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Butts, Bamboo, and Blower Pow

J Dogg — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:00:00 -0400

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Random thoughts from Reed Purvis, our officially unofficial man in Argentina. First stop, Cerro Catedral...

With the most snow since 1984, the resort of Cerro Catedral, located just outside the town of Bariloche, Argentina went off this winter. Bariloche feels very similar to the Pacific NorthWest in terms of climate and scenery, except that the sun actually makes frequent apprearances during the winter. The town of Bariloche sits right on a lake surrounded by mountains with similar temperatures but slightly less rainy summers.

S.A.S.S BARLIOCHE VIDEO>>

The lake here is actually part of a chain of interconnecting lakes stretching all the way into Chile and the trees are very like the trees in the PNW, with the exception of the very different snow level trees... perfectly spaced for riding through with branches extending overhead like a protective roof. Factor in the crazy trees and bamboo growing in thick patches, fallen stumps and logs to play on, a park, and high alpine terrain like Blackcomb but with rock spires on steroids - there are plenty of features to entertain oneself with all winter long.

The Andes are an incredible specimen of a mountain range, with views, vistas, panoramas, scenics, landscapes, mountainscapes, lakescapes, and a gorgeous simply gorgeous array of impressive peaks stretching into chile and to the north...and south, and... any more scenery related adjectives anyone? No thanks, I'm quite full thank you.

So yeah, the Andes are pretty super neato and the vastness of terrain and lines to explore is very very large indeed. The number of resorts
compared to the number of square miles of mountains is comparable to the amount of asado meat my stomach can consume and the amount of asado meat my mind wants to consume.

There have been so many memorable events and happenings this winter, ups and downs, ins and outs, what have-yous, mishaps, happy chaps...... actually mostly just ups and ins, no downs and outs, like the miss Reef contest that was held here a couple weeks ag0, that was a good day.

With so much to absorb, learning and improving spanish, skiing as much as possible, meeting chicas, checking out the sights, taking in the culture and food, sensory overload is inevitable, but a nice change of pace, unless your a close minded gringo. Since a lot of the people who live in Bariloche cannot afford to ski here, we should feel privileged to travel and ski here, especially since we consider the costs to be cheap. Wanting to know more than this post tells you in words? Then take a peek at some of the highlights from SASS this winter untill the next post from Argentina arrives on your screen: www.sasnowsessions.com

Huere Darquier Interview

J Dogg — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

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Posted Feb 22, 2005

Interview by Holly Walker

Currently calling Whistler home, Huere Darquier of Argentina is out to take the Freeskiing World Tour by storm this year... starting with 2nd place at the 2005 Subaru US Freeskiing Nationals in Utah earlier this month.

Name: Huere Darquier

Birthday: 21/10/1981

Hometown: Bariloche

Currently Residing: Whistler

Sponsors: Helly Hansen, Rossignol, Smith Sport Optics, Garibaldi Lift Co.

Marital Status: Taken, sorry guys!

Lomo completo o completo Loco?: Both

Number of family members: 7

So Huere, rumour has it that you are Argentina's female Freeskiing Champion? Do tell...

We used to have comps till before the economy crashed in 2001. Before that, there wasn't a formal circuit but there was an active interest in freeskiing. I managed to win the title 3 times.

How does Argentina's best end up a twinky in Whistler?

I've been teaching for a long time and it has allowed me to travel all over the world. That's how I get my Canadian visa and it pays the bills.

You killed it in your first World Tour comp in Whistler last season. How did things go for you at the U.S. Freeskiing Nationals in Snowbird last week?

I wouldn't say I killed last year but I managed to end up 5th and prequalified for the 2005 World Tour. This year at Snowbird I managed to end up 2nd.

Any plans in the future? More podium appearances? Sick video segments?

I'll be going to Les Arcs, France for the second stop on the World Tour. I'll be in Kirkwood in a month and a half for the third and last stop. And yeah, I guess I'll be looking for the podium. Along the way I will try to do as much shooting and filming as I can. Last year Heather Roberts did an awesome 'Girls Movie', I would love to be in her second one.

Do toilettes really flush backwards in the Southern Hemisphere?

No guys, your toilettes are flushing backwards! By the way, what's the deal with the public toilettes here? They don't wrap all the way around!!

What do you miss more about Argentina, the men or the beef? Is there a difference?

No there's not. But there is a difference between men and cows. Cows have a smarter look in their eyes.

Has it been hard to support your skiing habits? Are sponsors knocking on your door?

