New Adventure- Bariloche

After nearly 30 hours in a bus I have finally landed in Bariloche. The bus ride was a bit uncomfortable thanks to a bad cheeseburger and seats that didn't recline fully like they were supposed to but none the less it is time to get rowdy. I met a couple of cool people on the bus who I stayed with for the first two nights in town and then they moved on to the snowboard sessions hostel so I had the place to myself. What a great deal; I had a two bedroom arpartment on the 4th floor overlooking Lago Nahuel Haupei all to myself. The one tough thing from the trip after the cheeseburger was the fact that "Santa Rosa" had come and destroyed the town and the mountain. Santa Rosa is big snowstorm that usually marks the change of the season and ultimately the end of the winter season here. The storm was so big in Bariloche that the town came to a complete stand still and the mountain was in the same boat. 1.5 meters(4.5 feet) of snow in town made for huge lakes and puddles everywhere so lugging all of my shit around was a huge pain not to mention I was soaked from the knee down. The mountain probably took the worst of it losing two lift towers and a brand new lodge built last season. They reported 3.5 meters(10.5 feet) of snow up top and they don't do any snow control so the slab just built so big and then released from the ice layer created two weeks ago when it rained all of the way to the top. Luckily nobody was on the mountain then. This being said the mountain was able to open down low but with warm temps and new snow on an ice layer it was all but deadly up high and the thickest, nastiest elephant snot snow I have ever seen at the bottom. To say the least buying a lift ticket was a mistake but oh well I can check this place off of the list now.

This photo shows some of the new wet snow down low but more importantly it shows the bamboo that we skinned through on our way to Refugio Frey. I had envisioned bamboo to be in warmer less snowy climates but that was definitely not true here.
I found this grizzly bear along the skin track? It was weird though he was walking upright and talking? He said something about going to Ushuaia and eating fresh fish!
This is the last gulley on the way to Refugio Frey. It was an interesting adventure getting there as you can imagine with all of the new snow and relatively no snow for the majority of the season it was hollow and manky. Big waterfalls, downed trees, and hanging snowfields above you make traveling interesting in the backcountry.
Bamboo chutes and elephant snot make for a weird skinning environment.
This is one of many great photos I was able to take just out the window of my apartment. This place definitely didn't suck and I look forward to visiting again. The aesthetics can't be beat and there is more of a true town compared a majority of the other ski areas in South America.

Fun Shit?

This post is to shed some more light on the day that was Adrenalina. The name isn't just there to be cool or different it definitely gets your adrenaline pumping....in some ways more than others. See you on the next crazy adventure.

Mucho stinky stinky time!! Never leave the house without at least one whole roll of TP! This photo looks kind of painful but I think that is what made the second half of the trip a bit more humorous.
Looks like somebody is happy to be on top!
Good morning here is your ass being handed to you on a silver platter. If you look up through this gulley you canh see the moon still shining bright. The morning was perfect, no headlamps, a super bright moon, and then a perfect sunrise at elevation.
We were unable to see where we needed to go to get in so I did a bit of billy-goating on the summit ridge to find a snow line that went through. The rock was very unstable and breakable so rather than down-climbing I decided this was the safest way off the ridge.
This is the brilliant choice we made to get into our line. Think the adrenaline is pumping here? Dave led in and decided to take his skis off at the rocks in the middle and I ended up trying to walk through the rocks to the snow after I saw his efforts. Both ways were effective so all is well that ends well.

Las Lenas the Grand Finale

The final big push the season in Las Lenas for Dave and I was to bag "Adrenalina". This run is the crown jewel of the valley and if feels really great to have it done. It is one of those lines that stares you in the face day in and day out but is quite a big haul to the top. We were told it would be 8-10 hours to the top which is a pretty big day. The route up isn't too challenging but it is nearly 7000 vertical feet so it is no easy task. Knowing this we decided to skip sleep for the most part, party all night long, and then leave the house around 5 am. Not probably the smartest way to tackle one of the biggest lines the Las Lenas Valley has to offer but it worked. Below is a shot of the route up which is known as "El Repio". With the power of fernet and whiskey Dave and I were able to summit this beast in just over 6 hours. We were both cold, a little drunk, hungover, tired, and hungry the whole way but the hard work and effort paid off.

Below is Dave making his way up to the top of this monster. This was the last face that we had to climb to make the summit ridge and boy were we glad to finally be here.
Below is shot is from a run on the opposite side of Adrenalina named Sans Nom. This shows the main face on Adrenalina. If you look straight at the summit in the background we skied just to the lookers right. The pointy summit in the foreground is the shoulder that we had to circumnavigate to gain the ridge.

This photo shows the exact route up and the obvious snowline that we skied through to make it to the bottom. This was set up as a sunset shot but it really illustrates the beauty of this line and the route taken to summit.
This last photo was taken on our walk back to the house. What a day and what an adventure. Las Lenas tests every part of a skier or boarder and really lets them know where they stand. For myself I can say that I have grown as person and as skier through this awesome experience. I have more patience and less funds than when I started but I think that is a good trade.