Grant Statham is an alpinist, mountain guide, avalanche forecaster and search and rescue professional based in the Canadian Rockies. For 33 years Grant has been trying to avoid avalanches while pioneering waterfall and alpine routes at home and on dozens expeditions around the world. His professional experience includes designing, operating and managing avalanche risk programs at ski areas, transportation corridors, search and rescue programs, public warning services and backcountry guiding. As a first-responder with the Banff National Park Visitor Safety team, Grant is routinely a first-hand witness to mountain tragedy and its subsequent impacts on families and rescuers. 

In 2003, Grant was hired by Parks Canada to design and implement broad changes to Canada’s public avalanche safety systems. Grant’s subsequent study of risk changed an industry and produced systems and methods that have been implemented around the world. Grant is the principal author of the Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES) and the Conceptual Model of Avalanche Hazard, as well as an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Avalanche Risk Management Program. He has been recognized with a number of awards for innovative and collaborative work, including Canada’s 2005 Public Service Award of Excellence and Avalanche Canada’s inaugural 2014 Service Award for “exceptional contributions to public avalanche safety in Canada”. Grant is regularly sought as a speaker on the topic of mountains and risk.