People of Opensnow

Joel Gratz

Founder, CEO & Meteorologist

joel@opensnow.com | @gratzo

Joel really (really) likes three things: Weather, snow, and skiing. After a childhood full of ski racing and teaching at Shawnee Mt in Pennsylvania, Penn State was the place to continue ski racing and study meteorology. Following his graduation at the top of his class in 2003, Joel moved to Boulder, CO to continue with college part II. While earning an MS in Environmental Studies and an MBA, it became readily apparent that forecasting snow in the mountains of Colorado is difficult. Because of this, Joel missed a few incredible powder days, and vowed to never let that happen again.

In his spare time, Joel started Colorado Powder Forecast as an email list in 2007, and found that the few years of grad school spent studying mountain weather patterns started to pay off in accuracy (and more importantly, missing fewer powder days). In 2009, Colorado Powder Forecast the website was born, and Joel become known as the go-to source for snow forecasts. In 2010, Joel left his full-time employer to live the dream of forecasting weather and skiing powder. And after a fortuitous meeting with another skiing meteorologist, Joel and Andrew Murray worked hard to bring Opensnow.com to life.

In addition to skiing, Joel hikes, bikes, climbs, storm chases, and does just about anything else outdoors. Because of this, he helped to create Chance of Weather to provide forecasts for non-snow sports.

Boulder, CO is his home base now and forever. The weather is great, the people are supportive, and it’s the best place in the world to start a business.

Andrew Murray

Co-Founder, CTO & Meteorologist

andrew@opensnow.com | @asketchyfish

Hailing from the fine state of Colorado, Andrew is the brains behind the code and design of the site. He is a life-long skier, meteorologist and an expert in web design, development, and working with weather data. While studying meteorology and computer science at the University of Utah, he also built the popular site Utah Ski Weather.

After graduation, Andrew spent time working at NOAA’s National Weather Service as the Geospatial and Mobile Program Manager for Western Region Headquarters. There he was part of the team that developed and built Interactive NWS, a mobile alerting system for emergency managers. Due to this work, he was the recipient of the NOAA Administrator’s Award, a prestigious honor within the Department of Commerce.

After leaving NOAA, Andrew continued his work as a web developer in the atmospheric sciences field at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. After working about a year, he decided to follow his true passions for mountain meteorology and left to work full time with Joel on both Chance of Weather and OpenSnow.

When not programming or staring at clouds, Andrew skis, bikes, hikes, and likes to travel to far-away lands and sleep on couches (with the owner’s permission, of course).

As CTO, Andrew’s main job is to feed the penguins that run the servers, take awesome photos and videos while skiing the slopes, and occasionally go buy the six-packs.

Bryan Allegretto

Partner, Tahoe Snow Forecaster

bryan@opensnow.com

Bryan Allegretto has made a name for himself as the go to guy for long-range snowfall predictions for the Lake Tahoe ski region.

Bryan grew up on the Jersey Shore and his obsession with big coastal storms goes back as far as he can remember. At a young age he would assist his father, who was in charge of making sure the major highways stayed clear of snow, in tracking down snow storms.

Bryan honed in on his amateur forecasting skills to plan ski vacations full of powder into his highschool years. As soon as he had a license to drive Bryan was tracking down big Nor-Easters and purposely trying to get himself stuck in the middle of the deepest powder dumps the Northeast had to offer.

Bryan studied meteorology at Kean University and not long after graduating decided he needed to fulfill his snow obsession and move to the where some of the biggest snows fall in the country, Lake Tahoe. Over the past 7 seasons he has used his storm tracking skills to track down the powder dumps for the Lake Tahoe region. His forecasting accuracy has gained him a spot as one of the regions best forecasters.

