After yesterday’s inbounds powder day, I decided to go into the lift accessed backcountry via Cerro Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina today.

The morning was clear, cold, windless.

I reached the top of the couloir I was to ski quickly.

I’d heard from locals that it didn’t go.  That it ended in a cliff.

I hoped the new snow would have filled and connected it to the apron below.

I dropped in.

The snow was punchy.  “Carton” (cardboard) they call it here in the Andes.

I struggled down the couloir as it steepened.

As I reached the choke, I noticed the jagged rollover below.

It didn’t go.  Or did it?

After carefully investigating the cliff in the chute I found a way through.

I sidestepped and sideslipped through a hanging no fall zone that scared me.

On the apron below, I was very content.

I made a few turns in the “carton” then decided not to descend to the valley floor.

I traversed to a safe ledge and had a nice lunch before skinning out of one of my favorite zones on Earth.

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