PowderQuest’s Backcountry Ski Guides
PowderQuest is proud to have an outstanding team of fully certified backcountry ski guides in Japan, South America, Canada and Norway leading our Backcountry ski tours. Our ski guide family expands into a team of certified snowboard and ski instructors and coaches leading our popular Snowboard and Ski Safaris ski resort guided trips.
Professionalism, personality, experience, and safety have set our snowboard and ski guides apart since we started skiing South America in 1998.
PowderQuest’s Lead Backcountry Ski Guides
Lead guides are certified by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association IFMGA or the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides ACMG. All of our lead backcountry ski guides have extensive wilderness first aid training.
Assistant Ski Guides
Our tail guides assist our lead guides in the backcountry and are required to hold a minimum certification of Canadian Avalanche Association Operations Level 1, or similar certification from associations in other select countries. Wilderness first aid training is also required.
What makes a trip like this so successful is the ability of the guides to relate to the members of the group and remain flexible. PowderQuest was flawless.
David Owen
PowderQuest Founder
David first stepped into a pair of rear entry ski boots at the age of 5. As he grew, so did his passion for snow and travel, taking him on his own global PowderQuest after university; exploring Colorado, Wyoming, Canada, Alaska, Chile and Argentina. Before he knew it, he had also explored 15 Latin American countries, becoming fluent in Spanish. In 1998 upon discovering the adventure Mecca of Pucon, Chile, PowderQuest was born after discovering backcountry snowboarding in the beautiful southern Andes.
- Canadian Avalanche Association Level 1
- Wilderness First Responder
Mo Rasiah
ACMG Ski Guide
Mo grew up skiing the small Australian resort of Thredbo. Falling in love with skiing during university, the mountains brought him to Whistler, British Colombia where he discovered the bliss of powder skiing. Teaching skiing, avalanche courses, and guiding to pay for his travels, he has ski toured around the Japan backcountry, Australia, Canada, Alaska, Europe, Chile and Argentina. He has gone over 15 years without a summer and has been working with PowderQuest ski guiding since 2006.
- Ski Guide: Association of Canadian Mountain Guides
- Canadian Avalanche Association Level 3
- Canadian Ski Guides Association Level 3
- Fully Certified Ski Instructor: APSI Level 3
- Advanced Wilderness First Aid
Maxi Artoni
IFMGA Guide
Maxi was born and raised in San Martin de los Andes, Argentina where he began skiing at the young age of four at the local ski hill, Chapelco Ski Resort. As a teenager he started doing more mountaineering and skiing in the backcountry of his epic backyard playground; beautiful North Patagonia. From 2004-2017 he spent winters in Whistler Ski Resort in Canada where he worked as a ski instructor. Maxi joined the PowderQuest team in 2009 as an assistant ski guide and is now leading many of our guided trips in Chile, Argentina and Japan.
- IFMGA UIAGM Certified Guide
- Ski Guide: Argentine Mountain Guide Association
- Canadian Avalanche Association Level 2
- AADIDES Certified Ski Instructor Level 2
- Wilderness First Responder
Joey Vosburgh
ACMG Splitboard Guide
PowderQuest welcomed Joey Vosburgh to the guides team in 2024. Raised in Calgary, Alberta, living in Revelstoke, British Columbia, Joey is considered a pioneer to splitboarding in Canada. One of the first Association of Canadian Mountain Guides on a snowboard, Joey enjoys guiding skiers and snowboarders around his home mountain range, The Selkirks. During the summer months, Joey spends his time climbing, but this summer we are stealing him away from the Selkirks to guide trips around the snow covered Andes of South America.
- Ski Guide: Association of Canadian Mountain Guides
- Advanced Wilderness First Aid
Alex Geary
IFMGA Guide
Originally from Australia, Alex Geary is an ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide based in Revelstoke, BC. Guiding ski touring mostly in British Columbia, Canada, Alex loves visiting and exploring new destinations. His ski guiding career started in 2006 at Ski Arpa in Central Chile and has extended to New Zealand, Europe, Australia and even exotic destinations such as Nepal. When not ski guiding Alex spends time with family or playing in the local mountains for fun with friends.
- IFMGA Mountain Guide
- Ski Guide: Association of Canadian Mountain Guides
- Canadian Avalanche Association Level 2
- ISIA Ski Instructor
- Advanced Wilderness First Aid
andre ike
ifmga guide
- IFMGA Mountain Guide
- ACMG
- CAA Level 3
- WCB Advanced First Aid
Peter Treichel
Resort Ski Guide
Peter, born in San Martín de los Andes, Argentina, began skiing at two years old at Chapelco, taught by his father, a local ski instructor. He grew up racing slalom and exploring Patagonia’s backcountry, earning his ski instructor certification at 17. In 2017, Peter began guiding PowderQuest’s All Mountain Tours and won the Argentine Ski Mountaineering Championship in 2018. He went international in 2022, representing Argentina in the prestigious Patrouille des Glaciers in Switzerland. In Patagonia’s summers, he runs his own fly fishing guide service, Fish Patagonia.
- AADIDES Certified Ski Instructor Level 3
- AIARE Avalanche Association Level 1
- Advanced Wilderness First Aid