Gabe White
President

Gabe White has been supporting IPAC since 2016, elected to the Friends of IPAC Board in 2018 and currently serves as the Board President. He’s been a ski patroller at Silver Mountain Resort since 2010, is an NSP Certified L1 & L2 instructor, and currently working as the NSP Avalanche Advisor for our Inland Empire Region. He has been teaching avalanche classes in various snowpack types across the PNW since 2012. Upon completion of his Pro 1 Course in 2017, he continues to pursue Instructor education and training.

With an affection for 2-stroke exhaust, his passions include snowmobiling and dirt biking in the incredible mountains of North Idaho. Alongside his wife, Lexi, and new son, Benjamin, they can be found chasing their dog around the mountains all year long. 
Tom Eddy
Vice President

Tom left the Midwest in 1990 to attend Colorado College and start skiing 80+ days per year. Upon graduating, he began patrolling at Beaver Creek Ski Resort where he received his first formal avalanche education from the experts at the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and applied his knowledge during backcountry hut trips and teaching Avalanche Awareness classes for the community.

In 2008, Tom and his family moved to Sandpoint where he currently acts as the Snow Safety Supervisor for Schweitzer Ski Patrol, in charge of in-bounds forecasting, training, and avalanche mitigation. When approached by Gary Quinn six years ago, Tom joined the board of the Friends group which he has enjoyed watching both IPAC and avalanche education grow exponentially. Tom is closing in on nearly a half century on skis.
Mike Brede
Secretary

A Spokane native and small business owner, Mike grew up skiing our local resorts with his family and his love of exploring new terrain later led him into the Idaho backcountry.  In 2013, he co-founded the regional backcountry skiing community: PanhandleBackcountry.com, with an emphasis on recreating safely. 

Mike began volunteering with the avalanche center's Friends group around that time and more recently is assisting with instruction of the AAA avalanche courses. He brings first-hand avalanche experience to the group, having been caught and critially injured in an avalanche locally in 2016.

Mike enjoys skiing every month of the year, backpacking, hiking and cruising town on his e-bike with his son. He spends most of his free time playing outside with his wife and two-year old son.
Miles Rinne
Treasurer

Miles started working with IPAC in the winter of 2014/15 when he was awarded the Doug Abromeit scholarship to take his Avalanche Level 1 course. The following winter, Miles joined Silver Mountain Ski Patrol where he has worked ever since. During this time, Miles has taken the AST Level 2 course and the AAA Pro Level One Bridge course.

Miles has volunteered for IPAC in the field with the forecasters and at fundraising events since 2016. Miles spends most of his free time in the Silver Valley backcountry, and he is excited to continue working with IPAC as the Treasurer for the board. 
Gary Quinn
Director

Gary Quinn, living in Sandpoint ID, has been exploring the northern Selkirks for the last 35 years. He was brought here from Colorado as a wilderness educator, in which his primary responsibility was to instruct students in winter travel and lead them on multi-day backcountry trips. He began his avalanche training in the 90’s with an American Avalanche Association (AAA) Level 1. As avalanche training evolved, he enrolled in additional AAA Level 1 and Level 2 courses, and most recently (2015), a Level 2 AAIRE course.

He co-founded the Friends of Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center with the goal to increase educational opportunities and support additional avalanche forcasting.  Gary now sees sharing his passions of education and winter travel by instructing the field days on AAA Level 1.
Larry Banks
Director

Larry Banks is an accomplished splitboard mountaineer with 25yrs of backcountry experience and co-founded PanhandleBackcountry.com. Larry has written several articles promoting splitboarding as well as equipment reviews for several outdoor pursuit publications. 

Through the last 10yrs, Larry has pursued his passion of avalanche knowledge by completing certifications of Avalanche Level I, II, Avalanche Rescue and currently studying for his Pro II course. He is a standing Affiliate Member of American Avalanche Center after undergoing review from A3 Governing Board. 

Larry has been presenting Avalanche Clinics for the last 6 years then became a IPAC Level I Avalanche Instructor in the winter 2018 and a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of IPAC in April 2019.  You can follow his exploits on Instagram @Powderpanda.
Sean Mirus
Director

Sean Mirus is a life-long skier, starting as the child of an Army officer stationed in Europe.  The unique opportunity of growing up skiing and exploring the mountains of southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland forged a strong bond to the mountains.  His father was the first person to get him into skiing and then ski patrolling while in high school.  

Fast forward to 2006… After a stint as a collegiate ski racer, coach and program director in New Mexico, Sean ended up in Sandpoint after a road trip and never left.  Working as a tech in the rental shop at Schweitzer, he met a few guys - Gary Quinn and Scott Rulander and they started showing him around the Schweitzer backcountry – Sean has been a backcountry enthusiast ever since.

Currently, Sean is the Marketing & Events Director at Schweitzer and tries to spend as much time as he can outdoors with his wife Kelly and dog Gunner.