Las Lenas 8/31/08

The wind continues to nuke, Marte is closed, and it is another down day in Las Lenas.All of the gringos are getting tired of sitting around. We all loaded at 9:00 just to sit and watch Marte not open.

Lenas, Saturday, 8/30

After spending a week staying in Mallargue, we made the move up to Las Lenas. Mallargue is a much cheaper option to staying in Lenas, but the bus ride is a bit long. When we arrived in Lenas, the wind was blowing, but Marte was running. We were able to get one run off Marte. Here’s a few photos from our last bus ride and one run off Marte for Saturday.

The bus is supposed to come every day at 8:30, but sometimes it is a “little” late.

We stopped every day at a goat farm to trade eggs etc. This is about half way to Las Lenas.

The snow was consistent and we were happy to be skiing. The wind continued to blow. No that’s not powder, it is a spin drift attacking me.

Collin get’n some wind slab.

Chris wanted some too!

It was a little softer over here!

Skiing Pow In Las Lenas 8/26-8/29

Santa Rosa hit Las Lenas on Tuesday 8/26. On Wednesday, Eric’s birthday, Marte opened for a few hours and we skied Las Lenas in three feet of pow. Not a bad birthday present. This a photo re-cap of the storm.

It started snowing on Tuesday, 8-26. We went to bed dreaming of pow.

On wednesday, Eric’s Birthday, we awoke to three feet of powder and Marte was running! You couldn’t ask for a better birthday present.

Eric sang “Happy Birthday to Me” the entire way down Edwardos.

I was all smiles!

Wednesday was an amazing day and we celebrated with an Argentine Asado. Huge thanks to Abe and Mike!

Thursday we were ready for more pow skiing only to find that Marte was closed due to wind. Conditions started to deteriorate.

First down day in Lenas. A few gringos tried to hike up and caused a small slide.

The wind has continued to blow.

Santa Rosa in Las Lenas

Santa Rosa hit Las Lenas on Tuesday, August 26th. It dumped about three feet of snow. On wednesday morning, Marte was running and the sun was shinning. Eric and I skied some of the best snow we have ever skied in Las Lenas.

It continued to snow!

Bike and Wine – Mendoza, Argentina

Eric and I joined Collin O’Farrell in Denver and headed for Las Lenas Argentina. The first week has been great, wine tours in Mendoza and powder skiing in Las Lenas.

If you have a long layover in Santiago and do not want to pay the tax, $100US to enter the country, I highly recommend the Admiral’s Club. It will cost $30 US for all the food, booze, and free WiFi. Not a bad way to spend the day.

If you are in Mendoza, the Bikes and Wine Tour is a must. The tour includes a bike and a map. It is a blast. Don’t miss the museum, it was my favorite part. After the museum, there a 8 different vinyards and two olive oil factories. It is a great way to spend the day.

Wine was first produced by stretching a cow hide, women would get inside and squish the grapes, then they would open the hole and the juice would pore out.

It is nice to end the day watching the sunset over a bottle of Argentina’s best.

Las Lenas Fashion Show

This is for you BIG AL. Not only are you missing Pow days off Marte, you missed the Fashion Show.

Mount Owen and the Mountain Goat

First of all, I would like to thank the boys for taking me an amazing adventure and turning me on to another awesome mountain sport. You guys were great!

Photo By Alan Ellis www.jackieandalan.com

With my new gear arriving overnight, I packed my bags and headed for the trail head. My only experience in the Tetons is hiking the Middle Teton and skiing 10,552, in which it is important to leave before sunrise. I knew I was out of my element when I was told to meet at Lupine meadows at 1:00p.m. (a nice country club start). It was hard for me to believe we were going to get to the hanging snow fields before night fall.

We bush wacked our way up to the Teton Glacier which sits between the Grand Teton and Mount Owen. There I stashed my approach shoes and strapped on my mountaineering boots and crampons. We quickly crossed the Teton Glacier and began our ascent up the Koven.

The Koven was a mix of ice and rock. We used our ice tools and crampons to negotiate the snow and to my surprise the rock. I had never climbed in crampons before. My first pitch, granted a 5.6 was incredibly intimidating. The climbing itself was mellow, the fact that I had razor blades for shoes was nerve racking. The mountain goat, Stephen, assured me that crampons were great for climbing in, just trust them. I did and we eventually made our way to our bivy site.

This is where I truly felt like a tourist. As I stood on the small ledge looking down the steep couliar, I had no idea what to do. Luckily, this was an old hat trick for Stephen. He began placing large rocks around the outside of the ledge to prevent us from rolling off the side of the bivy as we slept at night. I have to say, it was really cool. And the view from the bivy was breathtaking.

As the night descended on us, we snuggled into our sleeping bags and watched the big dipper take over the sky. Tuesday morning, we woke at 4:00am and started the stove for some warm oatmeal and instant coffee. We started our climb up the east ridge of Mount Owen at 5:00am.

We ascended a hanging snow field and traversed the east side of Mount Owen to finish the rest of the route on rock. Luckily, no crampons this time.

Not a lot of “chicken heads,” my favorite type of hand holds when I am climbing over heavy exposure, but the rock was sticking and soon enough I found myself at the top of Mount Owen.

The weather was perfect, crystal clear. There is nothing like sitting at the top of peak and feeling lucky to be alive. The only thing better is hearing the click of your bindings before you ski down.

Getting to the top is only half of the battle. Getting down is the other half. We carefully free climbed down to our bivy site and enjoyed lunch.

After lunch we didn’t get ski, but we did get use gravity and we repelled down the to the Teton Glacier.

Waiting for me on the other side of the Glacier were my approach shoes which I couldn’t wait to get my feet into. Next stop Dornan’s for beer.

Every climbing trip in the Tetons should end with a cold beer at the deck of Dornan’s. You can kick back and reflect on where you just were and what you just accomplished.