Deep Powder in Bariloche, Argentina Today | Photo Tour

Miles Clark | | Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions ReportPost Tag for WeatherWeather
Jeli Bossman diggin deep in The Playground today.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Jeli Bossman diggin deep in The Playground today. photo: snowbrains.com

(it’s been pow here everyday the mountain has been open since August 4th, 2013…)

Last night, it snowed about 8 inches at the bottom of Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina.  Even Bariloche the town got a couple inches of snow overnight.  We don’t get snow at the bottom of the hill very often and 8” of it down there is a lot.  The bottom of the mountain is only 3,714-feet high and the top is 7,149-feet.  If we get 8” at the bottom, the top is gonna be deep…  and it was.

Today started off cloudy and cold with light snow.  It was storming and windy up high, but Catedral got the top lifts spinning right away.  Everything but Nubes and Del Bosque spun today.

Tage Chutes just skiers right of La Laguna today lookin prime.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Tage Chutes just skiers right of La Laguna today lookin prime. photo: snowbrains.com

Right off the bat, all the boys headed straight to the gondola for laps in deep snow and trees.  We headed to the old growth Lenga forests of Palmera and we were the only ones out there for 3 runs this morning.  On our 4th lap, people had gotten in there and there were quite a few tracks.

Close up of above photo.  Jeli Bossman = skier.
Jeli Bossman laying it down like a bossman in The Playground at 4:30pm today. photo: snowbrains.com

The snow in the trees was suburb.  The trees had been knocking snow out of the wind all night and all morning.  It was about 2 feet deep in the trees and it was creamy and lightish for here.  The lower 10% or so of the run you could feel the old hard snow underneath, but the top 90% was perfect.

Miles in Palmera trees today.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Miles in Palmera trees today. photo: snowbrains.com

Palmera holds my favorite tree skiing on Earth (or at least that I’ve encountered).  Big, old growth, widely spaced Lenga trees dripping with spanish moss that have no tree wells, leaves nor low branches.  It’s tree skiing heaven.  The many a downed tree make for great pillows to pop off every few turns.

In the morning, there were glimpses of blue sky and the forecast showed clearing.  The opposite initially happened as it got real windy and the snow came down hard at times.  The trees made sense all day until about 2:30pm when the skies began to part in ernest.  Big patches of blue showed up by 3pm and we headed to La Laguna for our final lap of the day.

Jeli having a look into The Playground.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Jeli having a look into The Playground. photo: snowbrains.com

We cautiously checked The Playground and avalanche conditions appeared safe.  We laid into 3-foot deep powder and screamed our heads off.  You could blindly hit everything as landings were bottomless.  The wind seems to always blow snow in there a bit deeper than the rest of the mountain.

Today was an exceptional day at Catedral.  It’s not often per season that there is powder top to bottom and you can lay into every foot of Catedral’s 3,400-foot vertical drop.

The forecast is showing mostly clear skies and big cold.  This is ideal as this deep snow will stay cold, settle a bit, and allow us to get after the backcountry for a few days.

CATEDRAL FORECAST:

Screen shot 2013-08-21 at 4.02.03 PM

More Snow Reports and News from South America Here:

SnowBrains South America

Jeli Bossman in the white room today.  photo: snowbrains.co
Jeli Bossman in the white room today. photo: snowbrains.co

PHOTO TOUR:

Some solid whiteouts today.  La Hoya chair today.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Some solid whiteouts today. La Hoya chair today. photo: snowbrains.com
Shanti Sommers in Palmera today.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Shanti Sommers in Palmera today. photo: snowbrains.com
Tage Chutes through the forest today.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Tage Chutes through the forest today. photo: snowbrains.com
Ever wondered how snow much snow blows into Palmera?  Like this.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Ever wondered how snow much snow blows into Palmera? Like this. photo: snowbrains.com
Catedral ski resort base today with 8 inches of new snow all over it.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Catedral ski resort base today with 8 inches of new snow all over it. photo: snowbrains.com
Lake, cornice, wind, snow, sun.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Lake, cornice, wind, snow, sun. photo: snowbrains.com

 

Hollywood Rock was had by a few today.  Landing was ok and runout was funky with old ice chunks.  photo:  snowbrains.com
Hollywood Rock was had by a few today. Landing was ok and runout was funky with old ice chunks. photo: snowbrains.com

 

 

 

 


Related Articles

6 thoughts on “Deep Powder in Bariloche, Argentina Today | Photo Tour

  1. Hi Miles,
    I showed the pics on your 8/20 and 8/21 posts and my NY friends were very jealous!
    Can’t wait to get to Bariloche this Saturday.
    Guess that I should be bringing powder straps.
    -Rose

    1. Hey Rose, stoked you’re coming down. Drop us a line if you’re skiing Catedral. Glad you liked the pics. Today was another fun one.

Got an opinion? Let us know...