Portillo, Chile

A trip of a lifetime. That is true. I got the call from CARV about 2 weeks prior that they wanted to do a film/marketing shoot down in Portillo, Chile. I told them my bags were packed 3 weeks prior. They were not actually packed. I jumped at the chance. It was a great trip.

I was lucky to work with Brenna Kelleher, my teammate, and bada$$, from the prior team. Unfortunately, she was not successful at the 2024-2028 team selection. I believe that once a teammate, always a teammate. She excelled on the trip and I could not have done it without her. She had taken clients down to Portillo and had some experience in recent years being down there.

Brenna and I were the talent. Mark was the videographer and Alex was the cameraman. They are very talented. Alex captured some interesting photographs that were unbelievable. Mark’s bag never showed up. It was stuck in Madrid forever.

Ski Portillo is a like a “cruise ship” in the sky. It isn’t the biggest ski resort in the world, but it has some amazing terrain. I love it. The first time I was there was in 2011 when Doug Daniels, an Eastern Education Staff Member, organized a trip. It was great. I got to ski with all the folks who were going to tryout for the 2012 team from the east. It was an incredible experience.

Portillo is where my coach, Michael Rogan, is the Operations Director in the summer/their winter. He is an incredible human being. He works hard down there and knows what is going one. I brought down six pounds of Peanut M&Ms which are his favorite.

We had some great weather. We even considered going heli-skiing one day. I was so psyched to do it, but weather was coming in later in the week. We decided to shoot while the weather was good and see what the next day would bring. I appreciated Alex’s intensity. He got right off the plane and was ready to go to work. This shot that I got that accompanied this blog post I had to hike about 150 feet uphill to get. I love working for the camera. It is hard and a skill I am trying to improve.

Portillo was magical. If you get a chance to go. Say yes. Always say yes!