Argentinian Trip

[knowsam]

Anyone have any experience skiing Cerro Catedral able to provide some insight - weighing a few weeks down south end of August/early Sept of 2020.

Loose plan for now is to stay in Bariloche and rent a car, hitting up Cerro Catedral (mostly) and Cerro Bayo (occasionally) as day trips, skiing 2 of any 3 days and exploring the town and sights on rest days.

Any advise on whether renting a car is the right call? Is it an exorbitant cost? Does 20 km mean a much longer commute than what I'll be thinking? Don't really want to have to rely on the bus, so the other option is staying at the CC village, but that seems to miss a lot of the city, commits us to a single hill and seems like a lot more cash for the hotel.

Thoughts?

Cheers

[PNWbrit]

Anyone have any experience skiing Cerro Catedral able to provide some insight - weighing a few weeks down south end of August/early Sept of 2020.

Loose plan for now is to stay in Bariloche and rent a car, hitting up Cerro Catedral (mostly) and Cerro Bayo (occasionally) as day trips, skiing 2 of any 3 days and exploring the town and sights on rest days.

Any advise on whether renting a car is the right call? Is it an exorbitant cost? Does 20 km mean a much longer commute than what I'll be thinking? Don't really want to have to rely on the bus, so the other option is staying at the CC village, but that seems to miss a lot of the city, commits us to a single hill and seems like a lot more cash for the hotel.

Thoughts?

Cheers

As an option you might look into a hotel in town that has a shuttle. My first time there we stayed at hotel in town and their van service worked great. (for Catedral at least - I'm sure arrangements could be made to get to Cerro Bayo - which is a fun little spot).

Other trips there I have have rented cars and while tiny and $$ compared to US rentals it's worked great. and yes 20 minutes is about right unless weather is heinous.

Lots of cool stuff to explore if you have a car too.

Staying at the resort would be very limiting IMO not much there.

[knowsam]

Nice dude, thanks for that (btw - real answers with useful information in less than 10 mins - be careful, they see you do that shit around here and they'll kick your ass out).

[MakersTeleMark]

As an option you might look into a hotel in town that has a shuttle. My first time there we stayed at hotel in town and their van service worked great. (for Catedral at least - I'm sure arrangements could be made to get to Cerro Bayo - which is a fun little spot).

Other trips there I have have rented cars and while tiny and $$ compared to US rentals it's worked great. and yes 20 minutes is about right unless weather is heinous.

Lots of cool stuff to explore if you have a car too.

Staying at the resort would be very limiting IMO not much there.

Same experience. Rent the car with snows. I can't tell you how much rally time that car got around that area.

See a peak? Find a farm road and drive as far as you can and go ski it. Meet a bunch of rural locals.

Also, Bayo is one of my favorite hills anywhere. Absolutely love that place.

Here's a TGR blast from the past from Bayo:




The sketchy approach road to Cerro Piltriquitrón:

[PNWbrit]

Oh that road to cerro.

[knowsam]

Sorry, another question for you - is Cerro Catedral (or Argentina generally) European-style skiing in terms of mandating that you stay on the pistes and have gear / insurance (maybe not insurance?) to ski off piste or is it more North American in terms of there is an in-bounds that includes both pistes and ungroomed, and "out of bounds" that requires kit.

Thanks

[PNWbrit]

Sorry, another question for you - is Cerro Catedral (or Argentina generally) European-style skiing in terms of mandating that you stay on the pistes and have gear / insurance (maybe not insurance?) to ski off piste or is it more North American in terms of there is an in-bounds that includes both pistes and ungroomed, and "out of bounds" that requires kit.

Thanks

More North American in terms of inbounds off piste.

There are substantial areas of hike/traverse to uncontrolled side country and legitimate back country beyond that though. (and at Cerro Bayo) Take your gear if you have it.

Lenas used to require a perfunctory sign out with the military dudes at the top of Marte... Don't know if they still do that?

[oftpiste]

just give him a minute.....

Nice dude, thanks for that (btw - real answers with useful information in less than 10 mins - be careful, they see you do that shit around here and they'll kick your ass out).

[MakersTeleMark]

This is the "gate" at Bayo:



And this is just a small amount of the terrain it leads to:



I didn't ski a single in bounds run there. Just used the lift to hit the sidecountry.

Bring full avi kit for sure. You are on your own, and don't count on any locals having a beacon or shovel at Cathedral or Bayo.