Avalanche
A 20-minute hike from the Del Bosque chair at Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina brings you to La Laguna. ย La Laguna is the backcountry. ย No avalanche control, no ski patrollers, no medical equipment, no nothing.
Today, there was a skier triggered avalanche at the top ofย La Laguna. ย A skier skied into this line and triggered the avalanche. ย He fortunately didn’t get caught in the slide. ย He was lucky. ย Granted, it wasn’t a big avalanche, but if there was exposure here, it was certainly a big enough slide to throw you off a cliff and cause serious injury or death.
About 90% of the humans who hike into La Laguna have no backpacks, no avalancheย transceivers, noย probes, no shovels. ย On days like today, people can falsely feel secure about avalanche conditions. ย There weren’t any yesterday, so why would there be any today?
There were avalanches today because of wind transport. ย Lets all keep wind transport in the front of our brains. ย It doesn’t have to physically snow for snow to move and create dangerous, unstable slabs. ย That’s what happened today in La Laguna.
Don’t forget about wind transport.
Catedral Conditions Report:
The wind blew hard last night and buffed out Nubes. ย I skied many Nubes laps todayย in fun, dense wind buff until 1:30pm. ย Then I went over to the crap show in La Laguna. ย The skiing in there was good, but people were everywhere doing everything. ย About 5 people skiing on top of each other at any given time.
Gorgeous day today. ย The vistas were spectacular. ย Tomorrow will be another great day before a storm rolls in tomorrow night.
PHOTO TOUR:
Thanks for the reporting. Out of curiosity since I’ve only been down there in the summer does Cerro Lopez get skied often? Didn’t seem like the best ski but the views from the refugio were/are spectacular. Thanks.
Hey Andre,
Yes, Cerro Lopez is very popular for backcountry skiing. It is actually a great ski as well.
Great reporting as usual Miles! Any info on the height of the crown? Where would you classify this on the Destructive Scale? D2?
Wow, this is the first time i see an avalanche on laguna.. You are totally right about people going in there with no backcountry gear! Lucky the skier is all right! Hope people realize that la laguna is backcountry and serious terrain despite its a 15 min short and easy hike off del bosque lift!