Kyle Dodd

Mid-Atlantic Meteorologist

kyle@opensnow.com

Kyle is a diehard skier and a weatherman at his core. The love for skiing comes from the annual family trip to Canaan Valley, WV where he grew to love the sport and push himself further each winter when he and the family headed west to ski. By the time he hit middle school the annual trip had transformed into a passion and in high school he founded the Langley Ski Club in order to share his love for the sport with others. Likewise, he was considered the class meteorologist as early as 3rd grade due to the fact that he asked his dad (Penn State Meteorology ’79) for the daily forecast and always seemed to know what was going on with the weather.

Combining his two passions, Kyle decided to major in Meteorology at Penn State and join the Ski Team as well. After graduating college in 2010, Kyle has spent his time working on major energy and environmental pursuits as a Business Development analyst for a defense contractor in the DC area.

Growing up in the DC area and attending PSU, Kyle has learned the intricacies of predicting the impact of major storms on the local mountains of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Teaming up with OpenSnow in 2011, Kyle is leveraging his knowledge of the local terrain, love for forecasting and passion for skiing to provide high quality forecasts for local skiers.

Brian Clark

Northeast Meteorlogist

brian@opensnow.com

Brian grew up in a small town just north of State College, PA. Not exactly a skiing mecca, but he made the best of what he had around him nonetheless. He learned how to ski just after his 4th birthday and then spent the next 19 years tearing up every inch of the 500 vertical feet at Tussey Mountain, PA before moving northward. Brian started teaching skiing in the winter of 1998-1999 at 15 years old, and is now level 3 certified with Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). Between all the years spent skiing and teaching, the sport has become nothing short of a lifelong passion.

Meteorology is another passion of Brian’s. He grew up constantly exposed to the science through his father, who has been a meteorologist and forecaster for AccuWeather, Inc. since the 70’s. Being a skier only heightened this interest in the weather, and when enrolling at Penn State in the fall of 2002, the choice of major was an easy one.

Upon graduating from Penn State in the spring of 2007, Brian immediately began a tenure working on Mount Washington, NH for the Mount Washington Observatory, a once in a lifetime experience that would last more than 5 years. Living and working on the tallest mountain in the Northeast also allowed Brian to explore the best, most gnarly, and only (truly) above treeline backcountry skiing in the East. Another benefit of working for the Observatory was getting to live in the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire, an area as rich in great ski resorts and terrain as it is in ski history.

After leaving the Observatory in October of 2012 to pursue other ventures, Brian is now living the ski bum life in the Mount Washington Valley. He works at one of the best ski shops in New England, Stan and Dan Sports in North Conway and teaches at Attitash Mountain Resort. When he’s not at either of those jobs, he can be found skiing at one of the other great local mountains, or ripping up the backcountry terrain in the White Mountains. To pass time between ski seasons Brian enjoys hiking, kayaking, soccer, golf, and ice hockey.

Evan Thayer

Utah Snow Forecaster

evan@opensnow.com

It wasn’t long after learning to walk that Evan was learning to ski. Skiing fresh snow became a passion for him even as a child – and growing up in Tahoe allowed for plenty of powder days. Obsessively checking weather maps and reading meteorological journals eventually led him to making his own snowfall predictions.

In college, Evan honed his snow forecasting skills while studying at Colorado State University and skiing the Rockies. Many holidays, however, were spent travelling to Utah to ski the Wasatch where Evan found the combination of quality and quantity of snow unmatched.

Evan and his wife moved to Utah soon after completing school and they have lived there ever since. He has continued his dream of forecasting snow and skiing big mountains. To Evan, “The Greatest Snow on Earth,” is more than just a motto -- it’s a way of life. In 2010, he started Wasatch Snow Forecast as a way to share the best powder days with his fellow snow-lovers. Evan brings the same quality forecasts and weather discussions to OpenSnow.com and hopes you enjoy skiing/riding Utah as much as he does.

Jason Kornfeld

Student Intern

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest there was no shortage of snow. Jason was born in Seattle, but grew up playing hockey and skiing in B.C., mainly Whistler and Vancouver. He will graduate from CU-Boulder in May with a degree in journalism and plans on attending law school next fall. When school is not absolutely imperative he can be found searching for his next powder fix, playing hockey, or anything that involves being outdoors.