TR: Wind, blisters and occassional lift ride in Las Lenas

[wcf3]

This report describes two weeks I spent in Las Lenas covering 22-08 to 05-09. I’ll warn readers now that compared to many of the excellent TR’s available on Las Lenas, this one is going to be fairly short on action photos since:
- I was solo a good part of the time,
-I spent a lot of time hiking (be prepared for bootpack pictures).
-Even in perfect conditions (with a stationary target) I can be counted on to miss the shot.

Most of this report is about hikes and runs done in the ‘near back country’ immediately west and southwest of the ski area. I hadn’t been able to explore this amazing area in my previous visit, but I was lucky enough to encounter conditions that (for the most part) were good for both hiking and skiing.

My arrival ended up being a couple of days after a fairly large storm had gone through, but the wind had been doing it’s usual thing, and the word was that the Marte was damaged and might be out for the season.

Now there’s your problem! (Marte slide deflector after the “fix”).


Not necessarily an auspicious start and a number of people who were down there (or were planning on going down) decided to bail about that time. After my previous visit (1.5 Marte days) and everything I’d heard and read, I’d come to the conclusion that if I could only judge whether the trip was a success depending on how often the Marte was going, I probably shouldn’t go at all. As such, I went in looking at it as an exercise in (possibly lift assisted) back and side country work. Kind of like a hut tour, but with really nice huts…

The first couple of days I was there, the snow from the previous storm was still a bit unstable for my taste, and I contented myself with hikes around the ski area. In some cases above working lifts, such as the Carris, and eventually hiking up to the top of the mountain a couple of times to do standard Marte runs. For these, the hikes (at least) were not exposed to potential slide activity and allowed me to gauge the snowpack at altitude and to get used to hiking in the wind.

My fourth day was the day the competition, so they weren’t letting us climb to the top of the area. Competitors were being ferried up by snowcat, waving and smiling at those of us slogging away. Since the snow seemed pretty firm and stable, I decided to try and hike up Entre Rios.

Entre Rios



Entre Rios lies directly to the West of the ski area summit (on Cerro Los Fosiles). It provides an amazing collection of chutes, bowls, pinnacles and cliffs that produces a strong magnetic force on most skiers and boarders that look at it. I’d never been up it before, but thought that I saw a boot line that would go without too much problem, and several descent lines that looked sheltered enough to possibly provide decent snow, in spite of all the wind. Turns out that my ascent wasn’t the most commonly used (which starts on the face of Cerro Negro then reaches the Entre Rios ridge from the south end).

Line marks boot pack. Standard route out of picture on the left.



Given the wind that day though, hiking the ridge was pretty grim and my line may have actually been the better choice. One major negative with it was that after the first few hundred feet, the snow went from chalk to ‘punch through crust’. Too firm for a ski to break through (making traverses on skins difficult) but not firm enough to support someone booting. As such, the climb was sort of like booting in a foot of powder or so, but with the added interest of having to kick through the crust first. Ergo:
-Hold poles sideways in both hands.
-Reach up and punch hands and poles through crust.
-Mantel up on poles.
-Lift boots out of old holes.
-Kick in new holes.
-Sink in a foot.
-Repeat.

Ways to go yet…


About halfway up, I looked around and saw that my foolishness had inspired a bunch of other lemmings. The first group to join me was a bunch of ‘tree frogs’ (gaelic amphibians, very good at ascending things). This crew was equipped with lightweight touring gear (short narrow skis, dynafits, etc.) and came up in randonee style, skinning short low angle traverses with a gazillion kick turns. They caught up to me fairly quickly and only used my boot pack for a short section on the steepest part of the climb before getting on their skins again (so much for getting spelled breaking trail…). At one point, I made the mistake of trying to emulate them, in spite of my long fat skis and lack of skills. I didn’t get very far before I fell over trying to emulate one of their kick turns on steep firm snow. Once I’d managed to arrest myself I went back to a sensibly punching and kicking my way up.

As I approached the ridge another group came up. Kindred souls, they had their fat skis on their packs and came up the boot pack. One, a telemarker (Ali from CB) caught up to me and gave me a rest from breaking trail up to the ridge.

Hurry up Lemmings!


