These pictures are from the last two days of skiing, which have been amazing. Marte has been open, the sun has been out and the wind has been low. All of this is very rare for Las Lenas. My friend Danny and I have been exploring a region south of the resort where, unfortunately, very near to where we have been skiing the last two days a rescue attempt is currently taking place. There are not many details but at least 2 people are involved. The area we have been skiing does not have a name so we have called it Danny and Tom's or just DT for short, maybe it will stick, maybe not no big deal. This will be the first picture. It is a really cool area that holds some awesome snow, has tons of tubes to pick from and cliffs you can hit. The first day we skied right down the gut and I guess that would be DT proper. Today we went back and skied the left side of the of the zone with our friend Cynthia who is a guide here. We decided to call it Cynthia's variation of DT, we are really creative, but if you can get a run named after you here I think you should take it. We believe each run is over 3k vertical feet, however my idea of a long run is not what it used to be and this is a long one so it could be more. The next pictures will be of my tracks down the second pitch. The following picture is from the storm we had last Saturday. The table had only been out in the snow for 30 min. When it snows here it snows really hard. The last picture is of Cerro Los Fosiles in the morning with the moon over the Sombrero. Eduardo's, which is one of the main runs here, is all the way to the left. Hopefully these pictures go through.

Helmet Cam Action.......Falsa Lenas

Big day before the biggest dump of the season. Five hours of hiking for this beauty. The conditions were perfect and the snow on the upper face was nearly boot-top. Just over 5000 vertical feet top to bottom and nearly 3000 of it above 40 degrees so no complaints.

Tom leading the charge up Chico Lenas. The shorter peak to the right is the namesake of the bowl and we end us skinning the ridgeline in front of us and then skiing the spines and/or ridges that can be seen to lookers left from the ridgeline. All four of us had great lines with a little air and some great snow. We have no ski photos as you can see the blinding sun making it's way on to our line there were no photos that turned out.
Tom, Dave, and Jose making the tour look easy....well I guess it is a pretty nice way to spend 5 hours on a beautiful sunny day
This the neighbors hippy van getting hammered on night 1 of the biggest storm yet. This photo was taken about 4 hours after it had started snowing......powdery dreams lead to another powdery down day.

Snow, Snow, Snow......this is what it looked like on night three of the last storm. Over 1.5 meters of snow fell at the mid-mountain stake. In Imperial terms.....over 41/2 feet of the goodness.

I have tried to post some of the helmet cam footage but after 3 and half hours of waiting for one video and still nothing I am going to throw in the towel for now. I will give it another shot again soon. Until then enjoy the photos and think snow.

Quilmes, Fernet, Wine, and Asado

Tom has made the ski posting for today so I thought we would pass on a little of the culture that we have experienced as well. Note the similarity to ski towns in the USA.....no women? Imagine the interesting happenings that come about with 15 dudes and 24 40 oz. beers, 4 bottles of fernet, 10 bottles of wine, and 20 pounds of meat.......

Here is a classic example of the wolf pack. In the background you can see the large grill that is heating up and in the foreground on the table is the main staple of the Argentinan diet...."MEAT!"
A close up of the meat pile and the beverage variety that can be found at nearly all Asados. Note also the sweet mustache that Dave is rocking.(center right red coat white hat big caterpillar) Lock all of your doors and hide your women and children the perrosdelpolvos are on the loose.

Check out the next Waylon and Willie rocking out at one of the various wineries in Mendoza. After a couple of fun days in the city of Mendoza checking out the vibe and buying a guitar Dave and I decided that it would be in our best interest to take a wine tour via bike. We were a traveling one man band....well two men but only one of them could play.
I guess there isn't much explanation needed here!
This last photo is the inside of the museum portion of the winery pictured above. The winery originally opened in 1890 and they have detailed their growth process all of the way up to the modern techniques used today.