On 31 May 1970, an earthquake off the coast of Peru caused a substantial section of the north slope of Mt. Huascaran to collapse. [Situated in the Cordillera Blanca, the world's highest tropical mountain range, Mount Huascarán rises to 6768 m above sea-level.] The avalanche moved down hill at a speed of 100 MPH with a mass of roughly 80 million cubic feet of ice, mud and rock. It ran nearly 11 miles, burying the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca in up to 300 feet of rock and debris. Estimates suggest that the earthquake killed over 20,000 people.

* The avalanche started as a sliding mass of glacial ice and rock about 3,000 feet wide and one mile long. The avalanche swept about 11 miles to the village of Yungay at an average speed of more that 100 miles an hour. The fast-moving mass picked up glacial deposits and by the time it reached Yungay, it is estimated to have consisted of about 80 million cubic yards of water, mud, and rocks. Photo courtesy of Servicio Aerofotografico Nacional de Peru, 13 June 1970. – landslide.usgs.gov

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Carston Oliver is one of the most talented all around skiers in todays freeride scene. His ability to hike all day, ski big lines, and throw down wild tricks off huge features is matched by few and surpassed by only a handful. He is a Utah boy and has been relatively unknown until the last season or two due to his modest personality and lack of interest in self promotion. However, he does like to shoot photos and video, so his skiing ability alone has brought him more into the public eye with Carston starring in Sweetgrass Productions new movie Solitaire, showing up on a Patagonia catalog cover, tons of photos in Skiing Magazine and Powder in 12 months.

This edit highlights some of the radness that Carston and the Sweetgrass guys got into down South last Summer. Looks like a sick place to visit.

Check out Carston’s 1080 off a 70+ foot cliff here.

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Snowboarding is much more than just banger after banger; It’s a journey, it’s euphoria, it’s pain, it’s excitement, it’s fear, it’s meeting new people, it’s sending it, it’s SNOWBOARDING.
-Aaron Robinson

 

This video should be downloaded and watched full screen.  It features the best and worst of the sport: incredible shredding with your friends and losing someone you love to the sport you love. The movie is beautiful. Raise a glass to Aaron.

From Sam Tuor’s Vimeo Page:

Aaron was always the driving force behind this project. When it seemed like things weren’t gonna work out he always found a way to make it happen. He loved a challenge! I spent this last winter traveling around to many of his favorite places, meeting up with friends, and making some new ones along the way. I feel so lucky to have been able to share such great times with such an amazing person.
When Aaron passed away in Chile this last July it was hard to even think about the movie, let alone sit down and edit hours of his footage from the winter. It wasn’t until Blake Paul sent me an email highlighting the fact that one of Aaron’s goals all season was to get everyone down to Chile and film a segment for the movie that I came to realize something that should have been so obvious. We had to head South and finish what he had started. Although we were physically missing the one person who really should have been on that trip I feel like he was actually with us more than ever. We’ll miss you A-ROB!
-Sam Tuor

 

There will be a “limited” number of DVD’s available through KidsKNOW distribution and some snowboard shops in the near future. It’ll be packed full of Bonus material including Volcom’s “Road Tested-B.C. Action Adventures” episodes. All proceeds will go to The Aaron Robinson Plant A Seed Project.

The A-ROB Plant A Seed Foundation is a Whitefish-based, non-profit that will help carry out Aaron’s dream of providing underprivileged children the opportunity to experience and develop their own passion and love for snowboarding.

Aaron Robinson

Cotopaxi and a local, by F. Rivadenaria.from MINTUR

This week’s exotic volcano is Ecuador’s Cotopaxi. Rising to a total height of 19,393 feet, this enormous glacier-clad stratovolcano is one of the true jewels of the Andes, and is easily the most famous (although second tallest) of all of the thirty major volcanoes in Ecuador.

Cotopaxi is the third highest volcano in the world, after 21,490 foot tall Tupungato on the Argentina / Chile border, and 22,615 foot tall Ojos del Salado in Chile, which remains the world’s tallest. Cotopaxi lies in the heart of ~84,000 acre Cotopaxi National Park, and is only 35 miles south of the capital of Ecuador – Quito. I visited Quito and Cotopaxi in the summer of 2006, and easily imagined myself climbing to the top and skiing down nearly 8,000 feet in winter to the base of the volcano.

