Las Leñas is having a rough season. They got some big storms in June and that was it. Since then it’s been dry and consistantly hot. Consistent heat only means one thing in the mountains – snowmelt. Everyday, Leñas is losing snow. Las Leñas is at the same latitude as Los Angeles, California (35 degrees latitude) and even in winter, when the sun comes out, it cooks.
There has even been talk of Las Leñas closing for the season on August 9th if things don’t change drastically. Right now, there is only 1 inch forecasted in the next 7 days…
Here’s an eyewitness account of the happenings in Las Leñas, Argentina in 2013:
“I´ve been coming down to Las Lenas for a while now but I´ve never seen it like this. The last snowfall was more than three weeks ago, and it has gotten really warm since then. No snow in the lower elevations except for a few shady gullys, hardpack and ice in the higher elevations. You maybe can get some decent turns in the high hike-to-terrain, but mostly it´s the same up there too. The poma-lifts are out of order because of lack of snow, pistenbullys [snow cats] try their best to fill up dirtholes on the groomers.
Las Lenas with fresh pow is definately the best lift access terrain on the planet and till then we’ll try to make the best of things…” – Matthias Weichselbaumer
It doesn’t look pretty at Las Leñas right now.
LAS LENAS FORECAST:
Non ideal.