Marte is Open!

It is always important to remember to bring your patience to South America. I have been in Las Lenas for almost a week. The wind has been blowing at 50 km/h and the infamous Marte chairlift broken indefinitely. Rumors have been circulating about when the chairlift might resume operation. It was rumored to open in a couple of days or not all for the rest of the season. As the frustration rose, gringos vented in a few different ways. Some put on their skins and headed to the top of the mountain while others retreated to the casino for late night gambling and dancing. Everyone was checking the weather forecast for the Andes; tentatively making plans to travel somewhere else.

I have to admit, even after 5 years of skiing Las Lenas, I was also entertaining the idea of fleeing. Luckily, I didn’t forget my patience. After five days of battling the wind and multiple days of skinning, Marte opened. It was worth the wait. Game on in Las Lenas!

I spent the first couple of days cruising around the lower mountain. The skiing was good, but not worth the 8 hour plane ride and the overnight bus ticket that it takes to get here. Day three I decided to skin to the top and was pleasantly surprised to find great snow. Above is the footage from Cerro Martin. Always feels good to earn your turns!

“Why Do We Go Looking for Trouble?”

As we are dropping into the Parrot’s Shell, Imar says to himself, “Why do we go looking for trouble?” The top of the couloir is steep and narrow. We all know there is a double drop somewhere at the bottom. We have looked at it everytime we ride up the Neptuno chairlift and now we are dropping in. Why do we go looking for trouble, because what would life be without a little trouble.

Las Lenas is full of trouble. Thefirst line I skied in Las Lenas is called Sin Solida, No Exit. I remember riding up the Neptuno and looking at the super steep, rocky terrain. Eric and I thought we had picked out a perfect couloir, or at least one that went through. We were wrong. Half way down our ski, the couloir stopped short at a 80 foot huck. And that is the beauty of Las Lenas.

A short ski off the Marte chairlift will take you to some of the steepest and most challenging terrain anywhere in the world. What is interesting, most of this terrain is considered “out-of-bounds.” So while Marte Bowl (the bowl directly under the chairlift) is closed due to hard “duro” conditions, all of the super gnarley stuff right next to it is open. This is also the beauty of Las Lenas.

With only one week of skiing left, Las Lenas is a ghost town. There are no lift lines and most of the gringos have left. The skiing is amazing. Days are filled with early morning corn runs until 1:00 and then chalky/powder runs in the afternoon. Not a bad way to spend your day.

Clare loaded the bus today and said goodbye to another season in Lenas. She’ll be back!

Just One More Week

Las Lenas is still going off. It is the third time our departure date has arrived and the third time we have extended our stay. We keep talking about heading South to check out Bariloche and other mountains, but can’t quite seem to be able to leave Las Lenas. Today was a prime example of why.

Our last big storm was ten days ago and we are still finding powder within the resort. Today was really fun. We tried to ski a line we had never skied every run. And we found some really good snow.

A lot of corn skiing and some great powder turns.

It is hard to believe that with so much snow, Lenas will be closing on Monday, Sept 29th. It is sad to think that we will be leaving Las Lenas soon, Wednesday, but I can’t wait to checkout Bariloche.

Cerro Negro

Cerro Negro stands at 10,547 feet and is known to be the steepest of all the tall peaks surrounding Las Lenas.

Las Lenas received about 3cm of snow last night and we were hoping there would be a fresh coat of paint on Cerro Negro. The snow looked pretty good from the top, but when I dropped in I realized it was bullet proof with 3cm of new snow on top.

The snow did soften up half way down the slope.

And turned to perfect corn near the bottom.

It was great to ski Cerro Negro. It was the last big peak I hadn’t skied in Lenas. Next time I ski it, I will wait for powder.

Exploration and New Lines

The crew was a little beat after hiking yesterday and we decided to do a little exploring without a lot of hiking. Clare was given a photo of a pretty impressive line last year and still had not skied it. We decided our mission would be to find it and ski it. Our first run, we were off by a bit, but we found some really good corn skiing.

The corn skiing was great!

The best part of the run was when we reached the bottom to see the line we were hunting for. We were so excited! It looked really cool, but I have to admit that it looked really steep. Clare decided she might want her helmet and Eric definitely wanted his camera. We headed back to the base to get prepared.

At the base we took a little break at the hospitality shack for some free gatorade and candy. After our snack, we headed back up the Marte chairlift on the hunt for Clare’s line.

We found the line. The best part about the line was the powder fields on the way down.

The zone we were in was so cool. It was full of spines and chutes.

After skiing the powder fields, it was a little difficult to get to the entrance of Clare’s line. We had to traverse over a rocky ridge with exposure on both sides. The closer we got, the steeper it looked.

We decided Clare would ski first because it was her idea. I wasn’t too upset to let her ski first. It was difficult to see the exit of the line. The light was really flat and steepness of the chute was intimidating. Yeah, I was nervous.

Clare dropped in with confidence and after two turns was out of sight. Everything seemed to go well for her, so I buckled my boots, took a deep breath, and headed towards the entrance of the line. I was so stoked when I got there. The line was sick. It was about 60 degrees with a straight-line at the bottom.

After initiating my first turn, I realized the snow was good and started to enjoy myself.