Sunrise on Cotopaxi, from Summitpost.com

Geologic Background and Eruptive History

The Andes stretch over 7,000 miles, forming the backbone of South American continent. Subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South America plate causes the crust under the Andes to thicken to an average ranging from 30 to 70 km (~20-50 miles), which is many times thicker than normal continental crust.This subduction and crustal thickening gives rise to the high overall average elevation of the Andes and the numerous elevated plateaus that lie interspersed along the range. One such plateau, the Altiplano, lies in western-central South America in the nations of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. With an elevation of 3,750m (12,300 feet), the Altiplano is about 1,000 m lower on average than the Tibetan Plateau, which has an average elevation of 4,500 m (14,000 feet).

Map of Ecuador, from Ecuadoradventure.ec. Cotopaxi is above the "A" in Ecuador

Cotopaxi is not alone in the rarefied air of the Andes, having more than 50 companion volcanoes in the Andes mountain chain that rise above 19,000 ft. There are several volcanoes in Ecuador that are actively erupting at this moment in time, including Reventador, Sangay, and Tungurahua. At the summit of Cotopaxi lies an enormous crater almost 700 m (2,300 feet) across and 1,200 feet deep.

Cotopaxi as we see it today is the result of 5,000 years of interwoven andesite lava flows that have been borne out on top of a collapsed ancient cone. The volcano experienced three violent explosive eruptions in recorded history – 1742-1744, 1768, and 1877. The 1742-1744 eruptive period was vigorous, and the nearby town of Latacunga was devastated by lahars from Cotopaxi when the eruption melted glacial ice on the volcano’s summit. Hundreds if not thousands of people perished.

In the most recent of those eruptions in 1877, enormous pyroclastic flows descended down all sides of Cotopaxi, and lahars flowed down the Western drainages more than 60 miles to the Pacific Ocean. Complete darkness was reported in Quito for several hours, and over 600 people were killed in Mulal. 

View from a bus full of volcanologists on Cotopaxi, with Sincholagua in the distance. By the author.

Skiing and Climbing

The first successful European climber to reach the summit of Cotopaxi was the German Dr. Wilhelm Reiss, and Colombian A. M. Escobar in 1872, preceded by the failed attempt of Alexander von Humbolt in 1802 who declared that the mountain was “unclimbable.” The massive 1877 eruption a few years later obliterated the “easy” north route across the glacial ice.

Cotopaxi main tourist route above the Eefugio, from Summitpost.org

Today, upwards of a hundred people can be found battling it out for the summit of Cotopaxi on busy days during the summer climbing season. Climbing the volcano via the major tourists route isn’t regarded as a truly technical climb, but the route takes you over glacial terrain and thus requires the use of ice axes, crampons, and savvy crevasse safety and avoidance techniques. Climbs typically begin in the dead dark of night in order to get climbers to the summit and back before the fierce equatorial sun beats down on the snow and looses it.

Skiing pow on Cotopaxi, from Sawtooth Mountain Guides

The February 2011 issue of Backcountry magazine contained a fantastic story of skiing on Cotopaxi and surrounding volcanoes, written by Drew Pogge. Pogge travelled to Cotopaxi along with Clark Corey of the Sawtooth Mountain Guides in the northern hemisphere fall of 2010, and you can read more about their trip as well as check out some great photos of skiing in Ecuador on that company’s blog:

Also, be sure to check out this great short documentary film by Bjarne Sahlen skiing on Chimborazo in Ecuador.

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Access Beta

Your trip to the top of Cotopaxi will begin in Quito. Flights there from Reno will run you around $1,500. You will want to spend at least a few days exploring this beautiful city, which is nestled in a high-altitude valley in the Andes. Quito is rich in history, and is overrun with delicious restaurants, vibrant markets, friendly natives, and also boasts incredible colonial architecture.