I have to work really hard to make this happen... 3 Argentine pesos are only 1 American dollar. So I pay three times more for my activities. Working here helps, but I'm not working while I compete. I've been lucky enough to get gear from Rossignol and Helly Hansen. I would have been on my own to pay for my travel expenses but Mike Varril and his staff at the GLC in Whistler are helping me plan a fundraiser party in March. I know this is the year to prove myself, next year might be different.

Supposedly you were held at U.S. Immigration for over an hour on your way to Utah. Is that why there aren't more Argentinians on the scene? Evil government ski conspiracy?

Don't suppose anymore, me and my nice but unlucky friends were held at the U.S. Immigration over an hour on our way to Utah...I think it is funny that they actually think I want to move to the United States! South Americans are lazy people, they are probably drinking wine, barbequing and watching soccer... they are not really a threat.

In recent years Las Lenas and Bariloche have been full of gringos...One big party or line poachers?

LINE POACHERS, DAMN IT!

Final question: Any shout outs or special thanks? Oh, and the boys wanted me to ask how many of your family members are sisters?

Thanks to Rossignol, Helly Hansen and the GLC for having faith in me. GRACIAS Waco, Delf, Diego, Lula, Ma y Pa. To my boyfriend Joe Lammers... Thank you Thank you Thank you! And I have two sisters, one is married but Lula isn't! Good luck boys!

About the Interviewer: Holly Walker is a freeskier who enjoys writing, travelling, helping friends with projects and the occassional game of ping pong. She is sponsored by Smith, Giro, Gordini Gloves and Dynastar/Lange/Look.

Better Than Chocolate? Bariloche

J Dogg — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

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After a few nights in the remote town of Caviahue, it was time to switch the pace for a while, so our arrival in San Carlos de Bariloche was a pleasant change. Home to the ski resort Catedral Alta Patagonia, Bariloche also has 100,000 busy residents working away in this lake front town full of chocolate factories, tourist shops, and restaurants. It's easily the most popular ski destination among Argentine and Brazilian skiers, so we thought we'd take a little taste test to find out why. After a long-winded string of email and hostel messages, I finally met up with fellow canuck Andre Charland who was fresh off the 3-day plane & bus journey from Vancouver, and our Argentina 2004 road trip had begun.

Surrounded by thousands of teenagers exploring the streets and mountains for spring break, it was easy to see why the tourists come here. Big town, hotels, beautiful surrounding lakes, restaurants and shops everywhere you look, great base facility and lifts on the ski resort, snowmaking, scenic tram ride and more. But that's not what we came looking for. Although Catedral suffered the same fate of other ski South American ski resorts this year (not much snow) we knew there'd be some stashes left for us if we explored the resort.

Day 1 was bluebird and warm, and before we'd unloaded the first lift we knew where to head. Right above the highest chair is a short hike to some steeper chutes that yielded some wicked wind-buff carving laps. Quick laps and funky terrain would've been sweet on a powder day.

After some burns on that it was time to check out the 'Laguna' area that everyone had recommended... good call. A quick 10 minute traverse/hike and you wrap around a ridge out of site of the ski resort, where an amphitheater of S-turn chutes and cliff-drops funnel into a snowed over lake. Its pretty much a little yoyo utopia... short laps on steep, fun terrain hits, always feeding back to the same spot. The snow wasn't exactly 'all that and a bag of chips', but it was untracked and would definitely hog the most light fluffy snow after a good dump.

After more steak and chocolate than we needed (mmmmmmm), day 2 rolled around we headed up back to the resort for more fast runs on the resort and some turns in the Laguna. But what really caught our attention was the backdrop to die for. Right behind the resort is a heinous ridge system full of steep chutes that are all easily accessed from the Frey Refugio, a well-equipped hut at the base of the ridge. And if that weren't enough, the oh-so-tempting Volcan Tronador looms behind the resort with it's crevassed 3470 meter peak luring anyone with an ounce of mountaineering interest.

With the weather turning and more resorts on our hit list, we picked up and headed south, all the while knowing the Tronador and Frey hut terrain would be haunting us for a long time to come. Next year?

DETAILS

Catedral's season is from June to September/October, and is one of the few resorts down in Argenitna with good tree skiing on a good snow year. It boasts by far the best infrastructure at the resort and town if you're looking for a place with amenities and services, so it is a good spot for family trips or groups stoked on the hustle bustle of a bigger town.

