Kerry Hanes

Kerry is a retired Air Force pilot, ski guide and avalanche instructor with over 25-year’s experience in adult education and expedition planning. He has a passion for ski traverses and ski mountaineering racing. He coached a son who raced for the US Ski Mountaineering Team at World Championships 2017 and 2019 in Europe. Kerry has raced the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse three times. He still dabbles in racing…He’s registered for the Patrouille de Glaciers race from Zermatt to Verbier, Switzerland in April 2020 and the Winter World Master Games in Innsbruck, January 2020. Kerry enjoys helping his clients identify gear matched to their backcountry skiing objectives—whether it’s big mountain, ski touring, speed touring, or skimo racing. He enjoys teaching clients how to get the most efficiency from their ski touring gear in a variety of terrain. He’s been the lead ski tech for the US Skimo Team at two World Championships and is the team gear manager for the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. He’s skied five volcanos in the Andes, the side country around Portillo, Chile, the Haute Route traverse in Europe, the Bow-Yoho traverse along the Canadian Continental Divide, and tours in the Formazza and Dolomite regions of Italy and in western Switzerland. Kerry has been an AIARE Avalanche Instructor since 2014. He’s a mountain rescue team leader with Albuquerque Mountain Rescue. His home resort is Taos Ski Valley, NM.

• AIARE:
  • AIARE Level 1 Instructor
  • AIARE Pro Level 1
• Wilderness First Responder
• Wilderness First Aid
• CPR
• Top-Down Avalanche Safety for Mechanized Guides with Dean Cummings