 Poster: A snowHead
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
Arno, Just beautiful - made me smile 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
You lucky, lucky....
Most envious 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
Good work fellas you definitely earned your turns....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nice. A 750m bootpack is a bit brutal!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
Reading your TR made me salivate. Very cool, mister, very cool 
Liking the traverse of the gods!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ditto: fabulous pics and lovely slopes, but NOT liking the Traverse of the Gods. I'd have put on my skis (I think).
Now hopefully I'll get Horizon's attention about winter plans
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| snowball wrote: |
| ...but NOT liking the Traverse of the Gods. I'd have put on my skis (I think). |
That's a good point. Skis and ice axe would have provided more grip, possibly?
And rigging a crampon to helmet for the "well if I'm going to die on this face, let me doing it with a crampon attached to my helmet in ridiculous fashion" factor 
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
These photos may have used up my download bandwidth for the month - but it was worth it. Great photos! Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Admiration rather than envy from this poster, don't think I could cope with 750m bootpack at that altitude than that traverse followed by that couloir . Very impressive though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
snowball, Zero-G, there was a decent platform in the snow already so walking across the traverse wasn't too bad - the photo looks worse than it felt (for me anyway)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Ahhh, well it definitely looks hardcore. Let's just leave it at that
Oh and fantastic pics, by the way!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
Cool and the Gang
Give us the general itinerary if you would - always fancied going there - especially Portillo, the surroundings look just magic
Top work, what's the red graphics on the old bunny wailers?? Don't think I've seen em like that before (them is sure purdy)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Arno, Some fantastic pics there... in the first one... OMG... look at that couloir notch 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
Well, since Arno came up with the main feature, I'll provide the prequel.
(photos from all group members)
Three of us arrived a week earlier. After one hour in Santiago, we're already making friends:
We headed to Termas de / Nevados de Chillan, staying down the valley in Las Trancas. Our cabin welcomed us:
Two days later, with added snow:
So we get to work (a couple of pics have already been posted on another thread, but so what)
Costin (= irbis) enjoys the trees:
And so does Alex
me too:
On the road we picked up a French chap, Boris, who usually lives in the Pyrenees. He was hitchhiking every day from Las Trancas. He showed us how it's done:
Then the storm departed and we found some nice snow:
Irbis:
Me:
Alex (who will re-register as skivirus over here. skivirus is the Romanian equivalent of snowheads, and Alex is the equivalent of admin. Only there's four of them, which just goes to show what a good job admin is doing almost all by himself):
Talking of Alex...Ali G, innit?
I think I'm A-framing. But I don't really care:
Irbis and Alex find a scenic point and launch:
Let's see if my new ACL holds up:
We met up with our (English) landlord from the cabana - he launches into a nice line (I'll let Irbis talk about the cornice incident, if he wants to):
...
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
On to Santiago, where we meet Arno and Bill, send them to the hotel after dinner and proceed to terrorize the La Nona bar, which features a video jukeobox, with a playlist of ZZ Top, AC/DC, Metallica, Rammstein, Placebo, Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Sepultura, and, in an apotheosis, Modern Talking.
Next day we ski in La Parva. You can see Santiago from here, so I pose in front of it:
Bill takes pleasure in wounding his new skis on about a million shark teeth, though the terrain looks harmless and inviting at sunset:
We missed a golden opportunity to do a pro call-out of the German ski team members, who were drinking beer next to us at a bar. (see G.N.A.R. for the meaning of a pro call-out). Might have had something to do with them being the size of large wardrobes.
Arno delights us with his subdued colour scheme:
He can ski a bit, too:
The next day a transplanted Canadian shows us around Santa Teresita - a big wall with a lot of lines, starting from the top of El Colorado and ending up on a road, where a taxi picks us up and whisks us back to the resort. Rinse and repeat, as quickly as possible, so there's hardly time for photos - but here's Serge dropping in:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
horizon, wow. Just wow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gutted - I was expecting to see some pics of a very nice South American Petrol Station.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
kooky, please don't confuse horizon's music taste with mine!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
gulp and wow in the same breath!
