Thread: South America 2012

Just skied cerro catedral today. Its baron at the bottom but surprisingly there is a decent amount of snow up top. Hopefully there is a storm soon so you can ski down to the base.

Back to AVY bags. Anyone know where to fill up, either a Scuba or Paintball shop, in MENDOZA ??

So far no definitive answer on the airbag question. My research found this place:

http://www.taktika.com.ar/

I emailed and the guy said they don't really have filling equipment. He gets his stuff filled here:

http://www.buceoaconcagua.com/index.html

I emailed them for info and received nothing in return....?

Awesome thanks! that looks like the place, or at least a good start. gonna be there on Aug 15. (Mendoza)

edit- You from Bozeman? me too

Originally Posted by MadPatSki

I've been known to make some crazy roadtrip, but even for me, that would seem a bit much if you want to spend some time for good skiing versus on the road a lot. I'm more a fan of busing it in SA. The cost of buses versus a car rental/gas/fatigue isn't always worth it to gain the flexibility.

All my trips have been 2 wks (+ or - a few days):

2007: Santiago, Valle Nevado, El Colorado, Termas, Portillo, El Arpa, Val Paraiso, Santiago
2008: Santiago, Pucon, San Martin de Los Andes (Chapelco), Esquel, Bariloche (Catedral, Bayo), Buenos Aires
2009: Santiago, Penintentes, Mendoza, Lenas, Buenos Aires.
2010: Santiago, Esquel, Bariloche (Catedral), VLA (Bayo), Pucon, Santiago. Summary pic TRs : 13 days from Ottawa to Patagonia and back link already posted somewhere on TGR.
http://madpatski.wordpress.com/2012/...onia-and-back/

Heading back for 13 days this late August. We'll see what the snow is like by then. I would like to return to Termas or repeat the 2009 trip minus getting all my stuff stolen.

Patrick and I have had a few of these car vs. bus debates. I have envisioned the Hugh Conway itinerary but if you want to get in an appropriate amount of skiing you need at least a month to do that. In 2 weeks you may spend as much time driving as skiing.

IMHO a 1-2 week itinerary should be confined to one of these 3 options to avoid chewing up too much of your time in transit:
1) Las Lenas, might include Portillo/Penintentes if coming by land from Santiago
2) Portillo/Arpa/Valle Nevado group. With 2+ weeks you could squeeze a few days in Chillan there
3) Chillan/Pucon plus Bariloche and environs + Esquel.

Patrick and I have both chosen from the above menu.
1) Me in 2005 and Patrick in 2009
2) Both of us in 2007 (we overlapped in Portillo/Arpa).
3) Patrick in 2008 and 2010

The car flexibility helps not only deciding where to go on short notice but also not be bound by bus schedules that have cut short a couple of Patrick's powder days. Nonetheless most of Patrick's trips have been solo, so both cost and fatigue factors argued in favor of the bus on those trips.

With 2 or more people I would strongly favor the car, at least within a ski region even if using the bus for the border crossings. If you want to take a car across the border, set up the car rental in advance. Certain cars have a sticker permitting this, at least in El Calafate where we considered that last November. We finally decided on the bus for Torres del Paine because the 4-day "W" hike is in one direction and the logistics of retrieving a car from the starting point proved too difficult.

It's nice to see the stoke from those Las Lenas videos. Elsewhere in South America it looks very lean. Despite the Santa Rosa anecdotes, on average most of these places get 2/3 of their season snow by the end of July. Portillo has had only half of its normal snow so far. Valle Nevado is 64% open and Chillan 60%. Catedral is 1/3 open. Base depths at all of these average less than 1 meter.

Just heard from a friend on the ground in Portillo. It's bad. Snow is shit. Dirt everywhere. Virtually no off piste. Instructors are leaving, etc.

I have a week to decide on canceling, postponing. The smart guys here have always waited for the snow, then followed it. I'm a plan ahead guy but may have to start over.

I've heard the same thing. I've skied Las Lenas a couple of times and it's fantastic when the snow is good. Sensational terrain.
I was planning to go again in late August but I have just canned it. The base is shit, the forecast is worse, and it's a long way to go for crap skiing even if they get a Santa Rosa dump.

I've done a ton of training, but hadn't booked anything. SA has major variability in snowfall and it's best to leave it very late for booking.
I'm just writing off this year and planning for a 2013 trip.

Originally Posted by ZebraHead

Blahh blah blahh....
I've done a ton of training, Blah blah blaaahhhh...
I'm just writing off this year and planning for a 2013 trip.

You are the AntiGSA. There are a lot of people in SA and a lot of people heading to SA shortly. Why don't you keep you amazingly optimistic and enthusiastic outlook to your self.

I personally am as giddy as a hater in an internet forum to go ski some shit snow

Originally Posted by TonyC

IMHO a 1-2 week itinerary should be confined to one of these 3 options to avoid chewing up too much of your time in transit:
1) Las Lenas, might include Portillo/Penintentes if coming by land from Santiago
2) Portillo/Arpa/Valle Nevado group. With 2+ weeks you could squeeze a few days in Chillan there
3) Chillan/Pucon plus Bariloche and environs + Esquel.