For more information on Catedral Alta Patagonia, visit their website at http://www.catedralaltapatagonia.com/

Author and 2004 Darwin Award Winner

Beating the Odds at Caviahue, Argentina

J Dogg — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

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I hopped out of the bus at the end of the line before Chile, and looked around in awe of where they'd just dropped me. A small relic of a town sat behind me and vast snowy plateaus stretched as far as I could see in front of me, perched above a horseshoe lake in the foreground. While I stood dazed in the parking lot wondering how to meet my friends, the other skier I met on the bus offered me a lift to the nearby refugio/hostel. The 'other skier' on the bus was non-other-than World Freeski Champion Manu Gaidet, so I figured I'd come to the right place. Turned out we were both staying in the same refugio, and my 3 week ski trip in Argentina had begun...

Jump back a few weeks to summer in Canada, where mixed reports of the 'winter-that-never-was' were streaming in from South America. There had been some good storms, but the whole continent was too warm for many resorts to keep a good base for very long. That's why my plans to meet Mark Lasseter in Argentina remained in limbo until I hopped on a plane to Nequen where I hoped I might find a bus to my destination - Caviahue Ski Resort. Word on the street was that Caviahue had scored more snow than everyone else, so we made it our first stop on the tour.

On our first day skiing I started to wonder what all the 'no-snow' threats were about. Mark Lasseter, Vince Boleama, Rachel and I scored bluebird skies, and skied fresh powder pretty much all day long. After some mellow pow turns in the morning, it was time to sample Caviahue's real goods. The resort itself is small with easy terrain, but it backs right against the 2965m Volcan Copahue, where some sweet skiing awaits.

There's no lifts to the top but for about $35 CAD you can get a guided cat ride to the top, where a patroller will lead you to the mouth of the crater for a killer view of the emerald green crater lake. It's a pretty bizarre sight for the top of a ski resort, and with the planned expansion there will be chairlifts taking you there in minutes.

After shredding some wind-buffed powder from the crater, we left the ski boundary and traversed a high ridge on a mission to find a rumored hot spring. When we hit the spot, it was like scene from a creepy WWII movie. The ruins of an old two-story brick building backed right against a bubbling, murky pond about 100 feet in diameter, pumping out almost enough sulfur steam to mask the whole building. Ignoring the Spanish danger signs, we stripped into boxers and tempted fate in the boiling cauldron, which sucked us in for a lengthy bath.

When we finally mustered the courage to get changed in the freezing cold, it was almost dark and we had to get our lazy butts back to town. We skied down through a surreal forest of loosely spaced monkey-puzzle trees, before skinning back out the same eerie forest by moonlight back to the car. Not bad for 1 day at an obscure little ski resort in Argentina.

On day two the snowgods gave us a taste of the warm winter everyone had warned about: it started raining to the top. But with nothing else to do, we Mark, Vince and I threw on the skins and climbed the 'Pyramid' on the other side of town. In howling winds and a mix of slush and rain, we dropped into the couloir we'd been eyeing from town, and made the best of a couple thousand feet of slush carving back to town.

So after bagging abandoned hotsprings, a volcanic crater, cat skiing, moonlight monkey-tree hiking, and rainy backcountry couloir skiing in just 2 days at Caviahue, our curiosity turned to what else we might find in this unpredictable country. So we hopped in a car and pointed it to Bariloche.

DETAILS

For more information on Caviahue, visit http://www.caviahue.com/. It's all in Spanish, but hey, you have to start practicing sometime.

The resort is open roughly from early June to the end of September or early October, with the best powder months in July-August. We found powder on a terrible snow year for South America, but apparently the snow in town is often enough to bury the gas station.

For cheap accommodation check out El Refugio de Caniche at http://www.cajongrande.com/caviahue/. It's a mellow place run by super friendly guys who know the area well. There's also plenty of small hotels in the town if you'd prefer something nicer.

Fear and Loathing in Las Lenas 2003

J Dogg — Sun, 05 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0400

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It's 5 am, everyone's tweaked on speed, we haven't slept for 2 days, and tomorrow turns out to be a powder day. Oops, we bet wrong.

The dealer wins this hand. Fast forward 3 nights; every skier in town is riding a booze bus from the best party of the season to another night of pulsating techno-cheese. Bill is the last one home at 7:00, and the first up at 8:30 to rally the troops for another surprise pow day. At 11:00 he's on a stretcher. Dealer wins again.

Everyday of the year in Las Vegas, Nevada suckers get lured into gambling, hoping for the big pay off. Everyday in Las Lenas, Argentina we felt like those same suckers, but we knew the big pay off was coming our way.

