How to Not Die in the Mountains, According to a former TGR Lead Guide

Picture this: You’re a pro skier looking to push the limits of your skiing so far past your comfort zone that you’re truly venturing into new ground. We’re talking first descents, technical summits, mystery snowpacks, and the like. Who do you call for help? A guy like IFMGA Guide Zahan “Z” Billimoria.

Lucky for us, for the second year running, Z and his team of world-class instructors are offering the Samsara Backcountry Semester—a fresh take on avalanche and mountain safety education, aimed at experienced backcountry skiers looking to take the next step in their ski career.

At $990, it might be a little pricier compared to a traditional avalanche safety course, but this is the kind of high-level one-on-one education you won’t find anywhere else, taught by the best in the business. In other words, this isn’t your typical “don’t ski avalanche terrain” kind of curriculum, it’s a detailed look at how to make decisions to stay alive in the terrain you dream of, and a deep dive into how the pros actually operate.

Billimoria’s course is born from his own experience. For nearly a decade, he had one of the coolest jobs in the world: lead guide for Teton Gravity Research in the Tetons, their home range. It was his job to look after the world’s best skiers and snowboarders while they worked their magic in front of the camera. Among many impressive days in the mountains, a highlight for him was guiding snowboarders Jeremy Jones and Bryan Iguchi on a descent of the Grand Teton’s feared Otterbody route, a detached snowfield with sickening exposure thousands of feet above the valley floor. Beyond the Tetons, he took athletes deep into the rugged wilderness of British Columbia’s Coast Range, Alaska, and Bolivia for iconic movies like Deeper, Almost Ablaze, and more.

Before that, he competed at the highest level in international skimo racing (long before it became an Olympic sport), facing off against superstars like Kilian Jornet, and even today, continues to push the limits of steep skiing and guiding in his home range. But long before any of those feats, he was just a young kid who had moved to the mountains and made the same mistakes as any novice backcountry skier. Like all of us, he had to start somewhere, and once it began, his learning process never ended.

Today, Billimoria owns Jackson-based mountain sports training outfit Samsara Experience and works as a professional backcountry and avalanche safety instructor. He still works with the pros, but has additionally focused on bringing that high level of education to mere mortals to share everything he knows about backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering with us.

Last year, I was lucky enough to take a look at what’s in the Backcountry Semester course, and I can attest that this will be a game-changing learning experience for the modern backcountry skier. In the course, there’s everything from avalanche safety and rescue, ski mountaineering ropework ninja skills, learning how to interpret weather forecasts and real-world conditions, technical and ski gear choice, medical/first aid preparedness, and countless hours dedicated to honing your in-the-field decision making skills. I’ve actually taken a few courses from Billimoria over the years, and I cannot recommend them enough. The man and his crew know their stuff.

Speaking of, that crew includes return instructors like prolific Teton guides Morgan McGlashon (the youngest woman to ski the Grand Teton), Adam Fabrikant (look this guy up if you haven’t heard his name), Billy Haas (he skis 8,000m peaks for fun), and Aaron Diamond (who is writing a ski guidebook on the Alaska Range, for one). Alone, each guide is already at the top of their game, but together, this group represents the A-team of North American big-mountain skiers and riders. As if that weren’t enough, this year Z invited pro big mountain skiers Cody Townsend and Michelle Parker to join the team to share their lessons learned in the mountains during their long-running careers.

Registration opens next week, and the course runs online with Zoom meetings and video training for 12 weeks starting September 29th. It is specifically designed to be combined with Billimoria’s Samsara Experience training/fitness programs like the Athlete Team, a private coaching program designed to get you ready for ski season, permanently. Simply put, that combo gives you the chance to learn how to not die in the mountains, and get extremely fit while doing so.

Finally, Billimoria is again offering perhaps the sickest giveaway in the industry under the Samsara Big Mountain Scholarship program. You can apply to win a full ski mountaineering kit from Blue Ice, a free pair of skis of your choice from Faction, plus a spot on both the Backcountry Semester course and on Samsara’s Athlete Team (their premier coaching program), all for free. I did the math, and that’s worth like $4500. Take that chance! You can apply here.