Bariloche, Argentina Conditions Report: “Big September Powder”

We’ve been waiting for a while for a big powder day here in Bariloche, Argentina.  A big storm rolled in late Sunday night with big snow, big wind, and big cold.  Snow levels dropped into town and the wind was ripping.  The wind ripped hard enough to close Catedral ski resort all day yesterday.

This morning, the wind died down just enough for Catedral to get many of the upper mountain chairs open.  It was cold, windy, and visibility was tough in during the morning hours today, but the snow was immaculate.  The snow was fluffy, deep, and not wind pressed.

On the Nubes side of the mountain, the snow was about a 8-12″ deep with a soft layer underneath.  

On the Laguna side of the mountain there were wind blown zones with about 5 feet of new snow with the rest of the zone holding about 2 feet.  Laguna was gorgeous and fat today.  I headed up towards the top of Laguna today before turning around after seeing how fat the near ridgeline wind loading appeared.

Today I skied a few laps of the Punta Nevada chair in very low visibility and had a blast in the great snow.  As visibility improved, I hiked up Nubes three times and got some great turns but nothing too deep.

About 2pm the sun came out and I headed out to La Laguna to find the place buried in new snow.  I skied the Playground and it was perfect.  I got a bit aggressive and jumped off a rock or two that had very little snow on top and my skis payed the price.

AVALANCHE OBSERVATIONS:

On the upper part of Nubes I found a lesser density weak layer about one foot deep.  It tested in the moderate range and spacial variability was very high.  As I skied down Nubes into the rocky chute zone, there was much less new snow (due to wind) and there was old snow sticking out in many places.  Nubes ended up getting skied very hard today and I saw no avalanches.

La Laguna looked very fat up high due to wind loading.  About 5 feet of wind deposited snow in spots well below the ridge line.  Lower down, in the Playground there was about 2 feet of new snow that had the same low density weak layer about a foot or 18″ down that Nubes had.  This layer tested moderately and I did not see any avalanche in this zone.

I saw no avalanches today, nor cracking, nor heard any whoomphing.

BARILOCHE FORECAST:

Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and it’ll certainly be a stellar day.  Get ready to have some fun.