Today was simply sublime at Cerro Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina.  

The skiing was stellar and the views were stunning.  

Sun mixed with cloud – snow whirlwinds galore – snow drifting before your eyes – getting blown off your feet while hiking…  An incredible day.

Big snow and big wind up high overnight gave way to sun & continued big wind this morning.  They couldn’t get anything open up top due to the wind this morning…

Then, at 11am, they popped the Punta Nevada and La Hoya chairs.  The skiing was great off those chairs, but we wanted more.

The Nubes chair was closed, which is ideal (please note:  when Nubes is closed, that terrain is basically backcountry – have your beacon, probe, shovel, avalanche education and a badass partner).  We hiked Nubes 4 times before they opened it at about 3pm-ish.

The snow on Nubes was delectable.  Wind pressed, yet soft and not punchy.  You could haul ass at full throttle and speed check anywhere.  Simply dreamy…  My favorite kind of snow.

After 3 chairlifts rides on Nubes we cruised over to La Laguna to find much more wind affected snow.  Please remember that La Laguna is out-of-bounds, uncontrolled, backcountry, avalanche terrain.  You need beacon, probe, shovel, avalanche education and a badass partner to safely manage that terrain.

Nubes was the spot today.

The snow level was at about 1,500m last night so it was key to get high and stay high.  Albeit, the corn/rain soaked snow down low skied extremely well.

Cerro Catedral reported 20cms (8″) of new snow this morning.  

The snowpack is getting deeper, but it’s still generally low tide everywhere on the mountain.  We need another big, wet, nasty storm to get the snowpack to where we want it.  The current forecast looks promising.

We were able to ski to the bottom today on the Del Bosque side of the hill and only had to take skis off twice.

Skiing to the bottom appears to be just about at an end.   

SNOW NUMBERS:

FORECAST:

PHOTOS: