the team in September. He’ll be with us “until we’re done reopening the North Cascades Highway, next spring”, he says. This year, that didn’t happen until late May. “I usually go back to Colorado and spend the summer as a river guide”, says Levy, “but this year, since I got married in June, I’m going to find something closer since my wife (Jaime) will be in school, finishing her master’s degree in the Seattle area.”
“I like the seasonality of the job. It provides the opportunity travel every spring and fall.” Levy’s travels have sometimes stretched beyond vacations. A trip to France turned into a full time ski patrol job there.
Levy is an only child who grew up in Vail playing soccer and hockey. His traveling tendencies took him to college in Maine where he obtained degrees in Geology and English. “There’s a lot of commonality between rocks and snow such as stratigraphy (layering),” says Levy. His geology training brought a background in GIS and mapping that has been a welcome addition to the region avalanche team.
“I like what I do and the people I work with are great. I love the outdoors (his hobbies include whitewater kayaking and mountain biking) and there’s something different on the agenda here, every day. There’s the actual avalanche control, but other days we’re fixing a remote weather station, building a trail to an avalanche starting zone, sighting in one of the M-60 tanks (used on Stevens Pass), creating new GIS avalanche zone maps or teaching an avalanche beacon training safety class to a new group of State Patrol troopers.” Would he answer that ad again? “Absolutely!”
The WSDOT avalanche control teams are critical to providing safe passage through Washington’s Cascade Mountain passes every winter. Visit the WSDOT Avalanche Control website for more information: www.wsdot.wa.gov/maintenance/avalanche/
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