Numerous adventure-tour companies will vye for the chance to have you hire them to get you to the top of Cotopaxi. Tour packages vary from a few days spent only climbing Cotopaxi for a few hundred dollars, to 9 days and $2,600 to spend 9 days climbing Cotopaxi and Chimborazo. Mountaineering gear will typically be included unless you bring your own. Here are a few:

Climbing Cotopaxi

Surtrek

High Summits Ecuador

Equator Passion Voyages (this company offers a skiing-specific tour of Cotopaxi for only $220 per person).

If you are feeling adventurous and want to venture forth on your own, you can take a cheap bus from Quito to the National Park. At the airport, hop on the trolleybus to the town’s main bus station, Quitumbe. From there you want to hop on a bus to Latacunga or Machachi, which will run you a few dollars. Machachi affords you access to the north entrance to the park, and Latacunga the south. From both of those locations, you’ll need to hire a pickup for around $35 to get you to the end of the road at around 4,600m (15,000 ft) where you will begin your climb to the refugio.

Jose F. Rivas Refugio on Cotopaxi, from Madteam.net

The Jose F. Rivas refuge is located at around 4,800 m (15,700 ft). Once at the Refugio, be prepared to fork over ~$45 per night, which will also get you fed breakfast and lunch by the staff there. The terminus of the northern lobe of the glacier that sits on the summit of Cotopaxi is around 1.5 hours hike above the refuge, and the summit another 6 hours beyond that if you are in good shape. In 1996, an avalanche of glacial ice thought to have been loosed by an earthquake rained down on the refuge on Easter Sunday, killing a dozen climbers. 

As is always the case on high volcanoes of the world, you will want to strongly consider spending at least one night at the high elevation of the refuge to allow your body to properly acclimatize and ward off acute mountain sickness.

Where to Check in with the Local Scientists

Volcanoes in Ecuador are monitored by the Instituto Geophysico. I had the great pleasure of working with several scientists from the IG in my former career, and I was even lucky enough to spend an incredibly drunken night with a few of them at the Tungurahua volcano observatory in Banos. You would be hard pressed to find more hospitable people than Ecuadorian volcanologists. 

Make sure to check their Cotopaxi page, as that will be the first place any unusual activity will be reported. Since Cotopaxi is a major tourist draw, and also the major attraction in the National Park, you won’t be allowed anywhere nae the volcano if it reawakens with any sort of precursory warning that the IG knows about. That being said, if you are up on the volcano, make sure that at the very least you have told someone your plans in case conditions on the dormant volcano change. Good luck, make sure to eat empanadas with as much aji as you can stand, and have fun!

Check out this rad timelapse of clouds and stars at Cotopaxi:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jordan Manley is back at it with episode 3 (season 2) of A Skier’s Journey. In this episode Jordan travels far south to Argentina. You can watch more episodes of A Skier’s Journey HERE.

Argentina: A Skier’s Journey EP3 [Season 2] is a road trip through some of Argentina’s lesser known ski locations, covering nearly 4000km down the windswept spine of the seemingly endless Andes mountain range. Chad Sayers, joined in part by local skier Maximilliano Artoni, explores desert and pampas, Cohiue and Auracaria, pumice and ash, cardboard and blower, sunshine and wind, granite spire and some bubbling agua termale.

Presented by Arcteryx.com, The GORE-TEX® Brand, and VIO-pov.com
Producer: Jordan Manley
Narration: Chad Sayers & Maximilliano Artoni
Story editor: Chad Manley chadmanley.ca/

Skiers:
Chad Sayers
Maximilliano Artoni
Jordan Manley (POV)

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With a waning start to a La Nina winter here in California, the dreamy feeling of floating through thick pow is beginning to fade to a foggy memory.  But alas, we must hold on hope (or simply fly to Alaska, where they have received copious amounts of snow, just remember a head lamp!).  The nature of La Nina is feast of famine and ours shall come soon enough.  But in an effort to stave off the insanity, we bring you the South America B-Reel footage!!  A few weeks ago we posted a quick highlight video of our favorite clips from South America this summer, now sit back, pop some corn, and enjoy 3 minutes and 46 seconds of almost bliss.  Or just go outside and play with your new Christmas presents!

