Report from July 29, 2024

I just got down to Argentine Patagonia last night after 52-hours of travel.

Well, it woulda been only 28 hours of travel but I missed my flight in Santiago, Chile, because my phone was still on Utah time and I didn’t realize it until it was too late…

Yeah, that hurt.

A full unplanned 25 hours in Santiago Chile with more than 160 pounds of gear…

No bueno.

Much better now though because today was amazing.

I slipped into one of my favorite backcountry zones this morning after getting local beta that it was north faces that were skiing the best.

This seemed counterintuitive because north faces are the sunny aspects here but I came to find out that a fierce south wind had beat up the south faces the previous day.

After all the travel, I was pretty darn tired, so I picked out one of the shorter north face tours and set out.

All the snow I touched had a wind skin and was wind-affected in some way so I was skeptical.

Even as I lined up to drop in, I assumed it was gonna be a hooky-snow-fest.

It wasn’t.

The snow wasn’t great, but for down here, it was pretty good.

Mostly recrystallized powder with some wind-skinny spots.

The textured snow was good, soft, 4-6″ deep snow.

The smooth snow was wind-affected and hooky.

These were my first turns in 2 months so I took it easy but was able to ski a very fun line without stopping which boosted my confidence.

Some guys I knew were at the bottom as I blasted out the end of the chute and we hooted and chatted about how much better the snow was than anticipated.

I sat for a long time and watched them skin into the distance as I contemplated whether or not I should go up and over to another zone I love.

I decided to stop while I was ahead knowing how much I had to do that evening and how tired I was likely to be.

After grocery shopping, socializing with my local crew, and organizing my house I was thrashed and much more confident I’d made the right call.

Might have to go right back out there tomorrow and a big storm in on the horizon…

Season #14 in Patagonia is starting out right 🙂

Thanks, Argentina!

Photos