Spring Skiing in Bariloche – Patagonia, Argentina Here in Bariloche, Argentina we just received a very late season storm that was one of the biggest of the whole year (read about it here). However being fairly far North at 41ยฐS our brief relapse into winter quickly fell back to spring. With the return of spring and a renewed snowpack, we were able to explore a new area. Worried about the strong sun, Mark and I met up at 4:45am and drove over to the Cerro Lopez trailhead. As we hiked the sun quickly rose above Laguna Nahuel Huapi. We took a nice break at Refugio Lopez and let the sun warm our sleepy selves up. […] Conditions Report Aaron Rice | November 10, 2014 0 Comments
Monster Late-season Storm – 150cm+ of Powder in Bariloche, Argentina! Patagonia is known for it’s big mountains and impressive winds. The mountains attractย the skiers and the winds often leave them disappointed. However sometime the weather gods are nice. Last week I was down in southern patagonia hiking and skiing and continually getting shut down by weather. The forecast for Bariloche was for and impressively cold system for this time of […] Conditions Report Aaron Rice | November 7, 2014 3 Comments
Patagonia Backcountry Report: Touching the Sky in Volcano Land Casablanca Volcano, Chile We woke up in our tents parked along the access road up to the Casablanca Volcano. The night had been perfectly clear with a quarter moon and great stargazing. The morning was crisp and clear. We had breakfast and a few cups of hot tea. South America is converting me to a tea with milk and sugar drinker. We drove the short distance to the Antillanca ski area. The wind was nuking at 40-60kph sustained. We were a bit nervous but there was little cloud cover and no storms looked […] Conditions Report Aaron Rice | October 2, 2014 0 Comments
Inbounds Avalanche in Antillanca, Chile Almost Takes Out Lift After a large storm followed by warm weather, an inbounds avalanche in Antillanca Ski Area almost took out a lift tower. The slide likely occurred during the first warmup on September 29th after a storm from September 26th – 28th. Antillanca is a small, locals ski hill, about 100km from the city of Osorno in Chile. It is unknown if the slide was intentionally triggered by avalanche control work or released naturally. The slope aspect was SE. Upon […] Avalanche Aaron Rice | October 2, 2014 0 Comments
Summer Skiing Still Going Off in Colorado! We got an alpine start and headed up to ski the tuning fork earlier this week. Right away we both saw the stunning East facing line off Grizzly Peak D. We decided to ski Grizzly Couloir instead. It’s high walls and very thin but continuous strip of snow made it a very aesthetic line, though the snow left a bit to be desired. The skiing was thin and great! There was a good bit of ice in the snow and a bunch of fallen rocks on the snow, but the middle section was soft and smooth, just the way snow should be in late July! With our early start we still had time to ski the Tuning Fork. So we […] Conditions Report Aaron Rice | July 26, 2014 1 Comment
Solid Colorado Summer Skiing: Skyscraper A perfect Colorado day allowed us to get an early start and walk the ridge out to Skyscraper. We skied a picturesque line right down to Bob Lake. The snow was firm yet soft. A bit bumpy, but nothing unmanageable, pretty dirty, but not too sticky. The top of the line had a good sized bergschrund that we had to avoid. So if the 95 degree heat in the plains is getting to you, just know that there is plenty of snow to be had, it just takes an early start and a short walk. […] Conditions Report Aaron Rice | July 21, 2014 1 Comment
Summer Skiing in COLORADO!! Many lines to choose from up in Clear Creek County. We were able to drive up to just above 12,000ft. Then we cherry picked the best lines right from the car. We had to do a bit of ridge walking. Great flowers, scenery and clouds made the walk easy. With lots of people we tracked out a couple lines. There were still some very large cornices hanging on up top. The skiing was fantastic! Long, thin, fairly steep ribbons of snow right off the summit! With good snow and good weather another couple laps was an easy decision. […] Conditions Report Aaron Rice | July 14, 2014 0 Comments
High Pressure Chuting in LCC Well, its officially spring here in the Wasatch. Its been sunny and warm for two weeks with no snow in sight for the near future. Not the worst thing though, with the warmth comes increased stability. So we set our sights on the south-facing chutes in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Each chute having at least 3000 feet of vertical and slopes […] Aaron Rice | January 24, 2014 0 Comments