GUIDES
Aaron Brill serves as Operator and Head Guide for Silverton Mountain Guides (SMG). Aaron has a comprehensive background in heli skiing with decades of combined experience in various roles such as Head Guide, Head Avalanche Forecaster, Licensed Avalanche Blasting Technician, Avalanche Educator, Heli Avalanche Bombardier, and Commercial Heli Pilot. Brill is well-known for his contributions to the ski industry, including building Silverton Mountain Ski Area from scratch, Colorado's sixth largest ski area. Aaron's passion for skiing and snowboarding is unparalleled, leading to building the largest heli skiing operation in the U.S. Aaron is recognized for developing a revolutionary and comprehensive snow safety plan at Silverton Mountain to manage extreme avalanche hazards of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.
Brill possesses extensive technical and business experience and has created specialized safety protocols and guide training techniques unique and proprietary to SMG. Aaron enjoys the toughest guide assignments and has worked for renowned entities such as Warren Miller, Teton Gravity Research, Matchstick Productions, CBS 60 Minutes, NBC Sports, Fox, ABC, Discovery Channel, and large-scale athlete events like the Red Bull Coldrush. With his intimate knowledge of a vast amount of terrain across North America, Brill is known as one of the most experienced heli guides, particularly in terms of logistics when working in new terrain.
GUIDES
SMG prioritizes professionalism to ensure the safety of its guests. Unlike other heli ski operations in Alaska, SMG provides two professional guides with each group as standard. This 2:4 ratio allows for a personalized experience with better visual and verbal contact. It also allows for a thorough assessment of snow, avalanche, and helicopter safety for each group. This additional safety measure is similar to having a co-pilot on an airplane.
The presence of two guides opens up more run choices and enhances the overall pace of the day. With two guides assisting in loading and unloading the ski basket and monitoring the front and back of the group, the day runs more efficiently. This not only improves safety but also increases the number of runs guests can enjoy.
If only one guide is present and it becomes difficult to maintain visual or verbal contact, guests are faced with the choice of riding shorter pitches with frequent stops or compromising safety.
SMG's highly experienced lead guides also have extensive experience as licensed avalanche blaster technicians in addition to their heli skiing responsibilities. They have diverse experience in various snow climates, including many leading guiding in South America and on Denali. They are dedicated to their profession and engage in snow-related work throughout the winter, providing reassurance to guests that they are not part-time guides.