The lure of skiing South America is a topic that enters any serious skier’s mind. Once the Northern Hemisphere season concludes, and after enough time has passed through the off-season, the itch to get back on snow sends skiers dreaming of distant mountain ranges. DPS exists because of South American skiing. That’s not hyperbole. In fact, in the summer of 2001 DPS founder Stephan Drake was spending yet another season in Las Leñas when he met a former Swiss ski team prospect, Cyrile Boinay. In a smoky wine bar the duo vented their frustration on the lack of progressive shaping and materials in the ski industry, and the idea emerged to start a ski company. They founded DB Skis that year and after a few years of toiling and Boinay’s eventual departure, DPS was born in 2005. Along the way, South America has kept its hold on the DPS crew, and our global storm-chasing lifestyle. Each season, we’ve returned. A few years ago Drake filmed with Ben Sturgulewski (of Sweetgrass Productions, and now the principal at Sturge Films) in a Patagonia short film The Desert River, and then a couple years later in Sweetgrass’ Solitaire, which was shot exclusively in South America. Over the last five years Ben become part of the DPS family. We’ve had a vision for some time to create DPS Cinematic, a film wing, and it finally all came together this year working alongside Ben, with the support of Outdoor Research and Gore Tex North America. The first film in our four-part film series The Shadow Campaign is called Sanctuary. Watch as the DPS Koalas immerse into the same mystique that has drawn us south for years. Zack Giffin, Santi Guzman, Olof Larsson, and Piers Solomon left their summer haunts dropping everything with hopes of surfing summer powder high in the Andes. Their aspirations got sidelined upon arrival at Valle Nevado, as the Chilean landscape resembled dry Mars more than the powder-laden alpine landscape they dreamed of. However, things changed quickly when the condors began drafting thermal winds signaling the arrival of a Santa Rosa storm cycle that made August 2014 a special time to be in Chile. Enjoy our first short film of 2014-15, Sanctuary—and stay tuned for more releases this season in our ongoing short film series, The Shadow Campaign.