Report from October 22, 2025

I arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina, via an 11-hour bus ride from Punta Arenas, Chile, 2 days ago.

The previous day, we’d done the 9-hour “bog slog” to ski Monte Tarn.

I did a 24-hour fast on the bus and that was a horrible idea…

3,895′ Cerro Godoy

Ushuaia

I showed up weak, sick, and starving.

My first day in Ushuaia was sunny, but I was wrecked and took a rest day.

Yesterday, I went after my favorite line here that you can see from just about anywhere in town and kinda blew it.

The day started cloudy, then went sunny for a little bit, then clouded back up as I reached the summit.

There just wasn’t enough sun yesterday to soften the snow.

It was firm, corrugated, and mean at times.

The hike up was pleasant in firm snow that made for good cramponing.

Good cramponing snow is the opposite of good skiing snow…

I hiked to the true summit, looked west, and saw no chance of sunlight.

I took my time, drank in the views of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel where Darwin had sailed in 1833 & 1834.

The channel bears the name of his boat.

I dropped in, and the snow was wretched.

I watched my skis desperately bounce off frozen chicken heads, searching for meaningful purchase.

I kept hoping my loss of elevation would bring softer snow, but I was a fool.

The snow finally softened after the chute on the big apron, and I felt my muscles relax and posture straighten.

Finally, some responsive snow.

I sped up, felt the snow move under my skis and my lip slowly curled.

I clicked off my skis, walked across rocks and hopped onto the gully snow patch that took me out of the drainage directly on top of the creek.

I took a new way home down the bicisenda (bike trail) and luckily found the creek easy to cross at the parking lot.

You can’t win ’em all and it’s always nice to get out in the mountains here.

This was my 5th time skiing this chute and definitely the worst conditions so far, ha!

Off to Antarctica next week…

Gracias, Tierra Del Fuego.