The wind, which had been somewhat annoying on the climb to the ridge, blowing spindrift into our faces the whole way, became something else on the ridge. There it was strong enough that walking upright became very difficult. Only Jason (a member of the Oakley tester crew) and myself decided to climb the ridge high enough to reach one of the classic lines below the peak, while the others, Ali, Didi from Jackson and Tom from London descended the face we’d just ascended. Ali, Didi and Tom were thus spared the Buster Keaton style drunken stagger/crawl up the rest of the ridge.

Jason enjoying the cooling breezes on the Entre Rios Ridge


Jason and I dropped in on the looker’s left side of the peak and did the large open chute directly below the peak, which I later learned is called ‘Xenia’.

Xenia is the broad chute on the looker’s left under the peak


This line feels like the world’s biggest half pipe, fairly steep at the top then moderating in pitch, before narrowing and steepening again in the middle and finally opening to a broad exit apron. This seems to be fairly typical of the chutes off Entre Rios and many other peaks in the near backcountry west of the ski area (Cerro San Martin, Cerro Negro, Cerro Torrecillas).

A line with this configuration would be pretty sketchy with unstable snow, but when we dropped in, there was a fairly consistent inch or so of softer snow under a thin crust covering most of the chute, making for good edging without having to look over your shoulder all the time. Great stuff for booming and zooming.

Looking down Xenia



Finished the day by climbing up and trying to find the entrance to ‘Manhattan’ a chute breaking through the cliff lines that band the slope across from (south) and slightly above the Marte lift line.

Manhattan is the obvious chute in the center


After climbing up and down for a while, we finally chose a line that turned out not to actually be Manhattan, but another, looker's right in the picture above that we called the ‘Bronx’ but apparently is actually named ‘Little Manhattan’.

Ali exiting little Manhattan


TBC

[wcf3]

The next day, I planned on hiking up and skiing a line on the peak directly to the south of Entre Rios, Cerro Negro. Unfortunately, when I started the climb, I found that the snow was close to boilerplate. As such, once I was part of the way up, I changed direction and headed back to Entre Rios, confident that there was still good snow to be had there. People had informed me the day before (after completing my ‘unconventional’ boot) that the standard approach to Entre Rios starts on the Rio Negro face, and connects to the Entre Rios ridge. Here I began a number of route finding misadventures, involving a couple of downclimbs and long, unnecessary scrambles on boot eating scree. As a positive, I at least now know where NOT to go…

Standard bootpack line, starting on north end of Cerro Negro Face (left) to Entre Rios ridge.



Fairly steep in places, but good snow for booting.



Summit in sight



Finally reached the small pedestal of snow on the peak and was able to check out the ridge north of the peak (looker’s right in photos above). I was a bit concerned before about accessing the face on this side, since from below there appeared to be a fairly consistent line of cornices guarding the face on the north side of the peak. Although it is apparently pretty common for people to jump these cornices to get onto the face, I didn’t think that my karma account was quite deep enough to justify jumping off a poorly anchored cornice onto a 50 degree slope with unknown snow conditions while solo.

Entre Rios ridge, north of summit



Luckily, there was a nice entrance slot right next to the peak that allowed me onto the face without any aerial antics.

Ah, no jumping required…



This time I decided to take the next chute called ‘E-Dream’, just north (looker’s right) of the one that I’d done the day before. I was very tempted to do the next one in line, since E-Dream had been skied the day before by the tree frog crew. That chute is still narrower and looked very appealing, but I couldn’t tell from below whether it went without a mandatory air/downclimb in the middle section. The same karma account issues noted above prevented me from checking it out. I learned later that the third chute is called ‘Go or no-go’ because it depends on snow conditions whether the choke is actually a mandatory air or not.

E-Dream center (right of peak) Go or No Go right. Box marks possible mandatory.



Anyway, the chute I did ski provided a great run with good snow most of the top section, but some variable stuff in the middle (powder left, refrozen middle, corn right) that made for ‘good practice’. Here I was able to see from the tracks of the tree frogs from the day before that having lightweight touring gear isn’t always an advantage. In some places their descent tracks mirrored their ascent tracks (traverse, kick turn, traverse…).

The top was very good




Finished the day by hiking up the same saddle that leads to Manhattan, but going over the top to do ‘El Collar’.