After two full days of sleepless travel from Vancouver's summer haze we pulled up to the stormy winter daze of Las Lenas, Argentina. It's close to 11pm, but it's not bedtime... it's dinnertime, and we're not complaining. The snow is still falling and rumours are calling for more stormin' tomorrow, so all the 'gringo' ski bums bet on an upcoming 'down-day' and decide to go party hard. Next thing we know it's 5 am, the night clubs are still pumping out incessant beats for the edgy crowd, and everyone around me is comparing how much speed they've had. Uh, Todo, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Turns out 'Speed' is an Argentinean energy drink, haled as the only way to ski all day and dance till sunrise, 7 days a week. Unfortunately it doesn't wake you up in the morning...

It's late morning before any ski bums in the 'ghetto' apartment block finally rise to an epic bluebird pow day, missing a would-be amazing morning of freshies. Like I said, one for the dealer. But our turn will come.

When they kick us off the hill at 5pm we're dead tired and haven't eaten all day, but we get dragged to La Cima for apre-ski, where a little surprise awaits. Two words... FREE BEER. 1 liter Heinekens fill the table while all of us new arrivals sit in disbelief. Nobody doubts that the dealer lost this hand.

The next few days are a blur of sunny pow days, a few clouds, and more 5 am nights of mind-melding techno. Some good times are had, but we still haven't set foot on 1/100th of the terrain Las Lenas has to offer. We've been confined to the dinky lower mountain lifts, all the while looking up and drooling at 4500 vertical feet of the sickest terrain I have ever laid eyes on. Las Lenas has more lift accessible skiable terrain than any other resort in the Western Hemisphere, but almost all of it stems from the top of a lonely, rickety old 2 man chair lift; the notorious Marte. It ascends the throat of a steep chute and bowl, and (surprise, surprise) has been taken out by more than one avalanche in past. It only ever opens when the storms are gone, the wind is dead, and the crew of ski bums and locals finish digging the chairs out of the avalanche debris and new snow. It only opened 9 times in the months before our arrival, and no one can promise it will open again.

But all that aside, we know it's worth the gamble. We know the best turns we've ever had are chillin' up there waiting for us. Too bad the liftees didn't wait for us...

Every morning we head up the hill and then debate whether or not to wait for Marte; often sitting at the base of the lift for hours on end with no luck. Finally on day 7 we place a bad bet and end up filming and skiing pow at the far end of the mountain when Marte putters into gear. It stubbornly hauls a patient few skiers up to a private playground of untracked 4000ft chutes, only to then close as quickly as it opened. Only a handful of skiers bask in the runs of their life while everyone else stands there jealous and stunned. It's a cruel, cruel world.

From now on we change our gambling strategy... put all our eggs in one basket and hope...

...Cha-ching, booyakasha! The next day we finally get to sit our butts on the Marte chair and bask in the revelry. We treat the ride like it's our last and hike over to the neighbouring peak of Cerro Martin, where we bag 1300 feet of virgin pow turns down the 50+ degree dogleg Banana Chute. But we treat it like it ain't no thang, because 4500 feet of feature-filled chutes down 'Sans Nom' are still to come.

From then on we had the dealer by the throat and racked in the rewards. Like a true Vegas card-shark we brought in our rigged deck of cards and soaked the casino dry. Ski 9-5, sleep 5-10, party 10-5, sleep 5-9. Repeat. And when Marte was dug out and running we were always there, sampling the seemingly endless couloirs. We even convinced the ski patrol that volunteer diggers deserve not only free tickets, but lift-line priority as well...

We hop into our private diggers' snowcat and cruise to the top of Marte, scoping tasty lines the whole way to the top. Some mellow pow turns lead us to where we'll be digging out the chairlift for two hours, and thoughts of what's to come make the job short'n sweet. When the deed is done we score more fluffy turns to the Marte lift-line, where we casually ski past everyone in the gridlock line-up and head up for round two. We spend the lift ride toiling over which chute to bag 1st tracks on, yet we know there's so much terrain that we won't cross tracks for most of the day. In all we score 5 laps on Marte; laying tracks down local favourites like Frankie's, Human Error, Vegas, and Eduardo's, all yielding a couple thousand feet of powdery vert between 45 and 55 degrees. Sinful bliss, but we know to quit while we're ahead.

Days later the wind picks up, we already have the casino begging for mercy, and we know Marte's days are over. With our pockets full of loot we leave our gambling days behind us. We sleep in, try kite skiing, and cap off the trip with a day of 'extreme tubing'. All the while, new arrivals and the 'patient few' are getting lured into gambling again, hoping for the big pay off.

- J Dogg

Modern medicine at it's best.