Pro team
Dean Cummings
freeskier/alaska heli-guide
In the December 2006 issue of Powder Magazine, Dean was selected by his peers as one of the 48 Most Influential Skiers of our Time. From a successful career on the US Ski Team, winning the World Extreme Skiing Championships in 1995, to developing the premier Alaska heli-ski company, Dean’s vision and commitment to guiding over the last 19 years has advanced the development of mechanized guiding protocols and techniques throughout North America, playing a vital role in the success of pioneering Alaska helicopter skiing.
His company provides the only accredited mechanized ski guide school in the United States: The American Mechanized Ski Guide l and II course endorsed by the US Heli Association. Dean and his team secured the only permitted tract of heli-ski terrain on Forest Service land giving us the largest tract of any operator to heli-ski on. Dean is a founder of the North America Outdoor Institute and developed the practical ‘Be Snow Smart’ program which received the Governor of Alaska’s Safety award in 2007-2008. Combined with the NAOI Summer Wilderness Programs, Dean and the H2O instructors teach 10,000 people in Alaska, Utah and Colorado annually.
Dean’s resume includes an impressive tally of hundreds of ski mountaineering first descents. Dean has graced the screen in 43 feature-length ski films including Warren Miller Entertainment and Matchstick Productions, published in periodicals such as Newsweek, Rolling stone, Outside, Men’s Journal, Powder, Ski, Skiing, Freeskier and television programs world wide. In 2008-2009 RSN will be airing H2O Guides TV series. Dean and his H2O team annually guide in Las Lenas, Argentina, Snowbird Utah, Alaska and provide custom trips to many locations around the world.
When not sharing his experience and knowledge of mountain travel, Dean, wife Karen, son Wyatt Kodiak and daughter, Tesslina, spend their time living in Valdez, Alaska and Snowbird, Utah. Dean’s affiliations include: NSP, ISSW, PSIA, AAA, and is an active contributor to the Taylor Family Foundation.
