Michael Mathews, a 43-year-old Baton Rouge business owner, completed a seven-continent ski journey in 295 days, finishing on Deception Island in Antarctica. The trip began on Mount Yotei in Japan on New Year's Day and was undertaken as a Guinness World Records attempt.
The Advocate reports that Mathews counted the 295 days from his last day skiing in Japan to his first run in Antarctica. The route included stops in Canada, Morocco, Austria, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Mathews is an LSU alumnus and owns Backpacker stores in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Mandeville, according to The Advocate and SnowBrains.
Mathews holds the title of Chief Adventure Officer at ALPINR Mountain Travel, and the whole expedition doubled as a new YouTube series on the Backpacker's channel, the outlet reports. He traveled with videographer Cam Easler, who photographed and filmed every run, per The Advocate's reporting.
A Year of Chasing Snow Across the Globe
After Japan, Mathews skied in British Columbia and traveled to Morocco's Atlas Mountains, where reaching the ski terrain required climbing to roughly 13,000 feet without a lift or rope tow, according to The Advocate. He then continued to Austria and Argentina.
From Morocco he moved on to St. Anton, Austria, where the outlet notes lift tickets ran about $60, a stark contrast to the $250 to $300 walk-up prices Mathews has seen at many American resorts. He skied in Bariloche, Argentina, in August, marking the fifth continent on his tour after earlier stops in Japan, British Columbia, Morocco and Austria, per snowbrains.com. Thredbo, Australia, and Mount Hutt, New Zealand, followed that fall, though the article notes Mathews found less snow than he expected at both stops in late September and early October.
Why Mathews Took on the Challenge
Mathews told snowbrains.com that he decided in 2025 to redirect money he had set aside for business growth into the ski attempt instead, hoping the resulting videos and photos would draw more interest to The Backpacker and ALPINR Mountain Travel. He has pointed to what he sees as a stagnant domestic ski industry, telling the outlet he wanted to push back against letting the industry settle into a repetitive rhythm of mega-passes and overpriced resort cafeterias.
The deeper motivation, Mathews has said, is a belief that unfamiliar places are more welcoming than people often assume. He told the Advocate that new places are more possible, and more welcoming, than we sometimes allow ourselves to believe, and he told snowbrains.com that the connections he made with people who share his passion for mountains have been the biggest benefit of all this.
The journey also meant balancing travel with family life in Baton Rouge. The Advocate reported that Mathews returned home during the trip for important family milestones; his daughter was attending St. Joseph's Academy. He has said that experiencing other cultures made him appreciate Louisiana more.
The Family Business Behind the Adventure
Mathews's travels are rooted in a Baton Rouge institution. His father, Dale Mathews, opened The Backpacker on Chimes Street in 1974 after organizing ski trips for friends, and the store moved to its current Jefferson Highway location in 1982, according to the Advocate's reporting. Michael bought the family business after graduating from LSU in 2006, and he and his wife, Margo, opened the first Lafayette location in River Ranch in 2007, per information published on backpackeroutdoors.com.
A Harrowing Final Stop on Antarctica's Deception Island
Mathews reached Antarctica after crossing the Drake Passage from Argentina. His final ski was on Deception Island, part of the South Shetland Islands, about 64 miles across the Bransfield Strait from the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is a flooded caldera of an active volcano, and its ski terrain includes dirt, mud and sand as well as snow, according to The Advocate.
The Advocate reported that the expedition ship carried 135 guests and made a stop at Charlotte Bay on the Antarctic mainland, with passengers going ashore by Zodiac inflatable motorboat in groups of 10. Mathews told the outlet that the voyage involved food poisoning and difficult climbing conditions. He had additional opportunities to ski on the mainland before the expedition ended in early November.
Mathews told The Advocate that Ice Axe Expeditions was the only outfitter he knew of that offered Antarctic ski trips. He described the Guinness attempt as requiring documentation and, at points, travel by public transit. Whether Guinness has formally certified his record was not addressed in the reporting. With no chairlifts in Antarctica, the skiing also required reaching the terrain on foot.
Ski-season figures and Antarctic guidelines
U.S. ski areas recorded 61.5 million visits in 2024-25, the second-highest total for American resorts, according to The Colorado Sun. That figure provides context for Mathews's criticism of the industry but does not, by itself, establish its overall health. Separately, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data show that manufacturing accounted for 34.2 percent of Louisiana's outdoor recreation value added in 2022, the largest share among the state's industry sectors.
For the record attempt, Guinness World Records says its Records Management Team assesses submitted evidence; a successful verification makes an applicant eligible for a record-holder certificate. That general process does not establish Mathews's application status. For visitors to Deception Island, the island's management website says visits should follow its Management Plan to help protect the environment and visitor safety.
Mathews told the Advocate it felt amazing to accomplish the goal, capping a year that took him across roughly a dozen countries he had visited before 2026 began. The Backpacker has sold gear for leaving home for 52 years, and for its owner, this was simply the farthest that gear has ever taken him.