El Collar is the large basin, studded with string of rock outcroppings at top.



This mellow northeast facing bowl gets plenty of sun. As such it is a natural end of day run in the late season, when it can be counted on to provide a long swooping corn snow descent. It didn’t disappoint.




On the following day, a number of people I’d met gathered to go hike something when the word came down that by some miracle they had gotten the Marte running again, so people scrambled for tickets and we went off for a full day lift served skiing for a change. The day after, wind was up again (pomas only) and I hiked up from the bottom hoping to do a north facing chute I’d been looking at. This looked nice, fairly sun exposed, promising decent corn when the sun softened it up. I also thought that it would be fairly wind protected.


Objective on the left from a day with a bit more sun. Should have done it then.




Only the sun and wind decided to play a joke on me. The sun started playing hide and seek with some clouds that accumulated, hiding it better and better as I climbed. Further, the wind decided to try a new direction as well, and I started getting gusts in my face coming directly down the chute. These got stronger, while the sun effectively took the day off as well, leaving the snow pretty much in its frozen state. At about 500ft, after a huge gust forced me to cower while jamming my hands into the icy snow for additional purchase, I decided I’d had enough fun and bailed, ending the day by climbing up to do old reliable, El Collar.


The wind dropped on the following day and the Marte was running, but I decided to go after one of the more distant of the peaks in the ‘near backcountry’ to the west of the ski area, Torrecillas. Torrecillas is another amazingly aesthetic peak, springing from a long ridgeline that connects it to the northeast with Cerro Negro.


Torrecillas seen from ski area base. Generally hidden behind other peaks or seen from great distance.

[wcf3]

The approach starts by booting the face of Cerro Negro, then follows the connecting ridge in a fairly mellow, low angle climb. Along this there are a huge number of potential descent lines. The primary problem for a first timer is that there are few opportunities to scope the descent lines during the approach and most of the descents role over from the top.

Lots going on out there…



Some of the horizon lines are followed by nice ribs and chutes, but others lead to large cliff bands that are popular with film crews looking to shoot really big airs. Probably fun, if you’ve got the skills, but unpleasant to wing off blind.


Not really obvious what’s below this.



Or this...



Reaching the far end of the ridge above the collection of pinnacles and fins in the center of the face, I decided to ski the basin to the south. This could at least be scoped from above and it looked like the snow was still holding up pretty well.


Looks OK from here…




It turned out that the south face of this basin is composed of a number of smoothly rolling ribs that get steeper as one goes down. In the channels between the ribs, the snow had occasionally been scoured by sluffs, but on the ribs themselves, there was still boot deep of powder that skied really well, kicking sluff off to either side during the descent.


Looking back up between two ribs in south basin.



Got down from this pretty amped and went to the hut next to the Marte. There I ran into a crew eating lunch, one of whom I’d skied with a couple of days before. Hooked up with them for a few Marte runs to complete the day.


Finishing off Exocet



The following day I hooked up with Nate (1thenaton1) who I’d met skiing in Steamboat (of all places). At that time we discovered that we’d both been in LL at about the same time and agreed to hook up if we both happened to be down here again. Lo and behold, based on a couple of highly unreliable internet messages we were able to find each other in the morning to go slide around a bit.

As a start to the day we decided to do a run off a peak I hadn’t visited yet, Cerro San Martin. It’s a bit strange that I hadn’t been up there yet since it’s probably the most easily accessible of the peaks behind the ski area, at least when the Marte is running (something that I, of course, hadn’t seen much of) since you can ski down from the top of Las Lenas directly onto the ridge that one climbs to the top.


Cerro San Martin



San Martin is the northernmost of the peaks in the ‘near backcountry’ and joined by a ridge to Entre Rios to the south. Though a handsome mountain in any other context, it is perhaps not quite as striking as some of the others nearby because it lacks a clearly defined summit promontory.

A note on the weather: This day was fairly murky with lots of clouds scudding around the peaks, occasionally obscuring some of the higher ones almost completely. In addition there had been some snowfall the night before, although we weren’t expecting much from this, since at the base of the mountain this was only a pathetic wisp of snow. Higher up though, this pathetic wisp grew to a couple of inches of fairly dense snow, which was enough to cover many of the sins of the existing snowpack.


