Andrew Sheppard is arguably the best free skier the Canadian Rockies has ever produced. In the mid nineties it was rare to open a ski magazine without happening across an image of Andrew shredding an exposed slope in a remote region. Despite a recent absence from periodicals and films he still manages to use his mountaineering skills and skiing prowess to jet set around the globe. His most recent endeavors landed him in Tibet and Argentina. Andrew gives us a humble account of his latest trips to two destinations that are worlds apart.

This past winter you took part in a kayak expedition in Tibet, but you don't kayak. Can you tell us a little bit about the adventure and your involvement?

I was extremely fortunate to be asked by my good friend and expedition leader Scott Lindgren to lend my "mountain expertise" on an extremely ambitious kayak expedition he had planned through the deepest river gorge in the world on the Tsang Po River. Being such a unique opportunity I, of course, accepted. Even though it was the middle of the ski season I figured, what the hell, this is something worth doing.

We had specials permits that took Scott two years to get. It was a very cool opportunity, even though I'm not a kayaker. After seven weeks in Tibet it was mission accomplished. Everything went unbelievably well, minus a couple episodes with the porters and the Chinese government.

Tell us a little bit about the porter situation: what happened and how did you deal with it?

Basically they just wanted more money, and honestly I don't blame them. These are some of the poorest people in the world. Then along comes a two million dollar, U.S. expedition. To them, we seemed like billionaires. They were looking at us in disbelief of everything that we had. Twenty days into the expedition, we finally arrived in a village. Because of regional working rights, we had to switch porters. We had to pay off the 43 porters we had had up until that point, then they demanded $10,000 extra. They weren't working for us any more but they still wanted to get paid. Given the situation- a remote location, them outnumbering us, and then physically threatening us with knives, we had no choice but to give them what they wanted. We called on the satellite phone to Outside magazine for more funds in order to carry on with the expedition.

Did you get a chance to check out any mountains, or were you pretty much in the gorge the whole time?

I was looking up at 25,000' peaks the entire time.

Do you think that there would be any possibilities for skiing in the area, or was it fairly inaccessible?

Quite inaccessible I don't think that it's possible in the region where we were, but where we finished, there was definitely some real skiing potential.

Would you go back?

I'd go back in a heartbeat.