South America TR

[release]

He's a ramblin' guy.

Thanks for the pics. I hope you get some fresh snow.

[skiing-in-jackson]

great stokage.

[sculhane]

Since there was nothing happening weather wise in LL, I decided to try something new, so I headed down South yesterday...

Chapelco has about 2,300' of vert, split in 3 sections. A rather flat bottom, an extremely flat middle and a decently pitched upper third. For any of you wondering, things are better in LL. It is even warmer down here and the season will be over quickly if the snow doesn't come soon. This place would be good for 1-2 days after a storm, but otherwise is pretty disappointing. There is only 1,000' of useful vertical, served by a poma and a quad chair.

I finally realized something (really stupid) today. After doubting my compass and my sense of orientation for a week, I realized that in the Southern hemisphere, the sun goes East-North-West during the day, therefore, for good skiing, you want a resort that faces SOUTH, not North like most of Chapelco. Stupid gringo...

Today's lesson:
- My piece of crap rental car doesn't have any signal when you turn the engine off and leave the light on (I think my 1982 Chevette had that feature). So I had to learn to say "Can you please help my boost my car" in Castellano today

Pics from today (decent speed here, so lots of them):

View of Volcan Lanin from the top of Chapelco. Even though the skiing is pretty average here, the scenery is a lot more interesting than in LL...



Close-up of Lanin (had to try my zoom ), looks like a super nice hike in summer...



Backside of Cerro Chapelco, now this is a real Sin Salida!!! I was told that some guy tried this last year and ended up in the hospital when he landed on a rock...



Unfortunately, this is very true, it better start to snow here (Stay in LL!)



There was some big air comp here today, I thought this was a cool pic with the trees and the background (decent tree skiing here, albeit a little flat)



Today, we have reached an all time low in terms of liftline organization (just when you thought you've seen it all!!!). Chapelco has this very flat mid-mountain area where the all the gapers hang out. This creates a huge jam at this chair, where there are two lines facing each other. The dude with the 12' bamboo pole is trying to let about 8 rows of people from one side go, alternating with the other side 10 minutes later. You can imagine the push and shove that's going on while to poor guy is desperately trying to lower his pole in front of people. This is certainly the funniest thing I've ever seen in a liftline, Alta should try this on a powder day



2nd part of the day - Travel to Villa la Angostura...

At 4pm, I'm bored so I decide to take off. Look at the map, about 90km from San Martin de Los Andes to Villa la Angostura, all on Ruta National 234, which they call Ruta de los Siete Lagos (Route of the seven lakes). Figure about an hour. Hotel by 5pm relax, etc.

All starts well on a nice paved road. Of course, this is Argentina, so there has to be some form of living creature on the road...



Suddenly, in turns into this - Notice lack of pavement at the bottom (scenery still amazing...)



And then, in turns into this (scenery still amazing, but somehow, I don't really care anymore )



Which, after 40 miles and 2 hours of this, a couple of "please don't die" here and "mommy can I have my Subaru" leave my little Hummer looking like this...



Still, some amazing landscapes here. Must be really cool in summer...





Tomorrow, no ski until noon. May do Cerro Bayo, but the reports show the top lifts closed for the last month, so we'll see

Steve

[enlosandes]

Check out La Hoya in Esquel, word on the street it is has some good terrain.

[skideeppow]

I went down to Chapelco for an 8 hour ski race (like a 24 hrs of Aspen but only 8 hours). We were skiing in mud and snow going around 60. The bottom of the course ran us into the tram station at full speed and then we would run up the steps to the gondi. No fences or padding. Pretty nuts

[sculhane]

No ski today, went to Cerro Bayo, which looks pretty cool, but the top lift (Lenga) was closed as it has been for the past month. When I asked why, the liftie said it was for maintenance and wasn’t going to open anytime soon (I think ) So I decided to take off…

Super nice drive on good roads – for a change. Great scenery around the lake towards Bariloche, somewhat similar to the Tahoe region. Also super nice between Bariloche and El Bolson, which is somewhat of a hippie style town where people grow organic stuff and hops is one of the main crop.

I love beer and have been homebrewing for 20+ years, so I thought I would be forced to drink washed up lagers for 3 weeks, but it turns out that I found 2 brewpubs (micro cerverceria) in 4 hours today, so life is cool.

Thanks for all your help on the duct tape in Spanish thing, now I have to find a hardware store! Couple drops of rain on the car and some clouds today, hopefully this is a good sign. Will ski La Hoya tomorrow.

