Why I Started Patagonia Living

In this guide

1. What Bautista saw go wrong before he started the agency
2. Why does the instructor matter more than the resort?
3. What does an advised ski trip actually include?
4. Who is this for?

Bautista Barbeito raced for the Argentine national ski team before he ever planned a trip for someone else (his own account of it). He went on to teach, first competition squads, then tourists, always on the same slopes he grew up on. Along the way he kept seeing the same thing happen to families who were not skiers themselves: they booked a trip, and nobody told them whether it actually fit them.

What Bautista saw go wrong before he started the agency

This is what Bautista saw go wrong before he started the agency, told in his own words: a family would walk in looking for comfort and pick the most expensive hotel on the list, because price was the only signal anyone gave them. They were travelling with kids. Nobody explained that a different, more family oriented property would have made the rest of the trip easier, from breakfast times to how far the kids had to walk in ski boots. Once Bautista pointed that out and the family switched, it changed how the rest of their trip worked.

Another family never got advice on gear or terrain at all, as he recalls it. Nobody asked who in the group was still learning, who wanted steeper runs, or what equipment actually matched each skier. They were left to guess, on a trip that was supposed to be planned for them.

Those two situations were not failures of availability. The hotel existed. The instructor existed. What was missing was someone with the experience to connect the two to the family in front of them.

Why does the instructor matter more than the resort?

A resort is a fixed place. The person teaching your family for the week is not. Patagonia Living assembles its instructor network trip by trip, matching who is available and who fits the group, instead of keeping one fixed roster and placing every client with whoever is next. That is the same judgment Bautista used as a racer and then as an instructor himself: reading who is in front of you before deciding what they need. Private instruction: what actually changes goes through how that matching works on the ground.

It means the instructor on your trip was chosen for your dates and your group, not assigned by default.

What does an advised ski trip actually include?

The hotel and the instructor are the two decisions families notice first, but the same logic runs through the rest of the plan: which runs suit each skier's level, what gear actually fits, and how the days are paced so nobody in the group is either bored or in over their head. What a private ski trip includes breaks down how those pieces fit together once someone is coordinating them on purpose.

Who is this for?

Patagonia Living is built for families and groups who want someone who has raced and taught on snow making the calls, instead of choosing from a generic package. That is as true for a family deciding how lessons should work for different ages as it is for a group weighing one ski region against another.

Talk to us about your next ski trip.