ski season 08/09

From lakes district patagonia

From lakes district patagonia

got 3 days of skiing at cerro bayo near villa la angostura. it was early in the season for argentina and only a portion of the mountain was open, but it was sweet skiing in the middle of june. the mountain had lakes surrounding it, so when it wasn´t cloudy, there were great views.

the first day was snowy and cloudy... good for the remaining days of skiing.

From lakes district patagonia

once the skies were clear, we had views of the lakes surrounding the mountain.

From lakes district patagonia

From lakes district patagonia

on the last day, there was fog over the lakes...

From lakes district patagonia

From lakes district patagonia

From lakes district patagonia

it was a small mountain and only a limited portion of it was open.

From lakes district patagonia

fortunately, the argentines don´t really enforce any ski boundaries. this sweet slope of powder was closed - pista cerrada.

From lakes district patagonia

but the guards and lifties didn´t so much as open their eyes when went through the ropes and climbed up. got a few powder runs on the closed run... and ate it a handful of times.

From lakes district patagonia

From lakes district patagonia

after argentina, we´re headed to bolivia. i had hoped to go skiing near la paz- there´s a glacier where bolivians have been skiing since the early 1900´s. its at over 17,000 ft - 3 miles high! its called chacaltaya. here´s an nytimes article on the slopes. and here´s a pic of the ski lodge:

unfortunately, there´s no more glacier. the glacier had been receding for years and, this past year, vanished. damn you al gore!

sad. no more training grounds for the bolivian olympic ski team. bolivian skiers will have to sink into obscurity and join the once-famed bolivian olympic skeleton team, the bolivian national basketball squad, and the bolivian navy.

here´s the last word on chacaltaya from snow-forecast.com:
Chacaltaya summary
New information tells us that the rumour is true and Chacaltaya has
officially closed. The glacier has melted which means that Chacaltaya
was the highest ski area in the world. Was the only ski area in South
America outside of Chile and Argentina. The most equatorial ski area
in the world. The oldest ski lift in South America. The fastest
surface lift in the world. The northernmost ski area in South America.
The only ski area in South America with a season that corresponds to
that of North America. The most difficult lift to load in the world.