Conditions Report
Las Lenas Conditions Report: August 7-12th, 2014
After getting about a foot of fresh snow on Wednesday, August 6th, 2014, the Marte chair opened again on Thursday. Super excited for another Marte powder day! Unluckily, the wind really worked the snow pack the night before and the south face of Marte wasn’t nearly as good as it was on Monday, August 4th, 2014. It was wind packed and wind “carton” and some pow patches. Eduardo and Cerro Martin were still in really good shape with great pow.
It warmed up a lot again Friday, August 8th, 2014 (10C/50F at the base) but it was an amazing day for hiking. Great pow in a lot of great lines: Cerro Negro, Entre Rios, Cerro Martin, Torecillas.
Over the weekend (August 9th & 10th) it was extremely windy and hot. A warm wind the locals call “viento zonda” (foehn wind) blew through the valley and up the mountain. Then Sunday it cooled down a lot. After a melt freeze cycle the whole mountain froze over. Marte has been closed since Friday due to high winds.
Today, August 12th, 2014, the wind finally died down and temperatures at the base was well below 0C/32F. Marte chair was open and we were hoping to find some powder up high. The first run we skied the far side of Cerro Martin, which is really shady and well protected, usually holding great pow on steep lines. But today we got disappointed. It was still a great run but it was wind packed chalky hard snow. After we headed up to Torecillas knowing that we wouldn’t get disappointed there, even after extreme winds there is always pow and it wasn’t effected by the sun because of the altitude of 3800m. Run of the day definitely.
The forecast for Las Lenas right now is for nothing but sun and heat. Just what we fear most here…
LAS LENAS FORECAST:
who is this leak-y poppelmeier?
A very…very dangerous man.
Yeeeea eike vamos vamos!