Video: Sam Smoothy’s – There’s No Place Like Home
Mountainwatch | Video
Like most of the skiers who have come out of Wanaka over the past 20 years, Sam Smoothy’s love of the mountains and skiing was instilled by his parents, who took Sam and sister Anna skiing from a young age and introduced them to the Southern Alps backcountry when they were kids.
Sam developed a love of the backcountry and skiing big mountain lines which lead to a successful stint on the Freeride World Tour where he came to the attention of filmmakers Teton Gravity Research. In 2016 TGR invited Smoothy to Alaska to film what turned out to be a very impressive segment. The rest, as they say, is history and he’s been a regular with TGR since.
In 2019 Sam was looking forward to getting back on snow and after a string of injuries had sidelined him for lengthy period but Covid raised its head and travel restrictions meant he missed the 2020 northern hemi winter. Smoothy reckons he had never skied less in his entire life, so at the start of the NZ season he decided to hone his ski mountaineering skills and head deep in to New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
Produced by TGR, There’s No Place Like Home, tells the story ion this trips and the challenges offered in NZ’s Alps, culminating in one the high points of Sam Smoothy’s skiing career.
