argentina

So after waiting out the storm for a few days in Bariloche the sun cracked and we got up to enjoy some of the 100cms that were dropped on Cerro Catedral!

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Just found this on Kye's blog. I've must have just missed Kye by a couple of days in Las Lenas...I think just him a couple years ago in Cham too when we stayed with Boubou one after another there. One of the first chutes has to Sin Salida...but I'm not 100% which the really narrow is...anyone know?

Now that clouds have rolled in Las Lenas I'm taking my first day off skiing since last Monday. Here's a few pics from skiing with Jamie, Ryan Prentice and Vince from our first couple days in Las Lenas.

Skiers are buzzing about the huge-ass dump of snow that just fell on Las Lenas, Argentina, and hopefully some of the neighbouring zones. I heard 2.6 meters in Las Lenas alpine! The website shows a little less, but who's counting. Good news for anyone down there!

Hmmmm, where to go, where to go. After 3 epic trips to Las Lenas, Argentina, this might be the first time we head to South America and skip it, but... we'll see. Right now reports are of decent backcountry but totally wind hammered front country in Las Lenas. Meanwhile further south, Bariloche and La Hoja sound like they couldn't suck more.

I have made it down to Bariloche, Argentina, my latest stop on a whirl-wind trip of South America ski destinations, accompanied by my Norwegian travel contingent. We have seen blue bird pow conditions in El Colorado, above the smog of Santiago, more of the same at South America's only cat skiing operation, Ski Arpa Snowcats. I happened upon my brother Les there, high in the Andes, an odd circumstance.

Montanita, Ecuador - Travel is a powerful drug. It can make you love places you never knew, miss people you never knew existed, and do things you never thought you'd do. It will change you forever. It's a one way street to new and varied experience that is not without it's emotional strain, and diversity. For many travel is a way to open the mind, to raise the blindfold on the vista of life. We do this, we travellers, to better understand experience and interaction. We do it to better understand the world and the human form. It is an act that bridges ignorance and amplifies consciousness. By doing this one reaches a higher plane.

Does travel bring you closer to god? To travel is to be lost, to be immersed in the unknown - to know god is to know the unknown. I have seen god in the eyes of a street kid in Villa 31 near Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina; covered in dirt, eyes blazing white, moving like an animal. I have seen god in the storms of tremendous power that brutalize the Andes every ski season here. I have felt god in the blinding heat of Guaylaquil, Ecuador.

No wonder winter hasn't started yet up in the Pacific Northwest. Our winter has been stolen! Yep, that's right. Cold handed theft, from non other than our favourite South American neighbour, Las Lenas. Mark Lasseter wrote in an email today from down there...

"Ah, it is puking snow in town now.  While the resort officially closed 2 weeks ago, the sexotuple and lynch chairs are open and a pass is 25 p. You know we're going to be tapping that this week!"

Sometimes hair-brained ideas really do work. Adrenalina had been staring at me through my front window since I arrived in Lenas; a 6000ft couloir starting at 13,070 ft. with a 48-50 degree entrance. I knew I wanted to ski it before coming to Argentina, but finding a partner to climb the thing hadn't proven easy. With only a few days left down here and a storm system looming, my opportunity looked to have passed.