Guides
Aaron Brill, Operator and Head Guide
With more than 30,000 hours of combined guiding/snow safety/piloting and more than 1,000 first descents, Aaron has a unique and specialized skill set. Known as the original ski industry disruptor and always innovating, Aaron has a comprehensive background in skiing and aviation with decades of experience in roles such as Head Guide, Head Avalanche Forecaster, Avalanche Blasting Technician, Avalanche Educator, Heli Avalanche Bombardier, Commercial Heli Pilot and Seaplane Pilot. Brill is well known for his innovative contributions to the ski industry, including building Silverton Mountain Ski Area — and developing a revolutionary snow safety plan to manage the extreme avalanche hazards of the San Juan Mountains.
Brill possesses unique 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, the Discovery Channel and large-scale athlete events like the Red Bull Cold Rush. Aaron has established an unrivaled permit network that includes National Parks, USFS, BLM and state land agencies across a massive area.
Guiding
Two professional guides with every group
More runs, better pace
A full-time profession
Meet the team
Josh McKnight grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas — about as far from a mountain as a skier can start. Family trips to Colorado hooked him on skiing, and he followed the passion to Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, where he took up backcountry and telemark skiing and enrolled in his first avalanche course in 2006.
From there it was on to Silverton, where he patrolled and guided at Silverton Mountain. Alaska came in 2014 and that first flight into big terrain permanently recalibrated his idea of what skiing could be. Josh lives in Girdwood and guides Alaska full time with numerous first descents. Between hemispheres, he has also worked in Japan and South America — ski guiding at Cerro Catedral in Bariloche and heli skiing in southern Patagonia.
Josh holds an AAA Pro 2 avalanche certification and has completed the AMGA Ski Guide Course. He has maintained his Wilderness First Responder for nearly twenty years and is certified in Outdoor Emergency Care through the National Ski Patrol.
His approach to guiding is built on staying calm. It is easy to get wrapped up in the spinning rotors, but Josh believes clear, unhurried decisions come from a settled head — and that guests ski better when they feel it too. He wants people challenged and comfortable in equal measure, and comfortable enough to speak up the moment that balance tips.
When the snow melts, he and his wife, Tiffan, go looking for far-flung corners of the world together. The rest of summer is mountain biking, fishing, and river trips with friends and his dog, Luna.
Chris Coulter has spent over two decades chasing winter around the globe, guiding in some of the most demanding terrain North and South America have to offer. From the steep lines of Colorado and Utah to multi-season stints in the Alaskan backcountry, Chris built his reputation as a rider who reads terrain with precision and moves through it with purpose.
For more than 20 years, that pursuit has carried him into the endless winter heading to the Southern Hemisphere each summer guiding and coaching in Argentina and Chile, from the terrain around Bariloche’s Cerro Catedral to the deep, remote lines of the Chilean Andes. That same drive for untouched terrain has led to numerous first descents. His years spent alongside some of the region’s most respected backcountry guides, building a deep knowledge of snowpack, terrain, and mountain travel.
Before turning to guiding full-time, Chris built a career as a professional snowboarder, featured in Absinthe Snowboard Films including the iconic Snowbird gap and Rockers Gap, a massive step-down in the Utah backcountry.
Chris holds an Avalanche Level 3 certification and Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) training, and has held a Type 1 Explosives Permit since 2010. This is the type of technical depth that underpins Silverton’s approach to route selection and avalanche mitigation. Off the mountain, he’s a dedicated hot yoga practitioner and spends his summers riding and racing motorcycles, drawing on an earlier background in rock climbing, martial arts, and surfing.
Ready to plan your Alaska heli ski trip?
Tell us your dates, group size and ability level and we will build the trip around the best snow in Alaska.