Leaving Las Lenas

Well my last days in Las Lenas came and went quickly.   My second to last day I headed out with Jesse and focused on a fun line with her rather than an extreme line. I realized that  she is not ready for a 50 degree couloir but she was ready to summit a 12 000 foot peak.

We headed up and toured to ski off Cerro Entre Rios and on our way toured up the funniest skin track, not much snow left around except the skin track!

From there we continued to the top and Jesse stood on her tallest mountain top ever. Here we are enjoying the summit together.

From there we skied a fun slope, something that Jesse could shred and enjoy versus be gripped and sideslip. Its called xenia and was a beautiful alpine line. After the fun brother-sister run we enjoyed lunch together and she headed home and I headed back to the top.

from there I skied Leucemia, the tight couloir that I was glad I did not drag Jesse down. It was a steep and wild line that was really fun, it had been skied by three people but was still nice and soft.

From there I toured back up and summitted Cerro Negro and then headed up to Toricellas to take a look at the terrain there.

Pretty cool, lots of lines, of which I skied Este 1, a protected south east slope. Great turns to finish of a fun week of adventure in Las Lenas.

I have been blown away by the potential of this place, huge terrain, endless mountains and big time terrain. I hope to return one day when the snow is deep and the lines filled in.

Now we are on the beach in Chile enjoying some family time till they head home and leave me familyless. Great to get out of the mountains and refresh myself.

Morning mission

ssed with Las Lenas. There is so much inbounds that is wild and then so much just out of bounds. I am almost certain that I have never seen a hill  that parallels this one in terms of accessibility to tonnes of wild lines, without much if any hiking, and then if you are willing to hike there are some great mountains with many lines within a few hours of the boundary.

Today I went early so that I could spend some quality ski time with Tracey and  the kids. I had to show Tracey how amazing all these mountains are, and we had a few good runs and then went and picked up the kids. Charley is really linking up the turns and Aiden is starting to get the “pizza wedge”. Great on hill spring skiing.

But early in the morning I skinned up the inbounds and then headed up to Cerro Entre Rios a 3800 m/12470ft peak. This mountain has some great lines off it, and I chose the most obvious line directly off the summit, called E Dream. Still nice and creamy throughout its 2000 ft of steep relief.

The sun has still not deteriorated this aspect and I plan on heading back tomorrow with Jesse. I am dreaming of giving Jesse a line unlike any she has ever skied, it looked so dramatic today and was very shaded that I cannot say no to it. I bet she will be blown away by it.

Fossil

Late yesterday afternoon I headed out to hike the 5500 feet needed to roll over to 1.3mil. I  headed up the slackcountry of Las Lenas and summitted Cerro Fossiles. Its called Fossiles because everything around here used to be under an ocean, and if you are paying attention you may be lucky enough to find a fossil. From that summit I toured around and up Cerro Martin. I made a poor choice and skied down a chute that was barely covered with snow, so lots of side slipping through the chute and then finally some great turns out the fan.

I toured back up and hit 1.3 million, and then skied home. I was so psyched to be at 1.3 that I rewarded myself with a good old fashion crash!  There is so little snow here that I should always ski the depressions, and gullies, but I wasn’t thinking and tried to quickly ski across these flats. Going way to fast both my skis caught on rocks and I front flipped and rolled out of it through snow covered rocks. No real injuries, a few bruises but a definite reminder to pay attention around here.

Today I headed up the groomer to meet Jamie and Shanie at the top of the ski hill.  They were concerned with the warming trend and had decided on another plan, so we skied the north facing Sans Noms chute, a huge 3500 foot chute. There is so much wild terrain to be accessed off this hill, its a pity that this is the lowest snow season in 15 years and the 3rd lowest since 1983.

So after skiing Sans nom I was deposited at the bottom of Cerro Las Lenas, the highest peak around. I thought I had enough energy to add another 7000 to the 4000 feet I had already climbed, so I headed up. For hours I hiked up and around till I slowly realized that I was running out of motivation, food, water and time. So with at 12500 feet I turned around. While I was hiking down I was reflecting on whether or not I would try Las Lenas again, I decided that i would prefer to summit and ski off the peaks that have great ski lines and as I thought that I looked down and voila…..

How cool is it that you can find fossil at 12000 feet!!

The weather is hot and the snow is melting quickly, I have three more days here and I hope to climb and ski a few more cool summits and then off to Portillo for a day and then to the seaside for a few family days before they head back home.