Daily rambling:
- Saw my first dog on a leash today
- Another first: Esquel has human parking meters. There is a kid on every block in the downtown area that checks when a car arrives and collects the driver for the amount of time he wants to park. A lot of hand gesture was required for me to understand that one…

Pics:

Bottom and top of Cerro Bayo, looks like it has a decent pitch for about 700m vertical, lots of off piste possibilities I think…





Not a bad place to kayak (Lago Puelo – near El Bolson)



The micro brewery in El Bolson, cool place for a nice beverage


Steve

[paedde]

Great report Steve! Wish I could be there too.

[Below Zero]

Nice Pics. Scrolly through, I didn't have this pic of you in my mind.

Nice TR.

[sculhane]

Nice Pics. Scrolly through, I didn't have this pic of you in my mind.

Nice TR.

Hey, I had to have at least one of myself in there (for my mother ) even though I look like a dork

S

[sculhane]

Day 8 – La Hoya

Wow, this one goes very near the top of the list of the unknown gems of the ski world. Price = 16$, vertical about 650m with excellent off piste possibilities for a 10-20 minute hike. Nothing super steep, but a shitload of fun 25 – 35 degree terrain that must be great to ski in powder. Highly recommended if you go to Bariloche as a side trip, about 3 hour drive on a nice road with good scenery.

This place reminded me of Taos, you can’t really see it from the bottom. It’s only after you take the 2nd and 3rd lift that it opens up. I would compare the terrain to Mineral Basin at Snowbird, one big giant cirque that congregates at the base. This place faces due South and gets very little direct sun, so coverage is over all much better than at Chapelco.

But unfortunately, I can pretty much confirm that at the moment, there is no nice powdery type snow left in SA. From Las Lenas to La Hoya, about 1600km South, everything is either boilerplate or corn. I am almost tempted to hop on plane and go check Cerro Castor

It was a pretty cold day and everything was rock solid all day. I am getting a lot of East Coast practice on this trip so far… Bariloche (Cerro Cathedral) tomorrow

Daily rambling:
- There are no stop signs at street corners in cities here. After a week of driving, I still have no idea who has priority when you get to a corner. We should try that in Montreal
- If you’re pedestrian, they will run you over, just like in Montreal
- I just learned the Spanish word for pothole -> Baches. The “s” is important cause there is usually more than one...

Pics:

This pretty much sums it up in terms of snow, unfortunately



Very nice off-piste here, probably 1800’



The middle and top part of La Hoya, not easy to sum up in one pic…



The German women team is training here, was fun to watch them fly...

[Mofro261]

Too bad about the snow misfortunes. Keep the pics coming.

[Rasputin]

Wow, those are some fantastic pics! Thanks for taking the time to post it.

[klar]

i think i left esquel the day you came. la hoya is a good place indeed. i had better luck with the snow in the area last week. but then again you have to know where to look

[sculhane]

First of all, El Bolson is a cool town. There are 3 microbreweries there. I had them all

Cerro Cathedral I like very much. Great value at around 30$, has an enormous amount of lifts (30+), very varied terrain, nothing super scary, but excellent off piste at both ends of the resort. Good tree skiing lower down too. At least Snowbird/Jackson in size. The snow was really awful early in the AM (frozen chopped crap), but got a lot better as the day progressed and the temps warmed up. I am quite happy that I got to ski some nice corn and very good moguls (that’s how desperate things are…) Coverage is excellent on top, but getting scarce at the bottom, it was again very warm today. BTW, the very top lift is not running and it doesn’t look like it will for a while as there are no chairs on the line.

There were probably more pedestrians than skiers there today, I’ve never seen so many people descending on chairs in my life. Some of the lineups were longer to descend. This place has a very European feel to it and I’m sure it would be excellent in/after a storm, the tourists would leave the snow alone.

Will do again tomorrow, this place is good enough for a 2nd day. Will be back in LL by the 30th most likely...

Pics:

There are some really strange lifts here… This triangular thing is marked on the trail map, however I have no clue as to how it would work. The cable goes from 30’ in the air to buried under snow.




Another strange one, alternating bubble covered double chairs with uncovered quad. Is this for romance where you lower the bubble on you double chair for privacy???




