Asada, Valle Hermoso, El Collar, and the Office!

More pictures are included with this posting for your delight. We continue to enjoy sunny warm spring days, with old pow at high elevations with South aspect, and velvety corn at East and North aspects.

Few days ago we had our second Argentinean Asada. The selection varied from meat and blood sausages, to pork, and other exceptionally good meat cuts.

Fritz went to Valle Hermoso with a group of Las Leñas ski guides. Fritz is editing and preparing a GoPro movie. Be prepared ... it is really good. The next three pictures are from Fritz (my snowboarder son) trip to Valle Hermoso. This terrain is rarely skied and it can only be access via snowcat. Fritz was lucky to be invited to a movie/photo shot for a spaniard publicity company.

It does not look like it, but these slopes have an excess of 2000 feet in vertical.

Fritz skiing toward a "refugio" (abandoned summer shelter).

Notice in the middle of the picture above a refuge (Mountain shelter). While Fritz was skiing at Valle Hermoso Erik, Julian and I skied a 3000 + feet shot wit perfect corn. Notice the tracks and scale of the terrain. Those who ski with me will guess correctly wich tracks are mine (hint - shorter radius). The Avi Level 2 courses start at 1 PM. After doing this line we meet the students and skied the next bowl to the East of this line, which is called Collarcito. Odd because "ito" is a diminutive, but the run was 4000 feet long!

Today we attempted a big line in the morning prior to the AVI L2 course, but we had to retreat due to cooler morning temps that did not soften the snow. In the afternoon we went to the Office with the avi L2 students.

Below some of the female avi L2 students with Julian and Erik (owners of SnowProject) at the bottom of the hill.

Gaining elevation. The ski resort front side can be seen in the background.

To the right, high in the background, Las Leñas peak (13 k-feet), shaped a shark dorsal fin. The class objective was to access and ski the lower visible ridge.

The Office has many cool lines. I hope the next picture convince you of its merits.

The striking yellow brush in the foreground is prevalent at lower elevations, and the resort is named after it, Las Leñas! The resort can be seen in the background.

A closer view of the Office.

Students completing stability analysis before continuing the climb and the fun skiing.

This place rocks! It will take me many visits to Las Leñas to complete all od these lines.

There are still few more pics I could not include. But the wi-fi + internet gets overwhelmed at Las Leñas employee dormitories during the evening hours. I will add more pictures during the next few days

Chago

First report from Las Lenas

The frist two weeks at Las lenas - Argentina have been busy but very much fun!

I finished the Avalanche Level 1 course last week, and started Level 2 a day later.

Below some pictures:

Gabriel Chiguy, Las leñas patrol director, meeting with Erik Sweet. Erik is one of the owners of Snow Project, the Avalanche Eduction company in Argentina.

Julian Carielo, co-owner of SnowProject, meeting with Eddie Reges. Eddie is one of the nicest guys in the world, and is Las Leñas Ski Patrol Physician as well as Safety Director.

Martin, is one of the ski patrollers responsible for communications. We skied together few days ago in a very remote locale called Valle Hermoso. I will be posting pictures tomorrow. Valle Hermoso is just magical, and infinite number  of surreal lines with incredible 3200 feet continuous drops are rarely skied. However, I join the ranks of the few privileged!

Las Lenas resort front side from the resort base, next to its famous Innsbruck restaurant.

Above, take notice of Senidor, a very nice shoulder with steep and open lines.

Julian Carielo admiring our morning ski destination,

The top of Cerro Fosil. Notice the most prominent coluoir line from the top (excess of 4000 feet!). The name is Eduardo, and we skied later in the day. The winds were high, thus the lift going to te top was closed. But Las Leñas host (Claudio Margaride from Extreme Expedition and Ski School) arranged for us to make it to the top of Cerro Fosil in a snow cat.

Next a series of pictures form our snow cat trip to the top of Cerro Fosil at 11254 feet.

 Loading at the base.

Views from the resort base my dear friend Tali loads the skis. Notice  Entre Rios backcountry terrain.

Going up!

At the top, + 11,000 feet, with Cerro Martin in the background.

More views from the top of Cerro Fosil, with Torrecillas backcountry in the background.

The wind hammered top, cruising to Eduardo Coloiur.

The entrance to Eduardo, quite exhilarating. It was definitely an adrenaline pumping experience.

Views of the Eduardo run we just skied. Fritz skied with some New friends this same line few days later. Pedro call the line sick after inspecting other pictures, and exchanging messages from Berkeley. What do you think?

Below some other pictures from our  Avalanche L1 course students:

Riding a bus back to the resort after skiing with them the sidecountry. The ambience was very festive.

More pictures from the Avi course are included below:

Views of Senidor ridge and shoulder in the background.

Yellow coat is me showing V-shaped excavation technique to students. Julian and Erik are next to me.

Student working on stability tests in the sidecountry.

Myself (yellow coat) with students fooling around!

This is for now. I have to go to a pizza party!

Chago

Yeap, the picture above has been haunting me since I snapped it last year during my time in Las Leñas -in the Central Andes. I have been studying topo maps for a month now, and the excitement kept me from sleeping last night.

Right now, I am at the Boise Airport ready to leave to visit Argentina and Chile for the third consecutive year teaching avalanche and backcountry ski leadership courses in the Central Andes as well as Northern Patagonia in the Lake District.

It is going to be good to visit San Martin de Los Andes and drink Schneider dark beer over empanadas. Visit Chapelco, Cerro Bayo, and make the always incredible ski trip to Villarica.

Below I will include few amazing views of La Pala side country at Chapelco, me breaking trail, and evidence of how Argentineans wake their friends (snowballs at windows). Last picture from last year is for the crazy drive to the local ski hill - Chapelco Ski Resort.

Since I mentioned Villarica in Chile, here it goes a striking set of pics of this magnificent volcano.

I arrive to Buenos Aires Argentina August 30th, continue flying (from a different airport) to San Rafael. Catch August 31st an early bus, and arriving at Las lenas by by lunch.

September 1st is forecasted to be clear and sunny, and a snowstorm is suppose to clear by then. Thus expect videos for your enjoyment in few days.

Ciao!

Chago