Best two week itinerary i came up with way back when...

1) Couple days of road laps in Santa Theresa from El Colorado
2) Bit of Ski Arpa
3) Twoish days at Los Penitentes
4) Travel to LL for the rest of the trip

Not a loop and only involves one week at lenas but a pretty good trip if things line up.

Personally I don't think any of the SA resorts except lenas are worth more than a couple days. The above mix offers a lot of side-country but you might get screwed by A or C factor.

Aloha to the WorldPowGang, I've seen to much diferent opinions about my lovely ANDES and specially about my lovely Las Lenas Valley
That's normal cause the most off Forangers who could come here only did'it for maybe one season the luckyest...
We don't have a really exact weather forecast on this side off the World...
We don't have the fastest lifts or the Best accomodation...
We don't have a stable economy...haha...
But let me tell you...
WE have Hundreds off Virgin Terrain and Summits who never been discovered...Sick and narrows lines with all the technichal conditions you can imagine...off course we don't have the Material to do it!haha...
Juts Come and ENJOY THE RIDE DUDES!
In case off anyone need help with accomodation in Las Lenas;just let me know...
Peace and PURA VIBRAM

back from bariloche, after arround 10 days, 1 storm there that left about 20 cm of fresh snow... we decided to head to frey hut for 3 days, conditions were prety good on southface aspects... the hut is well equiped and the vibe there was great, there are a couple of routs to head there, we went by the col del viento, ski down to the flat, and skin up the forrest up to frey, I highly recomend that route because you avoid the loooong path of the common route. Just be aware if the col is icy, cramps and ice axes recomended...
I leave you a couple of pics

and more...





as you can see, we return in the normal rout witch i highly don't recomend it because its way more longer...
the last days at bariloche temperatures rised a lot, it turned into spring skiing conditions, but it seems a big storm its on its way that hopefully can return good conditions

Originally Posted by AgusTorres

Aloha to the WorldPowGang, I've seen to much diferent opinions about my lovely ANDES and specially about my lovely Las Lenas Valley
That's normal cause the most off Forangers who could come here only did'it for maybe one season the luckyest...
We don't have a really exact weather forecast on this side off the World...
We don't have the fastest lifts or the Best accomodation...
We don't have a stable economy...haha...
But let me tell you...
WE have Hundreds off Virgin Terrain and Summits who never been discovered...Sick and narrows lines with all the technichal conditions you can imagine...off course we don't have the Material to do it!haha...
Juts Come and ENJOY THE RIDE DUDES!
In case off anyone need help with accomodation in Las Lenas;just let me know...
Peace and PURA VIBRAM

- AZGreg

^Just was at the frey hut last night and it was so fun. Hopefully going to do it again when some some comes in.

Originally Posted by ecskier7

^Just was at the frey hut last night and it was so fun. Hopefully going to do it again when some some comes in.

It seems that something is coming next weekend, hopefully!

Lenas is not bad right now. Things are pretty firm, but there is a decent base still. Hoping for some fresh snow next week.





Unofficial Andes

LL got some fresh snow Tuesday night, and yesterday was sort of a Marte powder day.
There may be a storm lining up for next week, too. We shall see.






Unofficial Andes

That's some damn fine skiing there. well done.

Loved the 1:25 seggy and then around 2:00 the climb into that little slot. I want to see the out on that; looks like it choked out on ya?

First chair here, first tracks there - haven't seen you skiing over any boocack yet.
Has Hardcore emerged at Las Lenas?

Originally Posted by BoatBound

Loved the 1:25 seggy and then around 2:00 the climb into that little slot. I want to see the out on that; looks like it choked out on ya?

From 1:15 to 2:15 is actually all the same line. It does run clean, but gets narrower, and where I bail out at 2:00 is the last chance to avoid your sluff. With that snow, I think I would have needed to straight line from there to stay ahead of my sluff. Definitely doable, but not by me, and probably not in yesterday's conditions.

Originally Posted by boltonoutlaw

First chair here, first tracks there - haven't seen you skiing over any boocack yet.
Has Hardcore emerged at Las Lenas?

Oh no, I just photoshop out all the tracks and skiers. Move along gringos, nothing to see here.

Originally Posted by llyon

LL got some fresh snow Tuesday night, and yesterday was sort of a Marte powder day.
There may be a storm lining up for next week, too. We shall see.






Unofficial Andes

Looks like someone is finding the snow down there. Sweet. Nice turns.

Originally Posted by llyon

From 1:15 to 2:15 is actually all the same line. It does run clean, but gets narrower, and where I bail out at 2:00 is the last chance to avoid your sluff. With that snow, I think I would have needed to straight line from there to stay ahead of my sluff. Definitely doable, but not by me, and probably not in yesterday's conditions.

thanks! what is the quality of the snow, didn't look too affected but hard to tell.

On that line, about 8 inches of reasonably light snow on top of a pretty firm crust. Generally on the day, dust on crust. Some areas were deep enough, but some areas were exposed icy hard pack.

It has been deep the past two days at cerro and its raining at the base right now but the snow line is not to far up