A little wind affected, or maybe a new kind of grooming




This sums up the top half pretty well, lifts everywhere, decent terrain…




One of the off piste, very nice 35 degree constant pitch for a good 1800’




Pretty nice little couloir on the off piste on the other side of the mountain.



Steve

[Grange]

Good summer stoke.

[splat]

I envy your exploits.
Looks like you've pasted some mighty fine images into your memories file.

[shamrockpow]

Another strange one, alternating bubble covered double chairs with uncovered quad. Is this for romance where you lower the bubble on you double chair for privacy???

Pretty sure it's for the days when it's -15C and graupeling. Last time I went, I appreciated the bubble (see below).

Those chutes on the Alta Patagonia side look mighty tasty!

[Toby]

The triangle thing might be a bomb line rather than a lift? And wind affected looks more like rain affected to me?

Extremely jealous despite the conditions.

[Cirquerider]

This looks so much like spring runnels, its hard to imagine its intentional.

[paedde]

Steve

I know I should better shut up but I have to tell you this

Over the weekend we got again up to 40cm above 2600m

Yesterday snow down to 2200m
Today snow down to 2400m
Tonight snow down to 1700m

Forecast: another 60cm above 2500m

For heaven's sake what’s going on here its August and not November....

3rd Avalanche bulletin issued this month....

Not fair at all..... Hope you get powder soon

[klar]

the nubes (top) chair has never been running and wont this season. have you seen the top? it is ridiculous, there is a big drop where you should get off. the other thing is one more weird project that may be finished in 5 years. i believe they do not have avy bombing devices. not that they need them anyway since an entire 3 members of the patrulla have beacons... consider yourself lucky that there is no wind at the moment and you actually get to ski all the mountain, spring conditions or no. when there was a lot of snow half the chairs weren't running because they had to dig them out first. by hand, because the snowcats were snowed in too. have fun!

[sea2ski]

But I don't know how to do it at Big Lines. Think Santa Rosa.

Usuhaia- .5 meter

LL- 2 Meters.

How's Chile?

Bueller?

[sculhane]

the nubes (top) chair has never been running and wont this season. have you seen the top? it is ridiculous, there is a big drop where you should get off. the other thing is one more weird project that may be finished in 5 years. i believe they do not have avy bombing devices. not that they need them anyway since an entire 3 members of the patrulla have beacons... consider yourself lucky that there is no wind at the moment and you actually get to ski all the mountain, spring conditions or no. when there was a lot of snow half the chairs weren't running because they had to dig them out first. by hand, because the snowcats were snowed in too. have fun!

Quite true. There is a lot of snow on the top half of the mountain, the line of the top poma lift is about shoulder high at one point (should have taken a pic, but hanging on took most of my energy!)

Tourist day today, just couldn't handle another day of frozen crap. The Bariloche area is really beautiful and very enjoyable out of season when there is no one around (must be hell in the summer...). Lots of breweries too, at least 5 within 20 minutes of here.

Looks like snow and high winds in LL on Wednesday, so I'm heading back up there tomorrow.

Daily pics (totally unrelated to skiing - but still a very nice day)

Probably the most heartbreaking thing about Argentina, abandoned dogs everywhere, so sad. This is right in downtown Bariloche, a municipal employee had just picked up a dead dog right there 2 minutes before...




On the brigther side of things, I had the immense pleasure of walking this trail for 30 minutes all by myself, envelopped by nature...



To find this little lake, where I had one of the best beers of my life




More on the beer front, really excellent beers here, lots of beer memorabilia inside too, almost a museum.



Back in a couple of days in LL, if I survive another trip on la Ruta 40

Steve

[DanKo]

Sweet dude!

I am extremely jealous. Those pics have me jonesin' for the Colorado winter to get started. Hoping for a repeat of last year's epic early season as I am relocating to Puerto Rico for work at the end of the year. Gonna' be trading the fat boards for a surfboard for a little while. My future boss has collaborators in Argentina and will be sending me there. If it's next July, a trip to LL will definitely be necessary.

Hope you get some snow! Keep the pics comin'!

[Arty50]

You're gonna hate me for saying this...

Day 8 – La Hoya

that must be great to ski in powder.

It is. It really is.

This place reminded me of Taos, you can’t really see it from the bottom.

Actually you can. You just have to know how to get to the stuff you can see from the bottom. It's kind of like Firebreak at Heavenly. Who knew a simple little ropetow (*#$cough#$#poma#%#cough#$#%) could take you to such good stuff.