Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Early Avalanche Days - Dale Gallagher




Dale Gallagher was a pioneer and prominent US Forest Snow Ranger in the early days of ski area development. Dale Atkins shared this photo of Dale G taken February 5, 1961 by a Denver Post photographer. The image shows Dale G teaching an avalanche course at A-Basin. I had the pleasure of meeting Dale G a few times back in the late 80's shortly before he passed away. He was a wonderfully kind gentleman and spoke glowingly of his times at A-Basin in the 60's. His stories of early avalanche work were particularly fascinating. Much of the basic knowledge and understanding of avalanche mitigation was learned (often the hard way) by folks like him. We owe Dale Gallagher and his peers from that era so much.