A wintery wonderland that will hopefully be returning to Tahoe!

What do you guys think, is winter going to start spooling up later this week?  Or are we going to continue to curse La Nina, not because the Bitch is Back, but because she is remaining conspicuously absent around California?

At least the extended shoulder season gives us time to get the legs in shape for skinning!

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Wild winds parlayed into perfect pow in and around Las Leñas, and with this strange device known as a tripod a few cross-valley shots were captured.  Please note that this video is best enjoyed in full screen, as the human beings appear to be mere ants amidst the massive terrain!

Generally speaking wind is your friend, it brings about free refills and quenches our thirst for first tracks.  Except when it howls and blasts snow into the atmosphere to be vaporized and never again return to Earth’s surface.  Fortunately, in Las Leñas, the wind was only scouring the tops of the ridges on Sunday and Monday, leaving the bowls, chutes, and flutes pristine. It was all smiles and high fives as Entre Rios was entered and enjoyed.

Blue hour in Lenas, a spectacle of spectacles!

Conditions have since taken a turn in and around Leñas, with scouring winds yesterday, stripping the once pow blanketed landscape down to negative tracks and rock. The scouring was so severe that, while the Marte was open, everything off the top was closed except the groomer back to the bottom.  And the outlook isn’t overly fantastic, the forecast holding only milky skies and moderate winds.  Could this past week possibly have been the final good days in Leñas for the season?!? Yeah, it may have been…

Las Lenas Peak at sunset, lookin' good!

Las Lenas peak, no longer looking so great.

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This past summer in South America was spectacular…depending on where you were.  It seemed to snow every four of five days for four or five days in Patagonia & Las Leñas had a couple all-time weeks.

This video was filmed in Las Leñas, Argentina, Bariloche, Argentina and in the backcountry that surrounds them both.

Las Leñas backcountry, Entre Rios.

UnofficialAndes crew in this video:  Eric Bryant, Evan Haines, Miles Clark, and Friends.

Regardless of where you may have been this summer in South America, you had fun because there’s so much more to it than just the skiing and riding.  It’s a whole other world.

Bariloche, Argentina backcountry, Bella Vista.

Learn more about skiing in South America and how to make it happen at UnofficialAndes.com

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Why Are The Trees in Patagonia So Great for Skiing?

1 – No Tree Wells

2 – No Branches Down Low

3 – No Leaves on Trees, So They Don’t Hold Snow

4 – Very Well Spaced

5 – Covered in a Fluorescent Green Moss That is Psychoactive When Ingested

The trees at Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina are some of the best in the world. They rival locations such as: Japan, Steamboat, Whistler, and Sochi. The trees here are filled with logs, stumps, and rocks that form mini pillows you can blindly pop off into the white depths.  The Catedral trees are out of bounds, which keeps ‘em fresh, and they have an easy ski out (if the bamboo if well covered).  Oh, and did I mention it’s a 4,000ft run! The highlight of the day was when we found a clandestine jump and Miles did a BACKY BETWEEN THE TREES (0:33).

The Santa Rosa Storm treated us well in Patagonia.

One skier interview explained the day by saying he was:

…floating and flying, coasting, smiling, laughing and yelling, hooting and hollering, yelping, yipping, yeeing and gleeing, jumping, landing poofing, puffing, popping, pumping and hopping, exploding, crashing, bursting into the white room, just for a second the your out again, soaring, cruising down the hill, tree here, tree there, turn, spraying, swosshing, swishing, hoping and wishing the day would never end…

Skiers & Riders, this video has gotta make you pumped to go skiing. And even if you don’t ski or ride you know that looks pretty dam FUN!

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The Las Leñas staple, Jordi Tenas, shares with Unofficial his 2011 “summer” edit. It’s not hard to see why Jordi chooses to give up the beaches of Northern Spain to plunge back into winter during the northern hemisphere’s summer months.

TS MARTE - the greatest lift below the Equator

The South Wall of Las Lenas, Argentina

Yaya's House - Las Lenas

Springtime in Las Lenas. Life is good!