Sean Smollen

Sean Smollen is a life-long Colorado backcountry skier and snowmobiler, who enjoys submitting field observations and to take long walks in the mountains. He lives in Leadville and works full-time for the Colorado Outward Bound School. He graduated from the Avalanche Science program at Colorado Mountain College and is enrolled to take his AAA Pro Level 2 course in the spring. Sean is all about sharing information in the backcountry as contributing objective information to local avalanche centers will help reduce uncertainty in the forecast/ bulletin. We concur with Sean in “Share the beta!”.

Fun fact: In his free time, Sean welds chunks of steel together.

What is citizen science? Why join CSO?

To Sean, [citizen science] means inclusive public participation in the scientific process. Sean believes that more data helps reduce uncertainty and he believes in an accountable model reinforced by on-the-ground observations. He also believes that everyone deserves an opportunity to play in the mountains! Sean thinks that people should join CSO to reduce uncertainty in mountainous regions, and to boost public engagement in the snowpack. To quote Sean: “People should care about what’s under their feet!”

At last, every day Sean reminds himself that “perfection is not attainable but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”