DICK PENNIMAN

He is the nation's foremost expert on ski safety and avalanches and an outdoorsman with a world-class scope of adventures. Penniman has taught more than 3,500 ski patrol officers and others about avalanche safety and has never had a person injured by an avalanche among the tens of thousands who have enjoyed downhill winter sports on his watch.

As an instructor, he has taught for 30 years at Sierra Community College, the National Avalanche School, Outward Bound and elsewhere, and provided free lectures at REI stores in Northern California. As an expert in ski patrol, Penniman has worked for Sugar Bowl and Alpine Meadows, and has been hired as a consultant across the United States and Canada and in Chile, Argentina and Australia.

His adventures also have spanned the globe. Penniman sailed six months from San Francisco to Jamaica, trekked over 360 miles in Nepal to Everest Base Camp at over 20,000 feet, and twice kayaked the length of the Grand Canyon. He has completed the Markleeville Death Ride on a bicycle nine times and has raced in the Great Ski Race seven times.