South America

This edit is a recap of the first session of riding around Catedral, Bariloche with SASS Global Travel. Riders featured are Skylar Holgate, Andrew Burns, Nicki Slechta and Chris Coulter. Make sure you stay till the end for an education in riding big lines at high speeds from Mr. Holgate. Thanks for showing a line that takes longer than 10 seconds to ride, SGT!

SASS Global Travel runs freeride camps out of Bariloche, Argentina every summer. If you’re looking for an easy and awesome way to ski South America, check them out.

This video, edited by Adrià Millan, shows a number of variations in a zone called Amanita Phalloides (aka Deathcap Mushrooms) in Las Leñas. Riders are Adri, Txema Trull, Jordi Tenas, and Pau Bardajì. The tunes are good, the skiing is good, you watch, you like. Good work boys!

For some more stoke from Las Leñas this season, be sure to click through the rest of Adri’s videos on his Vimeo page.

This video features a little bit of mediocre powder skiing from today, and a visit to the Cuyam-co Truchería in Malargue.  Thanks to Matthias Weichelsbaumer for the POV footage. Warning: this video contains footage of a dead cow. So if you see cows as friendly friends rather than tasty treats, you might not want to watch.

Cuyam-co is a trout farm and trout restaurant located on the outskirts of Malargue. There is very little to do around Las Leñas on down days, but the truchería is highly recommended and well worth the trip. They serve an impressive array of trout dishes: trout mayo, trout paté, trout bread, trout pancakes, dried trout, and even full trouts.

The conditions in Las Leñas have been mediocre at best recently. In the past couple weeks, we’ve received a lot of gray windy days, a few light dustings of fresh snow, and almost no deep pow or sunny days. We also seem to be more or less missing the storm that is hammering other areas in the Andes. While Portillo is reporting over a meter of fresh already, our storm is being downgraded lower and lower, and we’ve only seen a couple inches out of it so far.

We are still forecasted to receive snow tonight and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday the 16th and 17th), as well as another storm next Tuesday through Thursday (August 21 – 23). Hopefully one of these snow falls comes through for us, because skiing hard snow in gray, windy conditions is getting old.

Days 0 – 3.

Days 4 – 6.

Days 7 – 9.

In this episode of Brothers on the Run, the Jacksons make their way down the Baja Peninsula, surfing as they go. No snowboarding in this episode, but there is some really solid surfing stoke.

This episode also contains some random mishaps and encounters to round out the story line. They pick up a friendly surf bum on the side of the road. They also manage to get their truck stuck everywhere: various dirt roads across the Baja, and inside a parking garage which their vehicle was too tall to enter. To be honest, it is hard to believe these guys can pull off this road trip – they have not looked very travel savvy thus far.

Check out the past few episodes of Brothers on the Run: Episode 7     Episode 6     Episode 5

Tuesday evening, Las Leñas received a completely un-forecasted mini-dump. It snowed HARD for a few hours, and we ended up with about 6 inches of fresh snow on the mountain.

This light dusting just barely hid a lot of the sharks, and made for some classic dust on crust conditions. But, a Marte powder day is a Marte powder day, and there were a few really great turns out there. This snow fall was just what we all needed to keep us satisfied until the next storm arrives.

It looks like that next storm will be hitting us next week: Tuesday the 14th through Thursday the 16th. It is shaping up to be a big one – over 50cm forecasted up top. It’s still a week off, so far too early to be counting on it, but it certainly looks promising.

Snow-Forecast.com, Days 0 – 3.

Snow-Forecast.com, Days 4 – 6.

Snow-Forecast.com, Days 7 – 9.

Conditions are not ideal in Las Leñas right now. Apart from a few one inch refreshes, we haven’t had a good storm in a few weeks. The wind has really worked the snow over in most places. Things are pretty firm out there.

However, it’s not all bad. There is still a decent base, and everything is pretty filled in. Skiing hard pack is better than not skiing at all. We’ve been getting out there and exploring some new lines, and generally making the most of it.

Plus, Argentinians know just what to do when ski conditions aren’t the best: party! Actually, come to think of it, they do a lot of that when the conditions are good, as well.

Looking forward, it appears we may get some snow on Friday the 10th, and there is a more significant storm off in the distance for Tuesday the 14th. Hopefully we’ll get that refresh we desperately need from one of them!

Days 1 – 3, Snow-Forecast

Days 4 – 6, Snow-Forecast

Days 7 – 9, Snow-Forecast

This video, filmed and edited by Matthias Weichselbaumer, shows his runs and experiences on the amazing Marte Powder Day on 7/24. Not only does it contain some fantastic footage and fun times, but it also shows a different take on the day when compared to my video from the day. I thought it would be interesting to see our days side by side. I was first chair and Matthias was second (behind all the guides and clients who cut the line 5 seconds before Marte opened, of course), but we chose different lines all day long. Watching his video, it looks like Matthias’ day was every bit as good as mine!

My day.

While conditions have taken a turn for the worse recently here in Las Leñas, the past week has provided some really good skiing. Here are two videos that Matthias Weichselbaumer filmed and edited to prove it. One features a couple runs on Cerro Martin, the other a day in The Office. Plus, you get to see me look like an ass and get a bloody face.

There isn’t much soft snow left in Las Leñas, and it is cloudy today, so corn skiing isn’t an option. Until it snows again, it’s time to go hiking and explore new lines.

Overall, the weather has been great for getting out into the big Las Leñas backcountry these past few days. The winds have been high at times, but there has been plenty of soft snow to be found, and the skies have been blue.

This video features two Las Leñas classics: Torrecillas and Cerro Negro. Torrecillas provides guaranteed powder on playful, spiny terrain; while Cerro Negro is steep, rocky, and terrifying.

Clouds just rolled in this afternoon, so we may have a few gray days ahead of us. At the moment Snow Forecast is not calling for any real weather, but keep your fingers crossed, because we could really use a refresh.

Thanks to Matthias Weichselbaumer for the POV footage in this video.

Also, apologies for the delay since the last conditions report. The internet has been really, really, ridiculously slow. Hopefully it will improve when holidays from Buenos Aires end.

This video, put together by Adrià Millan, Jordi Tenas and Txema Trull, features one awesome run down Cenidor on a powder day last week. They’ve done some really interesting stuff with GoPros on this to make it fun to watch. They use pole mounts, hand offs, following cams, slow motion, and just about every other option a POV can offer. Good work, catalanes.

Also in this video are Pau Bardaji, Alejo Sanchez, and me.