Currently Co-Director of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center, Inc. Jill Fredston is one of North America's leading avalanche specialists, as well as being an accomplished rower and explorer. Her book Rowing to Latitude Journey along the Arctic's Edge won the 2002 National Outdoor Book Award for Literature. Her most recent book Snowstruck In the Grip of Avalanches was published in November 2005. Her talk entitled A View from Water Level will discuss what makes a place wild as well as the shifting baselines of wilderness and touch on her most recent work studying polar bears, shrinking habitats, adaptation of species and reconciling science and policy.