Ski Season!

Location: Valle Nevado and La Parva

Rundown:  Several great days of snow in the Andes both on piste and off!
 

Every Saturday during ski season we chaperones drag our carcasses out of bed and BACK to school where we deal with MORE students who've misplaced yet MORE things.  Yes, it's Ski Club!  Once you're rolling up to the mountain, it's so worth it though.

And on those days we're not chaperones, we ski for free!  Pack shovel, beacon, and probe when heading off piste, just in case...  Attacked the ridge between Falsa and La Parva a couple of times.  Did the chutes A, B, and C, below. 

                        A                  B                                                          C




Took the lift to the top of Andes lift then skinned over to La Parva.  It looks like easy going, but this took an hour and a half to reach the ridge.

The majesty of the mountains... spoiled by Graether poking people in the butt.  I suppose it means the Andes bring out the little kid in all of us.  At least he skis well.

The going is fairly flat at first and you cover a lot of ground.  The peaks seem to be in your grasp.

And then it gets steeper.  The heel-lifts come up with the incline and the huffing and puffing starts.

The pause on a rocky outcropping to chow, hydrate, and load our skis onto our packs for the last, and steepest slog up to the ridge.

Once on the ridge, the going flattens out again.  We breathe more easily.  But not that much more.

We hike to just above our targeted gullies and rig our skis for the drop.  Spirits high are high despite feeling a little less than altitude acclimatized.



We take turns dropping in.  Sergio spots from the peak of a towering pillar, cut by the chute.

Jhan contemplating gully B before kitting up and dropping in.  What a beautiful place!

And there's the drop.  It doesn't look so bad from down here, but it's steep and not super soft.

Coming out from between the huge pillars of rock in gully B.  Note the cornice shadow on the ridge we hucked from.  Pretty steep.  Pretty fun.

A couple pre-drop shots before trying out chute B.  Spring snow evident here with all the melting.
 

... made for good turns once the sun had been out for a bit.  You could tell the difference on the cloudy days.  Rougher going.

Gully C is the narrowest, with a huge snow bowl you have to drop into before cutting through the tight, but not too tight chute.  Here Sergio makes a few wide turns in the good snow before tightening up to make it through. 

The pillars are like sentinels, huge edifices through which you must thread your skis.  There's just enough room for comfort.  In icy conditions it would be pretty ugly.

Fantastic days playing in the mountains with friends.  We were like kids in a candy store.

So much to explore.  So little time!  What a fantastic playground to have in our backyard!