Backcountry
Every summer 33-year-old Dorian Densmore travels from his home base in the Tetons to the Andes Mountains for another winter. A professional freeskier and Black Diamond-sponsored athlete, he’s been traveling to South America in search of powder for nine seasons since 2012 when his former mentor Mike Hamilton in Alaska (who passed away in an avalanche in April 2022) recommended that he check out the Andes and spend a season there. Every South American winter now, Densmore honors his mentor’s memory and lives frugally for three to four months at a time in a mountainous region known as El Cuyo, home to Las Leñas ski area and a limitless number of world-class backcountry ski lines. When the snow is good, which isn’t always the case, the skiing there can be primo. Last year was such a year.
Densmore’s latest film project, ‘Zonda’, was inspired by the exceptional snow year that Northern Argentina experienced in 2023—the best in 20 years, according to historical snowfall records. The name Zonda refers to El Viento Zonda, a meteorological phenomenon that results in a fast and wild wind specific to Cuyo. Following each Zonda is cold weather and heavy snowfall. The film follows Densmore as he skis in Cuyo with other professional skiers such as Argentino snowboarder, Alejo Sanchez, and Catalan skier and GoPro Line of the Winter recipient Adria Millan. Densmore has spent a lot of time in Cuyo, where he says he is enamored by the vastness of the mountain range, the rusticness of the region, and the warm-hearted culture of the people.
The film documents record-breaking snows to high-elevation adventures with terrible ice penitentes, and exploring new lines in gigantic mountains. The season was wild in Cuyo, Argentina, as documented well by Zonda, especially in the part when the film reveals Densmore and his crew’s potential first descent on Cerro Plata, a massive peak visible in the distance from Mendoza, Argentina. Yet, it isn’t the mountains themselves that keep Densmore coming back season after season, but also the sort of simple feel that the area has to it and the inviting people and laid-back culture of Argentina that make the region a special place for him. “The people in Cuyo are really cool,” Densmore said. I really respect a lot the way the people are really open, friendly, sharing—things like that are a big bonus.”
It wasn’t always fun and easy powder skiing, either. Avalanche danger as a result of intense snowfall kept him out of the mountains for days on end sometimes, and Densmore recalls a time when he witnessed two chairlifts get taken out by avalanches at Las Leñas. That, along with poor infrastructure, crazy weather, freezing nights camping in a tent, and having to juggle filming with demanding equipment such as drones made the project tricky as opposed to a standard ski trip where you ‘just go skiing’.
- Related: 2 Inbounds Avalanches Reported at Las Leñas, ARG, After Atmospheric River Drops 10 Feet of New Snow
The winter in the Andes ended up being a busy one for Densmore last year and Zonda wasn’t the only film project he worked on. He also collaborated with Black Diamond skier Mike Barney for a BD-sponsored edit where he heli-skied near Valle Nevado in Chile in August, which was also experiencing a record snow year. The footage shows him and Barney cruising down steep lines and extremely aesthetic couloirs in fresh powder, making for an entertaining and visually appealing ski edit. “It was cool to see so much snow there,” Densmore says.
Zonda and the Chile segment with Barney stand as testaments to the enduring bond between athlete and environment. Densmore’s knowledge of Cuyo and its lines is uncanny for a ‘Norteamericano’, a person from North America. His mastery of the terrain skied by him and his fellow skiers in the film is impressive, to say the least. From the adrenaline-fueled descents of untouched powder in no-fall zones to the quiet moments shared with the welcoming people of Argentina, Densmore’s journey embodies the essence of adventure and discovery. As he looks back on his time in the Andes, Densmore finds not only a sense of exhilaration and satiation on the slopes but also a sense of belonging in a place where the spirit of exploration knows no bounds. It’s safe to say that he’ll be back next year.