You go jump up and down on the cornice. I’ll take pictures!




Our objective was a line known as the ‘banana’ which, as might be guessed, was a long curving chute. It starts with a fair amount of room, then narrows and steepens in the middle and finally opens up to a broad lower angle apron at the bottom. (Heard this before?).


The banana is the obvious curving chute in the center of the picture



TBC

[wcf3]

The skiing on this pitch was very good, with the couple of inches of new snow providing just enough coverage so that one had good edging on the steeper parts and a smooth ride for the ‘booming and zooming’ on the exit apron.


On the stem of the banana




Approaching banana choke



Nate let’s ‘em run on the exit




Completing this we scurried off, very happy campers to do a couple of lift served runs. The first of these was on a chute ‘Excocet’ I’d done a couple of days before after my Torrecillas visit. This was also quite good, improved again by the new snow.


A pro with helmet-cam, from whom we’d stolen first tracks on Exocet. (Rude, I know).




Next we got first tracks on the Marte lift line. Supposedly closed (for no obvious reason) we ducked the rope and did it non-stop to cries of “piste cerrado!”, to which we replied with the immortal line from Transformers: “English dude! English!”.


“Piste cerrado!”




After a pit stop we finished the day with another hike to San Martin. We wanted to do a line called ‘Los Dedos’, but found the entrance to be too sketchy for our taste and ended up going over to the east face where we missed the line we were looking for and ended up sniffing our way down beside a long cliff band before we finally found a safe exit.



Chute down the center is where we wanted to go, ramp above cliff band in sun where we ended up.




In the end, probably the best snow I’d been on since I’d been there and nice to be out with a solid partner in Nate after all the solo missions.

Side note: Above and in the following you will find some action shots for a change. These can almost exclusively be attributed to Nate, unless he is in the shot himself…

The next day, temperature was down, wind was up and more snow was falling intermittently. Met in the morning with Nate and a number of other guys staying at the ‘Gringo Ghetto’. The ghetto is a dilapidated set of apartments a short bus ride away from the ski area base. These were built a few years ago by what were apparently a group of old eastern block contractors out on a SA excursion. Now these are in an advanced state of dissolution and disrepair, to the point that the inmates are often willing to go days between showers and any regularity is to be found sneaking into hotel or restaurant bathrooms. This is of course where the majority of itinerate (serious) ski folk are to be found, mostly in bunk beds, sharing the glories of camaraderie and illegal alien living conditions.

The ghetto crew I was with the final couple of days consisted of Scott from AK who I’d skied with before, Nate, Chris and Mike. Chris and Mike I’d seen around but only got to know the last couple of days. Turns out that both are from same town in New Mexico where I live (Santa Fe). Apparently the best method for meeting Santa Feans with common interests is to travel halfway around the world to a noted site of said activity, then hang out until the other Santa Feans show up.

We thought it might clear off, but weren’t sure so we chose to hike Cerro Negro, which would give us some options.



Chris excited about hiking into the murk




In the end it never did clear up, so we did some lines on the east face of Cerro Negro that were tight enough to provide some visual reverences. I’ve included a couple of pictures of the east face taken on another day (with sun) so that one can get a better impression.



Cerro Negro east face viewed from south.




Cerro Negro east face viewed from north.




Nate, Chris and Scott decided to do the chute on the looker's right (north) while Mike and I went for the line on the east face directly under the peak. By the time we topped out, visibility was less than stellar.



At least you can see the rocks…

[wcf3]

Looking back up at the line on the east face. Squares are around people. Circle is around a rock…




Finished the day by doing a couple runs off the Marte in ever poorer visibility.


Alaskan Scott, well versed in flat light skiing




The next day came in blue bird with low wind and a couple of inches of new snow. As can be expected, there was a mad rush up the hill, particularly by film crews who had been waiting some time for good light and fresh snow. Our crew joined the traffic, this time pointed at Torrecillas.



Coming up, they were already setting cameras (on right).




Much friendlier looking with sunshine and company




The other guys decided to follow a set of ribs and chutes just north of the cluster of fins and pinnacles in the center of the face. I decided to go for a line needing a bit more route finding just to the right of the prominent fin in the center of the face.



