Though I arrived in Chile two weeks ago to find half of a meter of freshly fallen snow blanketing the slopes, I hadn’t actually seen a flake fall from the sky until the day before yesterday. But it finally snowed again in Farellones. Last year I was here during a storm that lasted two days during which it only snowed about a foot, but there were sustained winds of ~100kph for much of that time. As a result some chairlift towers and snowcats were buried in monumental snowdrifts while the windward slopes were left as dry and bare looking as if it were midsummer. This storm was different. Record cold temperature have been recorded across almost all of the countries in South America as a result of a huge mass of cold air that recently spun north from Antarctica. So the snow that fell here recently, which thankfully came without wind, was incredibly cold and dry and light.
About 10 centimeters fell in the Farellones village and up on the top of El Colorado it was more like 30 in the best spots. Which is only a foot, but thanks to the amazing quality the snow would explode in fantastic waves and clouds and float in the air, illuminated by the tack-sharp light of the sun shining in the crystal sky.
But all that powder skiing came a little bit later in the day than normal. We normally access the mountain via the surface tows (andariveles) that ascend right from town. But when we got there at our normal time there was not an employee in sight. The best day in weeks? Doors locked, lifts not spinning, ticket windows closed. A few phone calls confirmed the fact that the lifties were on strike! Una huelga! I will try to find out more about the specifics of the labor dispute, but it was resolved rather quickly as groups of employees all emerged about 45 minutes later and we were soon heading up the hill.
After an awesome day at work (I was teaching my skiing class all day), we finally sent the kids home at 430. Five instructors from the same club I work for all met up at the base and headed up for one last run. We skied one of the moderate chutes that drops off the south side of the Colorado mountain down the road that leads to Valle Nevado. This is the best lift accessed skiing of all of the three ski areas here. Santa Teresa, Grey Skull, Super S, and many other lines drop from the lifts down to the road. We skied the basurero, which means trash can, and it was pretty marginal, being one of the lower elevation lines it was still very rocky. But nonetheless a great way to end the day. Once on the road we return to Farellones via hitchhiking.
Now I´m sitting in the house instead of working. Since I've been writing this blog post over a few days the water has been fixed, partially at least. After hours of pounding on pipes, putting flame to every reachable spot with a blowtorch, the water finally started to flow again. But cold only, one of the pipes in the water heater cracked and will be repaired later this afternoon. But hey, as long as we can flush the toilet I´m pretty psyched. I´m not at work currently because a storm is in progress outside, the opposite of the one that we just enjoyed. No precip, just wind, ripping away all that glorious fluff and sending it off to Argentina. So many lifts are closed, and most people are just hanging out inside.
Roomate Chino supplying the sountrack.
Waiting for the strike to be resolved. Do ski goggles protect against tear gas?
Stoked to finally be heading up the Copa lift.
The kids were killing it.
And were also getting killed.
Coworker Fabrizio Camelo (what a name, no fair) showing how to do lunch right.
Heading to our afterwork decompression mission.
Coworker Victor (Papatch).
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