Ski Chile 2018

[Dirty]

Pretty fun day at Cerro Cathedral. Only up high


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[gnarbro365]

^^that looks rad!

Lake Run opened today. Beware of sharks...

[gnarbro365]

A couple more shots of the terrain available via heli from Portillo...




Still tons of soft snow to be found on any aspect that doesn’t have a N associated with it.

[Beder]

Bit of a longshot here. Anyone ever hired a car to drive them from Mendoza to Las Lenas?

[Casey E]

Pretty meager precip heading into August



Wherefore art thou El Niño?

[skiandgolfnut]

Casey, how is it possible that portillo only has a 17 inch base given it's snowed more than 9 feet and looks pretty great in gnarbros pics? Portillo's website says the same so it's not just a snowforecast thing. Just doesn't add up to me...

Headed down in 2.5 weeks, had been on a decent roll there last month, hopefully can eek out another storm before then.

[Casey E]

Casey, how is it possible that portillo only has a 17 inch base given it's snowed more than 9 feet and looks pretty great in gnarbros pics? Portillo's website says the same so it's not just a snowforecast thing. Just doesn't add up to me...

Headed down in 2.5 weeks, had been on a decent roll there last month, hopefully can eek out another storm before then.

Take into account the brutal sun and high average temps at this latitude, the occasional extreme wind, infrequent storms which are light and dry, and that Portillo reports the packed base, and you get 20% of total snowfall.

The photos at heli altitudes on more southern facing slopes will always look a lot nicer than, say, the base of Juncalillo. Also, a light windless snowfall can make a horrible base look great, at least for a while.

[Dirty]

How is Portillo on a storm day? Thinking of heading up tomorrow but the forecasted snow has me thinking? Is there anywhere with manageable visibility?


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[Casey E]

How is Portillo on a storm day? Thinking of heading up tomorrow but the forecasted snow has me thinking? Is there anywhere with manageable visibility?


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Visibility on a snowy day would be defined by how close you are to rocks or lifts. You would probably be scraping around on old hard snow in a likely whiteout. Go Saturday instead and have a sunny blast on whatever caused that whiteout.

[snophoto]

I am heading down to South America on Monday or Tuesday. Worth it to bring my snowboard gear? I am heading down for a week and am totally flexible on where to go, originally planned on Santiago but am willing to fly elsewhere. Thoughts?

[Casey E]

I am heading down to South America on Monday or Tuesday. Worth it to bring my snowboard gear? I am heading down for a week and am totally flexible on where to go, originally planned on Santiago but am willing to fly elsewhere. Thoughts?

You probably won´t find optimal conditions anywhere, but you will find reasonably good ones. For the central zone, a lot depends on how much snow falls tomorrow/early Saturday. For Corralco, which has lots of snow, it depends whether the snow has been weather damaged when you go (rain, freeze/thaw, wind etc). Wait and see, but there will be something somewhere. You can also take a comfie overnight bus to Malalcahuello (Corralco) if needed, and if you have never been there, Portillo is worth a visit under any conditions.

[Casey E]

Snowing nicely now in La Parva and Portillo. The best snow often falls when the Central Valley gets "llovizna", or drizzle, and light, soft, mostly windless fluff falls in the mountains. Such is the case today

Portillo now has webcams! http://www.skiportillo.com/webcams/



La Parva

[Casey E]

Check out Valle Arenas terrain from Cristian Wehrhahn

https://web.facebook.com/cristian.we...5665830356765/

More at http://www.dostiempos.cl/

[gnarbro365]

Portillo picked up right around 10cm through today. Doesn’t sound like much, but we will take anything at this point...and, we basically doubled my Gringo-cast from this morning.

As usual, no viz today. Don’t worry skiandgolfnut, I’ll post some pretty post-storm pics mañana.


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[Dirty]

I’m going to head up Sunday. I’d be down to meet up to ski with some gringos. Maybe poke around the sidecountry or possibly super C?


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[Casey E]

Yesterday’s snowfall ended with 14cm in the 3V, and 8 in Portillo. Not enough to make much difference in the base. Another front has appeared for Thursday.

[gnarbro365]

Gargantitas opened today. Uno skied well...and a bunch of rippers sessioned it.


Now...whichever gringo got gripped in Gargantita 2 and required a roped rescue from patrol...then refused to go down and sent the patroller to set a bootpack all the way back up...you owe some serious beer!

[Mike Pow]

And a stiff uppercut

[idahospud]

Well, I made it down! Super C probably isn't in the cards today because I'm still huffing going up the stairs, but I'll be out and about.

Green puffy jacket, yellow pants, and I might have change for a nickel in one of my pockets, but no promises.

[RiderX]

Bit of a longshot here. Anyone ever hired a car to drive them from Mendoza to Las Lenas?

I looked into it once. At that time it was about $600 US. The bus is much cheaper. Leaves at around midnight and arrives at Las Leñas at about 6:30-7:00 am.

[Z]

Im seeing $80usd round-trip flights from Mendoza to Bariloche w/ flybondi. Too good to be true?

Thinking of taking the bus Santiago -> Mendoza then flying south to bariloche for a week. Seems like a good way to do it?

[EssjaywhyNZ]

Hi All, reading the topos, there are some nice hikes/ skin-touring above the 3V up to Cerro La Parva,
but at Portillo it looks like up above sawtooth ranges only : if the snow is lean are there any tours out of the resort like Round the Lake ?

Im at VN(@3V) from Aug the 5th & Portillo from the 10th if any like-minded with hardware want to catch up, PM me or listen out for the Kiwi accents...

cheers Simon

ps. topos on https://www.mountain-forecast.com/pe...ovincia/photos
- thx Casey

[gnarbro365]

at Portillo it looks like up above sawtooth ranges only : if the snow is lean are there any tours out of the resort like Round the Lake ?

No easy way around the lake unless it freezes. My friend has a kayak here though...

Some sweet zones just past the aduana (customs for Argentine border) if you have access to a vehicle.

[Casey E]

Im seeing $80usd round-trip flights from Mendoza to Bariloche w/ flybondi. Too good to be true?

Thinking of taking the bus Santiago -> Mendoza then flying south to bariloche for a week. Seems like a good way to do it?

Sounds good and cheap, get to bus thru the high Andes and fly down the east slopes. Fun to see what kind of airplane you get. Could do a circle route and bus from Bariloche over to Osorno in Chile then fly up the west slopes to Stgo, or bus.

[EssjaywhyNZ]

OK cheers Gnarl,

strava heatmaps are always a good tool,
its probably a summer hiking trail on the west shore of Inca lake then , and also the popular trail from the Border statue all the way down into Portillo.

Maybe try hitch a 4WD up to the border for a ski tour , depending ...