One million done a million to go

Great to watch this number tick over,  didn’t feel as elated as I thought I would. Which is understandable since this is only half way…   Lots more to go.

Exploration

The coolest looking line in this valley is the west face off Pinnacle? so Dave and I headed up towards it with hopes that it would still be holding nice snow. Yesterday it snowed 15 cm of nice snow, which I missed since my body would not allow me to go skiing, and I had hopes that the wind had not ruined the nice snow yet.

We toured up and past Refugio Garganta del diablo

and took a  look inside. A cool older refugio, built in 1937, might have been awesome then but needs some love. Nice place to eat a snack and get out of the wind but not really a place I would stay, unless I pitched my tent inside.

Dave and I then headed up to check out the line off Pinnacle and realized it was wind smashed and did not look fun to ski. We ended up skiing a decent line down the North and toured around and up to the summit of Nevado. Sitting on the summit of Pinnacle it was eerily calm, no wind, and 2 hours later on the summit of Nevado we could barely stand. Crazy contrast.  A long but satisfying tour,  great loop with new terrain all day and out of the 8700ft we had maybe 1000ft of smooth skiing, the rest was wind blasted, choppy, crusty and icy.

Almost at a mill though.

Didn’t feel like getting out of bed

But I am sure glad I did. Day 9 in a row and feeling like a break, so it was easy to lie in bed and think up a tonne of excuses. None seemed valid enough and Dave, Bryce and I headed up Volcan Nuevo.  Dave’s roommates , Sean and Sarah, used the lifts and were ahead of us and we finally caught up to them. Did I mention that it was windy around here?

We all made it to the top and enjoyed the summit together and then Dave and I headed down the SE chute, the first line I skied here. I had hopes it would be good  but it was wind slabbed, but ski-able.

Cool line though, I wish it was as good as the first time.

I am starting to understand  the mountains around here,  its more about being out and experiencing the mountains than the powder experience. Its about ski mountaineering, and not powder turns. Though you may get some sometimes its not a recurring theme. Luckily I just love being out there.

After Nievo, Dave and I skinned up Viejo and summited under 80km winds and then skied the West down to the Aqua Caliente river and toured back up and home. 9300 ft of good times.