Backcountry
Conditions Report
Weather
Today was a stellar day at Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina. 14” inches of new snow had fallen over two days and the upper mountain had been closed for two days (Sunday and Monday).
Today started windless, cold, and clear. Catedral got most all chairs running right at 9am. The boys headed straight up to La Laguna knowing it would have the best snow on the hill.
The Del Bosque chair area and La Laguna proper were good, albeit wind-pressed. It was catchy snow and we saw some vicious wipe-outs from the chair. You could get going really fast on top of the wind-pressed snow, then when you’d turn and sink into the grabby snow and some people took some fierce diggers right at that moment.
For our first lap we skied La Laguna proper right over the cliff band. The snow was wind-pressed, about 6 inches deep (deeper if you pushed a ski pole into it), fast, and fun. Joe Aussie speed checked right before the big cliff and took a ferocious wipe-out. Rocks on skis in a quiet, windless mountain amphitheater is a damn loud it turns out.
After the lap in La Laguna, it was all about The Playground (just NE of La Laguna). The Playground, like last Friday, was completely blown in and about 2 feet deep or deeper. Dense, good, huck snow filled the zone wall to wall. Even the trees below The Playground were blown in and holding more snow than trees on other parts of the mountain.
We skied 4 laps in The Playground and had a ball. Esteban G. even threw a double backflip in there today. As the day wore on, winds came up, clouds rolled in and out, and temperatures warmed up. By the end of the day, you could see the next system moving in.
The trees above the Princessa II chair were surprisingly good on our way down the hill. We got reports that the Palmera trees were spectacular today.
The forecast for Caterdal in Bariloche is for a quick blast of heavy snow and wind tonight and clearing in the morning tomorrow. Basically, it looks like tomorrow will be a carbon copy of today. Thursday looks like it’ll be unsettled and cold. Thursday, Friday, Saturday look unsettled and real cold. -20C (-4F) cold. That kinda cold doesn’t come to Bariloche very often. This snow is gonna stay good for a bit.
We just realized today that besides the days the mountain’s been closed, it’s been powder everyday here since August 5th this summer…
“So I got that going for me… which is nice.” – Carl Spackler
CATEDRAL SNOW FORECAST:
More Snow Reports and News from South America Here:
SnowBrains South America
Just our tracks in La Laguna this morning. photo: snowbrains.com
Noice
Love to see some video from down there.
Damn, that looks fun.