3 Runs and a Slide
Today we hiked.
Right out of the gate. By gate, I of course mean the Caracara lift. We were behind all the ski with the superstars in the line. Today we hoped to set the high traverse that was set before the storm by the UVM guys who work the front desk. When we got to the top of the lift and saw that Dav and his whole crew were not already onto it, we were stoked. James, a J Hole loc dog here for 2 weeks got it started. I took over half way across, where we ran into a chute that Chris Anthony and his minions had hiked. Those guys were at least 4 sling shots ahead of us, so a traverse was definitly the way to go. We pushed all the way out to where we were skiing earlier in the trip, just above L'Estudia. We could have skiied right from there and it would have been great, but with this camp going on, we knew we had to hike higher into this chute first, so up we went. The traverse and hike took 40 minutes. 3/4 of the way up we were able to see Aconcagua. To give you an idea of the pitch we were about to ski, Paul dropped a glove and it tumbled down about 1000 vert. We were able to recover the glove, and Paul was packing a spare. We did that route twice before lunch. On the second lap we cought up to Wendy Fischer and her crew. She's pretty good. We hopped 1 chute over for some more fresh. It was (refer to Farmer's 1st comment from yesterday and insert your favorite adjective)!
Here's where it gets exciting. Our one and only run after lunch. We planned on skiing the first gully going down to the lake. We were going to hike up and ski the gimongo snowfield above the gullies leading into the bowl called the Lake Run. This bowl is technically closed or out of bounds as you have to go across the lake to get back. The lake is not open for business yet, so we intended to ski the snow field through the gully and then traverse back to Garganta, in the ski area. The hike was good. Me, Paul, Tim, and James were all moving pretty up a wind raped ridge. The wind was loading as we were hiking, but the real load out in the middle of the snowfeild we had to cross came from the storm. We stopped below a big rock and put our skiis on. We intended on traversing to the next ridge and hiking up one more snow feild. I was the first to go. The field we were crossing was very convex, we figured that as from sloughing after the storm. As I got going, a 10 foot wide and 10 inch deep slab broke below my skiis.
Interesting!
We notice a long crack going out into the field. We decided to ski back the way we hiked. It was still a great run, with a little extra adrenaline, and we are all going to make it into the hot tub tonight, not the lake. Looking back at the slide, compared to hillside, it seemed small, however it ran at least 300 feet. I would hate to see the whole slope go, although we've got video of that from we they heli was blasting above the Roca. Discovery channel type stuff. We'll have plenty of goodies to post when, and if we come back.
Right out of the gate. By gate, I of course mean the Caracara lift. We were behind all the ski with the superstars in the line. Today we hoped to set the high traverse that was set before the storm by the UVM guys who work the front desk. When we got to the top of the lift and saw that Dav and his whole crew were not already onto it, we were stoked. James, a J Hole loc dog here for 2 weeks got it started. I took over half way across, where we ran into a chute that Chris Anthony and his minions had hiked. Those guys were at least 4 sling shots ahead of us, so a traverse was definitly the way to go. We pushed all the way out to where we were skiing earlier in the trip, just above L'Estudia. We could have skiied right from there and it would have been great, but with this camp going on, we knew we had to hike higher into this chute first, so up we went. The traverse and hike took 40 minutes. 3/4 of the way up we were able to see Aconcagua. To give you an idea of the pitch we were about to ski, Paul dropped a glove and it tumbled down about 1000 vert. We were able to recover the glove, and Paul was packing a spare. We did that route twice before lunch. On the second lap we cought up to Wendy Fischer and her crew. She's pretty good. We hopped 1 chute over for some more fresh. It was (refer to Farmer's 1st comment from yesterday and insert your favorite adjective)!
Here's where it gets exciting. Our one and only run after lunch. We planned on skiing the first gully going down to the lake. We were going to hike up and ski the gimongo snowfield above the gullies leading into the bowl called the Lake Run. This bowl is technically closed or out of bounds as you have to go across the lake to get back. The lake is not open for business yet, so we intended to ski the snow field through the gully and then traverse back to Garganta, in the ski area. The hike was good. Me, Paul, Tim, and James were all moving pretty up a wind raped ridge. The wind was loading as we were hiking, but the real load out in the middle of the snowfeild we had to cross came from the storm. We stopped below a big rock and put our skiis on. We intended on traversing to the next ridge and hiking up one more snow feild. I was the first to go. The field we were crossing was very convex, we figured that as from sloughing after the storm. As I got going, a 10 foot wide and 10 inch deep slab broke below my skiis.
Interesting!
We notice a long crack going out into the field. We decided to ski back the way we hiked. It was still a great run, with a little extra adrenaline, and we are all going to make it into the hot tub tonight, not the lake. Looking back at the slide, compared to hillside, it seemed small, however it ran at least 300 feet. I would hate to see the whole slope go, although we've got video of that from we they heli was blasting above the Roca. Discovery channel type stuff. We'll have plenty of goodies to post when, and if we come back.
posted by Leo at 1:32 PM
1 Comments:
"ji jin" rad or extreme in mandarin,
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