Bariloche, Argentina Storm Total = 51" | Funky Lower Mountain Snow | Upper Mountain Closed for 3rd Day

Alpenglow at Catedral this morning. Snow to the base!

Update from 5:30pm local time

Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina has now gotten 130cms (51 inches) in the past 2 days on the upper mountain. Today began clear and ended cloudy and snowy.

They did end up getting the Sextuple chair open yesterday from 1pm – 5pm. My friends who skied it said it was fun at the very top of the chair, then it got very wet, sloppy, manky, and funky. It was deep, however. Everyone I talked to said it was about 2.5 feet deep in many spots yesterday.

Hollywood Rock is primed and ready to roll. Nice that they cut down all the trees and bushes in the landing.

Today was windy. Consistent 50 kph (30mph) winds on the top of the mountain kept the upper lifts closed for the 3 day in a row. The Sextuple chair (a chair that goes about 1/2 way up the hill) opened at about 11am after being on wind-hold all morning. The upper mountain appeared very wind-pressed, wind buffed, and wind scoured.

Condor II also opened for an hour or so mid-day today then closed again.

Upper Mountain remained closed today. Wind affected everything up there.

The skiing right off the top of the Sextuple chair was OK. A creamy pow turn here a funky wind crust there. If you found the right aspect you cold link together a few good turns. The lower mountain had gotten rained on last night then froze solid creating a nasty breakable crust. By about 3pm, that lower mountai crust had softened up with the daytime temperatures and was fun and skiable.

The real trouble today was the lines. We got straight onto the Sextuple chair at opening, but on our 2nd lap, it took about 50 minutes to get on the chair. Our 3rd lap took about 30 minutes. 4th lap was also 30 minutes. By that time it was 3pm and I headed home. Not much you can do when only one chair is open at a mountain this big.

Enormous lines at Catedral today for the Sextuple.

The great thing right now is that you can comfortably ski to the bottom of the mountain. The wet snow that fell on the lower mountain yesterday got rained on yesterday afternoon and then froze solid last night. The stuff is glued to the mountain and should stay a while. The temps were cold today and it’s currently snowing in the town of Bariloche. Everyone is fired up that we can ski to the bottom now.

The best skiing today was in these trees near the top of the Sextuple chair

CATEDRAL FORECAST:

The forecast looks good with 24cms (9 inches) forecasted tonight and tomorrow before clearing up on Wednesday. Temps are forecasted to stay cold all week which will help keep us skiing to the bottom of the mountain.

If it snows enough tonight, the skiing off the Sextuple could be good tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll be able to get a bit more open tomorrow. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday could be real fun once we’re able to start exploring the upper mountain, sidecountry, and backcountry.