Our second exotic skiing trip took us again to Southamerica - but this time Chile and Argentina. Why again? Well there were still plenty of skiing resorts to see and still are (even after that trip). This time we decided to go in the high winter season - that in mid to end of July.

So this time, we decided to give Chile a try, before skiing the famous Las Lenas. Therefore we flew directly to Santiago de Chile and directly organized transportation to the nearby skiing resorts: La Parva, El Condor and Sierra Nevado. You can see these resorts from town, and so it took us roughly one to two hours driving from the airport. Very nice, but also very steep road. There are plenty opportunities to stay, from cheap hostels to cabanas and luxurous 5-star hotels. After 5 days we had the more difficult task of getting to Los Andes. But again - with private transportation it is no problem. But allow at least 4 hours driving. Why Los Andes can rightly ask - the is no snow in Los Andes.

Correct, but there is Ski Arpa nearby! Ski Arpa is the perfect resort for freeskiing - no lifts, no tracks, no runs - just Toni and his snowcats. Due to the difficult access way, you may think about a good 4×4 rental car! We were lucky and Toni picked us up for the hotel - so we had some really interessting rides to the resort.

Back to the big resorts - After 3 days it was time to fly to Argentina and to Las Lenas. So we flew Santiago to Buenos Aires, took the bus to the national airport and a flew again to San Rafael. San Rafael is a small town in the Argentinian pampas - no mountains, no snow. So the bus trip took 4 hours to Las Lenas (pretty tiring hours, as the bus was a piece of garbage and was sometimes driving below 20mph! little advice: buy something to dink in advance, but zip only a little every once in a while, because there are no stops!). Las Lenas is a typical ski only resort - little like the French stations like Val Thorens, Avoriaz, or Tignes. You can normally book one week-packages - so we did as well.

So like on the first trip - after a 14 skiing intensive days - we enjoyed Buenos Aires again before flying back. Perfect to acclimatize again for the European summer

Stay tuned for the freeriding tips and details for Las Lenas, Ski Arpa, Valle Nevado!

During the last years, we did a couple of quite exotic skiing trips.

The first of those trips took us to the Argentinian Andes. 3 weeks for Buenos Aires, Bariloche (Cerro Catedral), Chapelco and Cerro Castor in Tierra del Fuego. Altogether we had a dozen skiing days - the rest was travelling and enjoying the Argentinian way of life. Which is especially eating great steaks, drinking good red wine and enjoying perfect night life.

We went end of August/beginning of September - and the means Easter conditions. So a little advice: plan with enough flexibility to find the best snow. On the other hand, in order to be sure to manage 3 ski resorts in three different areas in three weeks, we did some planning ahead. Especially the flight form Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego/Ushuahia can be pretty crowded. But before going into details on the three resorts - here is our trip-schedule:

Couple of days enjyoing Buenos Aires. After that we took a flight to Bariloche. Form the airport you can easily take buses up to the skiing resort (if you stay up there, which we did).

From Cerro Catedral, we took a private transportation (that is Argentinian terms for driver with private car, but organized by hotel…) to San Martin de los Andes. San Martin is the base station for Chapelco. It took us roughly 4 hours driving, as the direct route is blocked in winter.

Because there was no direct flight connection possibility from San Martin to Ushuahia, we had to fly back to Buenos Aires and took the earliest flight the next morning to Ushuahia. The flight is really great - perfect views especially on Tierry del Fuego. We even saw the skiing resort before landing. There a dozens of hotels and opportunities to stay in Ushuahia, but only a couple of cabanas right next to the resort. So better organize transporation right away.

The next weeks, we will block on the skiing resorts - to give you some impressions and share some better runs and freesking opportunities.

Stay tuned!

What would you expect end of March 2007 up on the Zugspitz Plateau…
Well when we went there last weekend, we didn‘t expect much, except for tons of snow, crystal clear and crisp conditions and perfect pow.
And we weren‘t disappointed, it really was a perfect day.
Normally, the Zugspitz Plateau gets boring after half a day, but with perfect powder, you find enough places to play around. When the Powderalarm strikes, they don‘t groom the Aspen run - and you even have more terrain to play!
Looking for a perfect round… here you go:

1) go up Schneefernerkopf and keep on climbing towards the old chair lift (you can still see the top station) - going down you have a nice steep run
2) head towards top station of Weißes Tal and go down this nice open bowl towards Wetterwandeck
3) go up Wetterwandeck, at top leave to the left and head for the rocks right of you. Just behind the rocks opens a great bowl for perfect freeriding. At the end follow the tracks and head for Brunnthal. You have some nice terrain until you reach Brunnthal.
4) go up Brunnthal and Sonnenkar. Going up you can see your next spots: the open fields right of Sonnenkar and the moguls just below Sonnenkar!
All in all take your time and enjoy - do it twice in one day and you will love your Weissbier at the end
www.zugspitze.de

Okay - the Italian Dolomites were quite nice… but we couldn’t help and went to St Anton for another week of skiing. But what should I say? Pow?

No way! More like Easter skiing, but with hardly any snow. Pretty poor conditions for january, but we tried to make the best out of it…here you go:

Schindlerkar: Schindlerkar and Mattun where okay until the rain hit the Arlberg
region. And it rained heavily up to 2.500m! Forget about the couliers directly
below Schindlerkar top station.

Albona: Hardly any snow on the Albona II side - hard, crusted, wind blown
towards Stuben. But no people at all, and runs groomed okay

Gampen: #34 from Kapall to Mattun was okay, but currently hardly any snow.
But look out for some chutes with windslab (but watch out for avalanche-danger!
under-layers are totally garbage!)

Rendl: Runs are okay, Park is closed! Roßfall only with wind blown snow -
But Malfontal is great as always! Found Pow last Saturday! Will tell you more about
Malfontal and how to get there soon (pix will follow as well)

To check out the latest conditions check out:

www.stantonamarlberg.com

Just came back from a few days in the Italian Dolomites… And what can I say? Perfect weather, but poor snow! 20cm at most!

Luckily, the Italians learned how to produce tons of snow. So we had no powder, but good possibilities to train our upper thighs on the Ritten/Renon. That is a tiny little spot opposite the Schlern, Rosengarten and Latemar. Hardly any lifts, but great views, perfect sun and great food for little money!
Had the chance to ski most of Sella Ronda one day - that is part of the Dolomiti Superski area: Wolkenstein, Corvara, Arraba… and what can I say:
Perfectly groomed runs, even greater views on the mountains and still no pow at all!! But I guess, it must be a great spot with enough pow - saw lots of nice spots for freeriding. Decided to come back, when there is enough white stuff.
Here are some links to webcams an the skiresorts
http://www.rittnerhorn.com/
http://www.dolomitisuperski.com/home.athx