Our Guides

ANDREA BINNING
Andrea has done it all.  She grew up skiing in Australia, moved to Chamonix in France and became the World Extreme Skiing Champion shortly after.  She currently makes her living skiing for photographers and film makers all over the world.  Andrea is one of the true champions of the sport and has bounced back from numerous major injuries and avalanches to be as inspired to ski now as she was when she first strapped them on at Mt Baw Baw years ago.  Andrea is a bundle of happy energy that is a buzz to be around.

STIAN HAGEN
Stian is one of the worlds best big mountain skiers.  His smooth flowing style has made him one of the stars of modern day ski movies.  Stian was born in Norway, became a cross country champion, got into ski jumping and then moved to Chamonix where he found his true passion of ski mountaineering.  Stian is a qualified UIAGM mountain guide who has climbed and skied peaks all over the world. While an awesome skier and guide Stian really shines at the après session where he will tell you stories, make you laugh and then show you how to dance. This is probably why Andrea married him.

KIP GARRE
Kip is a senior guide with Points North Heli Ski in Alaska.  In 2006 Kip spent the winter training the Gulmarg Ski Patrol in avalanche awareness, control and rescue.  Kip is a Squaw Valley local who started off ski racing but now prefers climbing and skiing big mountains than bashing gates.  He is currently on a mission to climb and ski some of the worlds 8000 meter peaks.  Kip is an energetic guy who loves good skiing, good people and good times.

DAVID MARCHI
When Dave isn’t heli guiding in Alaska or backcountry guiding at home in California he is most likely guiding people somewhere else on the planet. He has lead ski trips all over the world including Mt Denali, Antarctica, the Himalaya and New Guinea.  Dave somehow found time to spend the winter of 2006 in Gulmarg passing on some of his knowledge to the local ski patrol team.  Before life as a guide Dave was a race coach for the U.S. Para Olympic team.  Dave has just become the proud father of Talus, who will probably guide for the family business www.globallines.com     

BILL BARKER
Bill is the assistant director of Ski Patrol at Mount Hotham where he has spent the past 23 winters. During the upper Gulmarg gondolas first winter of operation Bill was employed by the Jammu and Kashmir government along with 5 other foreigners to train the local ski patrol team and carry out avalanche control on the mountain. He spent 4 months living in Gulmarg becoming great friends with the people and getting to know the mountain intimately. While on holiday in Gulmarg the following winter Bill led a search party of soldiers and local guides into the surrounding mountains and located 3 exhausted snowboarders who had been missing for 4 days.

Bill likes to think of himself as a professional ski bum. He went to Mount Hotham in 1987 for a 1 week holiday, scored a job washing dishes and never left. He worked all the usual ski bum jobs and skied for sponsors before joining the ski patrol in 1992. Bill now overseas daily resort operations, patroller training and coordinates search and rescue procedures. Bill has achieved high results in first aid, avalanche and cliff rescue certification. He has spent many winters in Canada, Europe and Japan preferring places that are not yet discovered by the masses. While he loves to ski the resort his main passion is searching for good snow in the backcountry. He has spent many nights in snow caves, tents and mountain huts in remote locations all over the world.

When he is not in the mountains he spends his time rock climbing at Mount Arapiles or surfing at home in Ulladulla.