velluda

So the “guess my vert” competition has come and gone. How did the week go for me? Well it began in Valle Nevado, with high elevation and no snow, so the vertical was challenging due to the 12000 foot air after hanging on a beach, 7300 feet by 3pm and then an 8 hour drive to  Las Trancas,. The next day we went up and sumitted Volcan Nuevo and Jesse enjoyed her first volcano, I then skied two more runs and climbed  10 860 ft. I woke up the next day and was in the grasp of a flu, so managed to tour 6000 feet and bring Jesse to the Hotsprings.  Then next day I was feeling somewhat better and toured 10500, up the Volcano a few times, with 2 laps in a complete whiteout. Finally I was feeling even better and skied up and down the East side, enjoying some spring corn and lapping it up a bit for 11440 feet. The next day it was cloudy and I went up and ran in 6240 feet, and drove 4 hours down to Antuco,  The 7th day I woke up and it was poring rain and blowing like mad, so  day off. Total for the 7 days….. 52340.  decent, not exceptional but above average and with a day off.

Today we headed up to Sierra Velluda, with a new partner Donny. Donny runs alpineambitions and has been coming down here for years. Velluda has been high on his list and with his ambition we headed up and looked to see if there was a way to the summit. It was a gorgeous windless day and the touring was great. Hot though, so hot that Jesse dropped the pants and toured in her “booty” shorts.  Eventually  we were rewarded with a view of SE side of the summit and there was in fact a line from the summit. It looked sick, super steep, freshly snow covered and waiting for a “first”. As we got closer it looked more and more exposed, the final thousand feet was steep and required some real commitment.  As we got closer we noticed  a few warnings that had to be listened to. Two deep slabs had pulled out on the bottom of the same aspect we were hoping to climb up.  Wanting to go past it we went and assessed and realized that the two slabs had pulled out within the last 18 hours, on two separate incidents. It was hard to turn when we were so close but there are many more summits and days ahead so we pulled skins and shredded down.

On the way Donny spotted two condors sitting on a rock and we skied over and watched them for a bit, and then they flew off and we skied down. So great to check out this area, when I first saw this mountain 3 months ago I knew I needed to have a closer look. We may return tomorrow and look at another option or we may ski off Antuco Volcano and call it good.  Who knows?

Hostile life

I forgot to mention the washrooms! Well I am not going to mention them,  you can imagine if the kitchen is bad, the washrooms won’t be any better.

Last night Jesse and I watched “the man from snowy river”, since it was such a long movie it was around 11.30 pm as we were drifting off. Then the neighbors alarm started going off,  then he turned his music on, and started shouting across the hall to his friend. Then his alarm went off, and talking loudly on his phone. Finally he went to take a shower and left his music on, and while he was showering his alarm went off again, and again. I broke, and went and asked his friend to turn off his alarm and his music, which he did. The dude came back and put his music back on and continued to make a tonne of noise. Finally they left to the party around 1 am. It became so quiet and I was finally drifting off to sleep. It felt so nice, quiet and calm. Then the DOG began barking, and barking. At what I have no idea but for the rest of the night this DOG was going off, barking for 30 minutes, taking a brief break and then going at it again.   Needless to say I had a shitty night sleep.

While in Bariloche, this girl Steph emailed me, turns out she is on a similar quest  to mine. She is trying to ski 4 million feet, lift access. It was fun to meet someone else who has an obsession with vertical, someone else who looks at their watch several times a day every day to check and see their progress. She has a pretty amazing itinerary, traveling all around the world, Chile,Argentina,New Zealand,India, Alaska, Canada, and much more. She has a quirky sense of humour and runs a pretty funny blog, one that had Tracey laughing a lot more than mine ever has. theverticalfeat.   Honestly it is nice knowing that I am not the only person obsessing about some silly number on a watch, and as of now I am still ahead of her…..

Hostal life!?!

Most of this trip I have been staying in Cabanas with my family but now that I am solo and with my sister there is no need for Cabanas. A desire for them but no need since they obviously cost more. As a family we slept in Mendoza, Argentina and were kept up all night with a bunch of partying young girls.

The other day Jess and I were driving around and looking for a Hostal, the first one was really nice but cost 30$ each which seemed ridiculous since there were 40 empty beds on the busiest weekend of the year. We then drove around and tumbled upon this place, Hostal Nirres. What a mistake that was! On first inspection it seemed Ok, 16$ each and a family atmosphere. We never checked out the kitchen but the bedrooms were ok, a double for me and Jess. So we checked in and headed up skiing.  It was only when we came home that we realized how gross this place really is. It was my night to coo so we found the kitchen and immediately were grossed out. Dishes everywhere, nothing clean, all kinds of meat just sitting on counters, disgusting. I cleaned a small little spot and managed to cook a stirfry. Then by the next morning it was worse and Jess and I had to hold our breath while cooking breakfast, holding back vomit.

We thought it was just us that noticed it but last night we partied a bit and the others staying here mentioned it also. And that family atmosphere I mentioned, was non existent with us, or the other patrons. So all in all a disgusting place that I cannot wait to leave, only one more night.

So how do you guess my vertical for the week? Well I had a good day yesterday, a little cloudy but overall a decent day. If I was guessing I would imagine that I am an obsessed  individual who focuses on numbers. and certain benchmark numbers feel really good to hit……