Tim Villanueva, Chief Guide

Avalanche Safety Instructor, Chief Ski Guide
Tim Villanueva has been a professional mountain guide for 30 years. He has guided ski trips in Europe, South America, Canada, and all over the western United States. Tim has taken the National Avalanche School’s Level-I and Level-II courses and has completed the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Level-III course and the highly prestigious Canadian Avalanche Association Level-II course. He is also an AMGA Certified Guide, American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) qualified instructor, and a certified ski instructor of the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). Tim has a wife, Gail, and a 20-year-old daughter, Nichole. Tim is now the Bardini’s primary ski guide and avalanche course instructor.

Don Lauria, Mountain Guide

Newsletter Editor, Chief Financial Officer
Don Lauria has been guiding in the Sierra Nevada for over 52 years. His climbing experience includes significant ascents of the granite walls in Yosemite Valley and first ascents as far away as the Karakoram of northern Pakistan. Don has a BS and an MS in Engineering from UCLA and USC. He worked in aerospace from 1955 through 1971. Then he moved to El Camino College as an associate professor of Engineering and Mathematics from 1964 to1971. He owned and managed one of Los Angeles’ first and largest mountaineering stores for 15 years before immigrating to Bishop, California in 1981. He taught computer science at Bishop Union High School from 1981 to 1998 and retired from teaching to become the administrator of the Bardini Foundation.