Today was another fun day at Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. ย ย 36 more inches of snow are forecast on the upper mountain between now and Thursday (forecast below).
The big, windy storm that has been hitting since Saturday continued to dominate the mountain. ย Another few inches of snow fell overnight last night and the wind buffed it out into the smoothest, most consistent snow.
This kind of snow if my favorite. ย It’s wind pressed so it skis really fast and you stay on top, but there’s still some depth to it if you need to dig in or land an air. ย Simply perfect snow. ย Shane McConkey himself once explained to me how much he loved this kind of wind pressed snow. ย I agree.
I got up the chairs early this morning and there was no one on the upper mountain. ย There was wind pressed powder everywhere and the skiing was great. ย I burned a few laps on the chairs before hiking up Nubes.
The Nubes zone is now backcountry terrain with all the dangers that come with it. ย Heads up. ย I dug around, poked around, skied a small, lower section gingerly. ย Then came back to the same zone, dug around, skied it a bit harder. ย After a few laps, my confidence grew in the stability and a I skied a couple more laps in some incredible wind pressed snow.
Catedral reported 15cms (6″) of new snow overnight on the upper mountain and a 30″ base on the upper mountain.
This big, windy storm is forecast to rage on until Thursdayย and we’re stoked. ย 36 more inches of snow are forecast on the upper mountain between now and Thursday.
It’s snowing at the base of Cerro Catedral as of 8:00pm local time.
CATEDRAL FORECAST:
Wind-pressed snow: we Mammoth skiers know about that! Sometimes there’s a brittle slab which makes skiing tricky. But when the top layer is loose with a supportable subsurface, that’s definitely hero snow.
Aug. 15 is quite late for the first decent storm of the season. Nonetheless most visitors who heed the advice here to go to South America in August/early September should do OK this year.