another sweet day
Today I headed out off cerro cathedral, to go and visit the infamous Frey hut. Everyone always talks about this refugio so i had to take a look. Its a nice refugio with a cook if you want 17$ if you want a bed and to cook for yourself, or 35$ for a bed and dinner,and maybe even breakfast.
Cool zone, small runs but super beautiful with all the granite towers around. I met up with some friends on a ridge, and then continued on my way. I could not resist skiing one SE chute that had some great snow in it.
So nice to have a lunch with me today, a huge energy filled lunch.. It was time to head back so I looped back towards the ski hill and climbed a summit Torre Piramidal, or maybe; I will have to check a more detailed map. But here is me looking as cool as I could on the summit.
Another couple of decent south facing runs and I headed home. 10760ft later…
Ahhhhh Argentina
So many reasons to be happy.
In late June I was looking through Facebook and noticed a photo someone I knew had commented on. The photo was of Bariloche. Not knowing the person who took the photo, I nonetheless emailed him, Jaime, and asked him if he knew of any decent rentals in Bariloche. Up till then I had only found expensive places and none that were within my ballpark. Funnily enough Jaime was in charge of http://barilochevacationrental.com/ and he offered us http://barilochelakeshore.com/ for a great price. Similar to what we have paid for much smaller cabanas. This house is 3 times the size, and 4 times the luxury with a killer view. And with in floor heating. Tracey is in heaven.
Today I headed up to an area called Lopez trees, a bit of a bootpack up a trail and then some huge trees with large woodpeckers everywhere. As I toured up I realized that I finally had a stormy weather zone to play in. I also realized that I HAD FORGOTTEN MY LUNCH. Not good, tough to pull of large days without energy. I managed to bum some cookies of one guy but that was it.
Anyways I was psyched, there was powder and I was exploring. Soon enough I was on Filo de las Cabras. I shredded a south facing chute and had some sweet powder. I then headed up Pico Magnat 1869m, and had an awesome view of Monte Tronador, and in the distance Lanin. Pretty cool to be able to see Lanin from this far away.
I then skied back down and set a skin track/bootpack back up Filo de las Cabras, by now I was at 7000ft climbed and I stared shredding the 770 foot south facing chutes. So fun, so fast, so powdery. Having no energy from food, I still had energy from the powder buzz. 4 laps had me up to 10000 ft and I headed home.
So psyched. The mountains are small down here, but aesthetic and powder filled. So I may do lots of small laps but they will be great. These five runs were all different and all fun. Sorry typically red is up and green is down, which it is in the first photo but not this one these are all down. I climbed back up the middle line. Sorry I would change it but the internet is slow and frustrating.
55%
Ahh Villarrica volcano, so beautiful yet so harsh. From a distance so much potential but close up so much hardness. I have learned a tonne from this volcano. It has honed my whiteout skiing skills, it has sharpened my ice skiing skills, it has shown me how challenging my goal would be if I was stuck on just one mountain, especially this one. When planning our trip down here I came close to living in Pucon for a month or two, it seemed ideal. Centrally located with volcanoes all around. Luckily for me I only ended up here for two weeks, it is not a skiers dream, or if it is more of a nightmare than a wet dream.
I have persevered through whatever Villarrica threw at me, and now I am psyched to be heading to Bariloche for the month. I came here with the hope of climbing three volcanoes, which we did and then I just put my head down and punched back. This past week was good for vertical, 8800,6940,11760,5180,13520,7670= 53,870 ft in 6 days. Not too shabby, I need 3 more weeks like that and I will be back on par.
55% of the way. lots and lots to go!
