The creation of Skylar and SGT:
It was the Southern hemisphere winter of 2003, I was in the valley of Las Lenas with good friend and fellow guide Mike Barney meeting up with my sister that had already been shredding there for a few weeks and was crammed into a little apartment full of Jackson Hole rippers for the season. Our plan, to spend the winter slaying all the Dragons that lurked right out our front door. We started what I thought was just a shred vacation. Little did I know it was going to turn into a now 10 year Adventure.
About half way through the season I was out on a solo mission climbing a near by peak Cerro Martin at the top of the famous Marte chair to ski the Banana Couliour. Once I hit the apron I noticed a snowcat way off piste below me shaping up a massive cheese wedge. So I waited at the top of the in-run in hopes of getting to hit the jump. Once I heard the guy that looked like he was in charge speak English I moved down to the jump to see what he was doing.
John Wilbur was his name, and he proceeded to tell me he had plans to start up a freestyle camp for snowboarders called South American Snowboard Sessions or SASS. I told him that I was a guide at Silverton Mountain in Colorado and that we should team up and make it a Big Mountain backcountry freestyle camp. For the rest of the season we shot some photos and made up a brochure. During that next Northern Hemisphere winter we started to spread the word and rope in campers.
The next year down in Argentina we had five campers, funny enough, all skiers. We then changed the name of the camp to South America Snow Sessions. Being a bunch of snowboarders with our five skiers, we brought in a long time friend and killer skier Garrett Russell to help coach the campers. John would organize all the logistics, Garrett was coaching, and I was doing all the snow safety/guiding. The campers had the time of their lives as we developed the program day by day by the seat of our pants.
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Photo: Adam Clark in the Northern Chugach, AK
As the word spread like wild fire in the US, more and more campers started to show up each summer, Then on year three this Super blonde dude with the most energy I had ever seen in a human (blood type: RedBull) showed up with a bunch of shredders that he coached back in the States. This man was Travis Moore who took this little camp and turned it into the international adventure travel company we now know as SASS Global Travel or SGT. Every season after that the staff (family) grew a bit bigger as the camper numbers kept growing. Some were past campers, others industry Pros.
I have been in straight winter for a decade now between North and South America, and when people ask me if I ever get tired of the snow and cold? I just smile back and say “I get to go out and play in the snow with my best friends everyday and get paid to show/teach new people the beauty of mountains” That to me is what life is all about!
- Tags:
- Argentina,
- Cerro Catedral,
- Levitation Project,
- SGT,
- Skylar Holgate,
- Snow