Cooloir

Yes I meant to spell that Cooloir, because it was a fun little couloir, tight at the top and soft throughout. So it was Cool.

Today was my last day with Chris, and Ryan, two canadians that I met up with down here. It was a sunny day and some new snow was hiding in the mountains, hiding because the wind had ruined some of it but not all of it. So with snow radars on we went out and found some good skiing.Chris and Ryan enjoying their last turns in SA before heading back to Calgary..!

A decent 2000 foot run and then we toured back up, The boys headed home and I went out looking for that Cooloir, it took me  abit to ensure I was in the right spot and then it was good times the whole way down. 

Back up to the summit of Cerro Princessa and home.  Another 10 thousand footer!>

P.S that was not really Chris and Ryan shredding, that was some kids I took some sweet video of. But for the record, if Chris/Ryan had skied that line and I had been sitting where I was, I am sure that they would have looked as good.

Cerro Catedral

I haven’t mentioned the ski hill here, as with most towns the ski hills give access to a tremendous amount of backcountry skiing.  It is also an important place for me, since I can get some quick vertical when the weather comes in, or when I want to have a family day but also need my vertical.

Cerro Catedral is a pretty amazing hill, 16 chair-lifts, 20 land lifts, plus two gondolas. There is 3773 feet of relief and a huge variety of terrain. Great fall line groomers, lots of learning zones, and some good inbounds gnar. They have this Laguna zone that is accessed with the craziest poma I have ever seen, steep as sh#$ and it has a 90 degree turn in it. I guess it has been closed for years and was finally opened yesterday. The Laguna zone is wild, lots of cliffs and spires and a lot of fun runs to shred.  I was skiing it yesterday and also today, since the lift was never really open it is a safe backcountry zone.  I also have used the hill to access to the Frey hut and all the terrain around it.  I have been assuming that I am allowed to tour up the hill instead of paying, and so far no one has said anything. Till today, someone finally told me I am not allowed and then he let us continue up and out of bounds. But I honestly hope that I am not stepping on toes but I do need to use this resort for my access and quick vertical.  Time will tell whether I get away with it or not.

Two decent 9000+ days and I was hoping for more but I am feeling a little sick and I will wait and see how I feel in the morning. I have been coughing for a month and wondering when it would actually hit me, maybe now maybe not….

ooops

Well, it happens. Dang, I had such high hopes of hitting the big daddy today. You can’t always get lucky,and perhaps I did not do enough research. I thought we could drive to the end of the road, skin up and climb 8000ft to the summit of this babe. It was a lot more complex than that and will require another attempt. We drove and ended up in a beautiful valley, rimmed with huge cliffs, hanging seracs, frozen waterfalls and a tumbling glacier. No easy/safe way anywhere. Oops, next time I will go the serious long way up, but the safer easy way. There was also  a tonne of wind a cosistent 40 km and calling for 60+ on the summit so it was not the day to attempt it anyway. You can see the spindrifts all over the mountain.

Cerro Tronador is huge, 11000+ feet and towers over everything near by, it is 3000 feet higher than anything around and covered in glacier, weird. I wonder how it got to be so different from everything around it.