Photo by Ben Girardi – SASS Global Travel

Words provided by Pete Connolly – SASS Global Travel

Michelle Parker doesn’t spend her summers bouncing around the glacier camp scene, or lounging on the shores of her home in Lake Tahoe, CA. Instead, Argentina calls her back to South America year after year.

Parker has spent the past nine years as a big-mountain ski coach at SASS Argentina. Rather than getting a week here, or a week there throughout the Southern Hemisphere, Parker travels to Bariloche, Argentina in July to set up shop through August at the base of Cerro Catedral in the SASS lodge. Throughout the summer months, Parker focuses on sharing her passion for skiing with fellow skiers looking to take their skiing to the next level in the heart of the Patagonian Andes.

“I love Argentina because of the mountains. That’s why I come here. To ski, to be with SASS and the friends I have made here,” says Parker. “It’s cool to have that sense of community here in a different country, in a different hemisphere.”

“The mountain here is really unique even to other places in the Andes. Hardwood trees grow pretty far apart making the perfect spaces, and then you have a lot of featured terrain, couloirs and chutes through huge granite spires,” explains Parker. The access to the backcountry and the diversity of terrain make it a perfect playground for her and the skiers she works with, looking to push their limits.

Parker works at SASS alongside other pro skiers Garrett Russell, Piers Solomon and Argentinian local Mauri Cambilla. The group takes different crews of skiers into the Andes, sharing their intimate knowledge of the terrain developed over years of shredding in these mountains with like-minded travelers. “I get to work with such an amazing cast of characters all under the guidance of [head guide] Skylar Holgate. From him I have learned to always have humility and to always learn from the mountains and the people you surround yourself with.”

This year, with help from anon optics, Mountain Hardwear and FREESKIER magazine, Parker captured her unique experience through a three-part web series titled Argentina Calling, which is slated to launch exclusively on freeskier.com this fall. Each episode of the series will focus around a different aspect of Parker’s time in the Andes and what makes Argentina so special to Parker and her skiing. Videographer Spencer Cordovano followed Michelle P throughout her days in Barlioche to tell her unique story.

Many skiers may head to the Southern Hemisphere to experience some winter in the middle of their summer, but few do it as well as Michelle Parker through her role at SASS Argentina. Instead of the hedonistic pilgrimage, Parker takes it to the next level by pushing her daily crew of clients as well as herself while sharing an unrivaled love of skiing, the winter season and Argentina.

Be sure to tune back into freeskier.com for the first episode of Argentina Calling in the coming weeks.

If you want to ski with Michelle Parker next summer, head over to sassglobaltravel.com or click here.

Related: South America’s winter rocks on in SASS’ SUMMERized series