words and video by Zach Berlan
I arrived with many others for session 1A on Saturday July 27, 2013 with Sass Global Travel in Bariloche, Argentina. The first couple of days consisted of getting my skiing legs back and getting to know the mountain again, as this was my second year down in Bariloche. Conditions weren’t ideal at Cerro Catedral but it was like spring skiing on the North facing aspects.
Snow levels were on the lower side and there were rocks and grass on lower elevation runs. There was no snow to the base, so every day after skiing we would have to down load on either the Gondola, Princessa Uno, Sextuple or Condor Uno. Later in the week the forecast started to shape up, nothing big but a couple 10-15 centimeter storms.
Saturday August 3rd the snow started to fall in the late afternoon and kept going strong all night. We woke up to over a 30 centimeters of snow at the base which meant there was a lot at the top. The upper part of the mountain had shut down because of winds but I skinned up with a solid group of guys, Mauri Cambilla, Piers Solomon, Ben Girardi, Josh Trosky, Duke Plofker, and Jamie Finney. After we got to just under the top of the gondola we dropped in and there was at least a meter of heavy snow. Little turns could be made because if you slowed down you would sink above your waist. As the week progressed the snow got lighter and lighter.
By Thursday August 8th 3-4 meters of snow had fallen on the top of the mountain, or roughly 130 inches of snow. Conditions changed within a blink of the eye. Palmero trees were skiing great, Hobbit trees had good snow all the way to the bottom and Princessa Dos was fun to hot lap. Staff party and the playground also filled in very nicely, a little bit of wind-buff but nothing too bad. Overall I had an awesome time down in Bariloche with an awesome group of people and a huge thanks to SGT.
August was good.