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| Arno wrote: |
| kooky, please don't confuse horizon's music taste with mine! |
Speaking of which, I thought this trip was going to be all Romanian folk dancing, or something like that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
Zero-G, we had Chilean pop instead
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
barry, I was there for 8 days, horizon and crew had an extra week. our flight landed in Santiago at about 8am and we managed to get an afternoon of skiing in La Parva - could have got more than that but Santiago airport is a bit of a South American gong show. We travelled back down to Santiago that night to meet up with horizon and co. The drive takes about an hour but is not much fun unless you enjoy hundreds of switchbacks and lots of potholes. We went back up the next day and stayed in Farellones which provides good access to all the resorts up there - Valle Nevado, La Parva and El Colorado.
We had about 4 days there then drove over to Los Andes. This takes about 2.5 hours and is pretty easy once you have got down to Santiago. Los Andes is the last place of any size before you get to Portillo. We toyed with staying in Portillo but you were looking at $300+ per person per night in Portillo (all inclusive, incl lift tickets) versus a perfectly OK hotel in Los Andes which cost us about $200 per person for 4 nights B&B 2 dinners and some drinks. This did require a drive of an hour or so every morning and evening which wasn't as tedious as the one up to the Santiago resorts, but still wasn't great. I have mixed feelings about this decision. It certainly made sense economically. We would have partied up at Portillo, so taking this into account we probably saved about $1k each but the drive was a pain and the partying (and the hot tub and Chris Davenport's talks on skiing in Antarctica etc) would have been fun. Also the road up to Portillo is quite prone to closure so you risk not being able to get up there after a big dump. In fact we were held up on our last day even though there wasn't much snow below the resort
We had 4 days in Portillo then headed down to a Santiago airport hotel and flew out the following morning
Chile is a pretty easy country to travel around generally. Would definitely recommend it. Looking forward to giving Argentina a try for skiing next!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Wow again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Muy bien gentlemen
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
beautiful pics looks fantastic, just depressing me looking at a wet Tuesday in Manchester knowing there are conditions like that be enjoyed else were
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Nice - I have only admiration (well, and jealousy) for your work. Particularly that traverse...
The snow looks awesome too. Out of interest did you luck out or is that what south america is generally like at this time of year?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
Great great photos and skiing and inspiration... 3.something years to save up for my 40th birthday extravaganza!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
ChrisWo, to some extent we lucked out. There was another big storm earlier in the season, with Nevados de Chillan getting 2m+ of snow (much less in the north I think). But the week before we came it rained in Nevados and the top lifts were closed, so people told us they stayed indoors and played cards. Also I think the following week we hit the best cover to that date in the resorts around / north of Santiago. That said, I heard there was another storm coming after we were leaving (but I decided not the check the forecasts anymore).
Another element of luck was being in a resort with trees while it snowed...we got two excellent days which would have been a miserable whiteout in a high resort.
I heard that last season was quite bony in South America, but the season before was great, so perhaps we got the good part of a volatile season.
barry, to add to Arno's comments above, the drive to Nevados de Chillan is very easy on the motorway and then well-signaled towards the resort (if a bit maze-like through Chillan). Takes about 5 hours. Las Trancas as a base and the road to Nevados are beautiful, maybe I'll post a few more pics.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Cheers Arno & horizon, yup I reckon if I can ever make it happen I'd want to blow the budget and stay up in Portillo, the various TRs and blogs i've seen make it look ace. Was 8 days a killer for such a far away spot??
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Tue 30-08-11 15:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Ah, and to add to the comments about the Traverse of the Gods, we all had a different view on it. Arno just sauntered across and then said "no need for a break, we're nearly there" and kept climbing (it was one hour before we actually got to the top, I should add). I froze for 2-3 minutes remembering a tumble through a rock field in St Anton, and then hugged the rock at the beginning tighter than I've ever hugged a lady - but once past that I found it a doddle. Irbis on the other hand had no problem with the entrance but felt unsafe on the actual snow-covered traverse.
I think Bill was too busy cussing at Arno for not stopping and didn't actually notice the traverse.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
barry, 8 days wasn't too bad but I did have miles which allowed me to fly at the front of the plane. however, the time difference is only 4 or 5 hours so jetlag isn't a huge issue - it's just a case of how well you cope with long flights
horizon,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| horizon wrote: |
| Then in the evening in the bar, we have a beer with Chris Davenport (as you do): |
What is it with that guy, he just doesn't seem to age at all!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
| horizon wrote: |
| tighter than I've ever hugged a lady |
I love you man.
Looks awesome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I knew there was a reason I log on here every now and again. Nice work guys
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
