Argentina: hitchhiking helicopters

Tobin Seagel — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:01:32 -0400

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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.

Chris and I were about to drop into Lido, an aesthetic line just outside of Lenas, when the inevitable ball dropped: "I wish we could just take the heli up there tomorrow, to keep our legs fresh for pow thats on its way". I didnt really put much more thought into it until later that night when the idea was dropped again. It was mentioned to the operator that some Canadians wanted a drop on Adrenalina, and the response was far from positive...a heli-drop up there had never been done before... but he said we could stop by the helipad the next day and talk about it.

In the morning Marcus, Les, Chris and I wondered over to the helipad, skeptical that such an idea could actualy pan out. Gringo Mike turned up offering to "guide us"....I think that's spanish for "stow away", but who cares the more the merrier. When the heli showed up, a total junkshow unfolded where it was generally determined that flying up to 13000ft with 5 skiers, and heavy skis would be bad. But the pilot had a different idea..... So he told Les and I that we should get our gear in the heli, and we'd try...I only found out afterwards that the owner of the operation had not given permission for us to go up there.

Yes, that's an oxygen mask our pilot is sporting.....what?

Our pilot did everything he could to land us right where we'd drop in from, but (thank god) it was deemed better to land on a shoulder a few hundred feet below the summit. Having circled the peak 3-4 times, with some gages flirting in the red zone, we were all pretty stoked to have landed. As we got out of the heli, more unconventional behaviour...instead of crouching over our gear, we were to lie as flat as possible.....hmmm....reassuring.

Skiing corn out of the exit from Adrenalina.

The entarnce to Adrenalina had some good snow in it, and the skiing went off without a hitch. There was plenty of room for us all to have a line.

Thus begins a new chapter in Las Lenas....high altitude heli-access skiing.

adrenalina

Tobin Seagel — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:16:08 -0400

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adrenalina exit

Tobin Seagel — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:10:32 -0400

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Argentina: hitchhiking helicopters

adrenalina

adrenalina exit