Me heading out




Me thinking it over. “I’m pretty sure if I cross that spine just right of the fin…”




Where everybody else went




One of our party finishing it off. Bottom part of my line on the far left of picture.




Sure looks different from down here…



TBC

[wcf3]

The next day was my final one. The wind was blasting again, portending a storm predicted to arrive that evening, and all lifts were down except pomas. Not wanting to break my streak, I headed up from the bottom again. When I got to the saddle, the wind was the worst that I had encountered so far. In a fit of masochism, I continued on the most wind protected hike I knew of, wrapping around to the south to reach the top of El Collar. Even in this more protected area, the wind was so intense I had to wear my helmet, goggles and neck gator while hiking to keep my face from getting scoured off.

Reaching the top, a cat trundled up carrying a guide and some folks who had paid up for ‘Extreme Expeditiones’. They certainly were getting their money’s worth that day, as they all had to wrestle mightily to get their skis over an artificial berm at the summit, built as a wind break.

Having had more practice gearing up in a hurricane, I beat them to the punch.


Me laying down out of the wind and enjoying the view from the top of El Collar.



Next morning, I looked out into a blizzard, arriving just as advertised. Hung over and with very little sleep I got on the bus to start the trek homeward.


Hope those still there are enjoying it!

[Tips^Up]

very informative and beautiful pics...in the first post. other 2 posts have no pics, please fix!

[wcf3]

Sorry about that. Should be fixed now.

[gimpy]

and a great big fuck yeah!!!!!

[Liveezy]

Nice work, way to get it done. Did you not worry about hiking up alone and what could happen?

[cheese]

well done! thats a solid TR!

[kingofmyrrh]

Yeah enough with the modesty that is a fantastic TR!

[Vt-Freeheel]

A very enjoyable morning read, thanks.

[Tectonically_Neglected]

Two thumbs up!

[cliffhucker]

very good, well done!

[snacktray]

great pics. Looked like a good trip

[hop]

24 hours....

[jonesy]

Thanks for getting me through another no ski day. Great TR.

[spantik]

Awesome TR, thanks for posting!

The folks in the cat you "met" at the top of El Collar were pros from Columbia Sportswear trying to get some shots before the storm hit. I was the non-columbian tagging along for a ride. We were wondering what the hell happened to you while we were stumbling around in the wind. Nicely done

[wcf3]

Nice work, way to get it done. Did you not worry about hiking up alone and what could happen?

Soloing in even 'near' backcountry is never an ideal situation. It certainly multiplies the risk factors considerably, since even a small mishap (broken binding, or tweaking a something in a fall, say) can lead to major consequences. If there is even mild avi risk, it can start looking like Russian roulette.

Other than the first few days, the avi risk was very low. For all the misery that the wind there causes, given a few days, it seems to do a good job of compacting new snow, without leaving much in the way of deep soft layers or pockets. About the only places where one might have had issues were on the north facing exposures on warm days in the late afternoon, when a wet slab would have been possible. These I avoided when solo.

With more that a few inches of new snow, this terrain would have provided significant slide potential and the solo missions would have been (for me at least) off the table. Although I love skiing deep powder as much as anybody, for what I was doing, I was pretty lucky not to have any major storms come through.

The major risk I faced was falling, particularly on the steeper terrain on firm snow, where a fall could lead to a long tobaggan ride. In those situations, I treated it the same as skiing in the presence of serious exposure, i.e. assume that if you fall, it's over, and ski accordingly.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Wow, massive TR. Thanks!

[MakersTeleMark]

Complete utter gettinafterit. Thanks for sharing the detail.

[1thenaton1]

muy beuno!

[wcf3]

Awesome TR, thanks for posting!

The folks in the cat you "met" at the top of El Collar were pros from Columbia Sportswear trying to get some shots before the storm hit. I was the non-columbian tagging along for a ride. We were wondering what the hell happened to you while we were stumbling around in the wind. Nicely done

I did actually recognize one of the Columbia guys who I'd skied a couple of runs with a few days before. Didn't know it was the whole crew out looking for a photo op. The weather was probably better suited to doing a gear test than getting photos...

[1thenaton1]

I left my mind in Las Lenas bump