I was so stoked when I got the bottom. I skied up to Clare and gave her a huge hi-five. It was one of the steepest lines I had skied in Lenas. We had a great day and I am looking forward to our next adventure.

Another Bluebird Powder Day

We didn’t think it could get much better than yesterday, but when my alarm went off and I looked outside, I knew it was going to be another bluebird powder day. We had planned on skiing down to the river all day, but as we reached the top of the Marte chairlift, our plans changed. The sky was crystal clear, there was no wind, and Entre Rios was calling our names.

Entre Rios stands at 11, 299 feet. It is a beautiful peak and with all of the people in Lenas this year, it gets tagged super fast. No wind, powder, and blue skies; we had no choice other than to ski Entre Rios.

So we hiked.

And then we hiked a little more.

And then it was time to drop in!

And it was all worth the hike!

Clare liked it too!

It was a little sluffy.

We loved it! Our second run, we went in search for a little corn skiing.

And we found it.

And we liked it.

And so did our new friend Ben that we met on the chairlift ride up Marte.

Las Lenas 9/10/08

Today we went to ski one of my favorite coulairs in Lenas. It is about a 1.5 hour skin to the entrance of the coulair. This is the view from the top. Isn’t she beautiful?

The snow is still a little weird in Lenas right now due to the cold temps and of course the wind. We expected the top of the coulair to be breakable crust, but hoped that once we were in we might find some corn.

As expected, my first three turns were breakable crust. Did I mention how much I like breakable crust, especially when I’m dropping into a steep coulair. Everything was going pretty well until my fourth turn. On my fourth turn the snow started to move, not super fast, but still started to move. I made one more hop turn and tucked myself next to some rocks. When I reached my safety zone, I turned around to see all of entire slope slide past me. This is not the best pic, but maybe you will get the idea.

The slide wasn’t scary. It was a slow moving wet slide, but it did continue all the way down the 3,000 foot coulair. And then we were left with a lot bed surface to ski.

Skiing the bed surface of a slide isn’t that much fun. As we skied to the middle of the coulair we found some protected snow in the shade that was almost like skiing pow, It had a little crust on the top of it, but pretty good snow.

It was nice to find some good snow!

The coulair eventually choked again. We were forced to ski more bed surface and the breakable crust right next to the slide. Did I mention breakable crust is hard to ski. I wish I had brought the Kuros. They rip in breakable.

All and all we had a great day! We skied one of my favorite coulairs in Lenas. I’m not sure what is going to happen to the snow in the next couple of days. It is so close being corn, but a storm has moved into Lenas. Maybe we’ll being skiing powder tomorrow.

There’s No Bad Snow, Just A Bad Turn

The first time I heard this, I was in Portillo after it had rained at the top of the mountain and then the temps dropped to sub zero. We had willed ourselves to ski until 2:00 when we retreated to the fire for hot cocoa. It was miserable skiing. Theo Meiners came in and asked why we weren’t skiing and we looked at him like he was crazy. “Have you been out there Theo? It’s terrible!” Theo gave me that crazy look of his and said, “Jess there is no bad snow, just a bad turn.”

“There is no bad snow, only a bad turn,” was my mantra as we searched every aspect of the mountain for descent snow. There were pockets of good snow in the nooks and cranies of the mountain, but most of the mountain was covered in breakable crust. Breakable crust is my least favorite type of snow to ski because it is so unpredictable. I would rather ski consistent bullet proof ice. The worst part about breakable crust is that you never know when it is going to break and you are going to fall on your head. Needless to say there were a few bad turns skiing.

The good news is there is a freeze thaw cycle occurring and the corn skiing should be phenomenal in the next couple of days.

Lenas 9-7-08

Quick Lenas Weather Report from Matt Annetts. I was too beat up to go skiing today and had to finish some homework. Skiing pow six days in a row will take it out of you: No new snow. The wind is strong at the top of the mountain, but Marte is still running. There is still some powder to be found in the nooks and cranies, if you know where to look. The north facing snow is sun crusted. And the vis is grey-bird.

Thanks Matt!

Marte Pow Day

I don’t know if words can describe how good today was. It was one of those days that you never forget. After three down days and then two days of the worst visibility ever on the lower mountain, it happened. The sky was blue and Marte opened.

Marte was scheduled to open around 10:00, but nothing in Argentina happens when they say it will. We loaded the lift at 9:00 and headed up. When we reached the bottom of Marte, we discovered that we weren’t the only gringos hopingMarte would open. Ski Patrol had a pop fence up and gringos were poised and ready.

We sat for two hours waiting for patrol to let us go. Finally it happen, the most aggressive chinese downhill in history. The fence was trampled down. There was pushing, shoving, grabbing, and a few casualties. But it was all worth it because there is nothing like a blue bird powder day off Marte.

We skied two untouched shots offMarte. My favorite quote from Chris included, “Wow! That was long! I don’t know what AK is like, but that was huge!”

After multiple down days, Colin was starting to wonder why we convinced him to come to Lenas. He didn’t expect a lot, “Skiing in the summer is kind of novelty, but Las Lenas is the real deal. This isn’t just skiing in September, this is getting it done in September.”

Today was an incredible day. Tomorrow we hike………………….

I hope everyone enjoyed the Powder stoke. I am. The last photo is to give you an idea of how much snow fell while we were doing our laundry.