dates: 8/25-9/1/06
where: valle nevado, chile
weather: glorious sunshine & spring conditions to absolute whiteout
since i finally got the video clips together, figured i'd put our trip report from valle nevado, chile this summer. better late than never.
fabulous trip. nothing like making turns during the summer. 8 fantastic days of skiing.
our last day was the one of the best days we've had at any ski area. received about 6-10" overnight and woke to blue skies. while it wasn't waist deep, no one was there. just traverse further across the ridge, drop in and leave your signature. ride lift and repeat. no scrounging around trees looking for stashes (acually there are no trees). like a dream ...
loved the place. when you're there it almost feels like a private ski area. i think they have something like 266 rooms and the santiagoans only make the arduous journey up the 'access' road in very good weather so you pretty much have the slopes to yourself.
though everything was open & skiable, we didn't catch one of their better snow years. they hadn't had any significant snow for a couple weeks before we arrived. however we got maybe 2-4" up top our first night and that set us up for a couple days. we quickly found our stashes and had some great skiing. it was pretty amazing that we were able to find untracked for days. then we had a couple of glorious days of spring conditions.
on day 6 we made what turned out to be the questionable decision to visit the interconnected la parva ski area. place looked to have some interesting terrain, only problem was after a few runs by late morning the clouds moved in and we were in total whiteout. never 'seen' anything like it before. couldn't see my my skis. actually fell over standing still. we were practically the only ones out. very difficult finding our back from an unfamiliar area. a bit of an adventure ...
anyway loved the trip. skiing was great, food was great, people were great, facilities were great. hope to do it again in a couple of years. video link below. now the countdown until k opens begins ...
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=6de984fc7bba094c94cff1eb583f4e31.1070647
where: valle nevado, chile
weather: glorious sunshine & spring conditions to absolute whiteout
since i finally got the video clips together, figured i'd put our trip report from valle nevado, chile this summer. better late than never.
fabulous trip. nothing like making turns during the summer. 8 fantastic days of skiing.
our last day was the one of the best days we've had at any ski area. received about 6-10" overnight and woke to blue skies. while it wasn't waist deep, no one was there. just traverse further across the ridge, drop in and leave your signature. ride lift and repeat. no scrounging around trees looking for stashes (acually there are no trees). like a dream ...
loved the place. when you're there it almost feels like a private ski area. i think they have something like 266 rooms and the santiagoans only make the arduous journey up the 'access' road in very good weather so you pretty much have the slopes to yourself.
though everything was open & skiable, we didn't catch one of their better snow years. they hadn't had any significant snow for a couple weeks before we arrived. however we got maybe 2-4" up top our first night and that set us up for a couple days. we quickly found our stashes and had some great skiing. it was pretty amazing that we were able to find untracked for days. then we had a couple of glorious days of spring conditions.
on day 6 we made what turned out to be the questionable decision to visit the interconnected la parva ski area. place looked to have some interesting terrain, only problem was after a few runs by late morning the clouds moved in and we were in total whiteout. never 'seen' anything like it before. couldn't see my my skis. actually fell over standing still. we were practically the only ones out. very difficult finding our back from an unfamiliar area. a bit of an adventure ...
anyway loved the trip. skiing was great, food was great, people were great, facilities were great. hope to do it again in a couple of years. video link below. now the countdown until k opens begins ...
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=6de984fc7bba094c94cff1eb583f4e31.1070647
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