cordon del plata

I was anxious to get to argentina because there is less snow there and it melts sooner in the warmer weather. I had hoped to ski at the penitentes resort on the border of chile and argentina but it closed a couple weeks earlier than expected due to low snow. After a day in santiago tracking down what might be the only dynafit jig in south america to remount my binding i caught a bus to mendoza. In mendoza i met up with adam, a friend of some washington friends. adam has a cool ski touring buisness from mendoza, argentinaskitours.com. we hung out one night in town and drove to the nearby vallecitos ski area the next day for a quick hike-ski. vallecitos hasn´t had enough snow to open in a few years but there are a couple mountain hut-hostels that are open as the valley above is popular for climbing and aconcagua acclimizing.

san bernardo survival shred

I was feeling sick and feeling the elevation the next day but struggled up nearby san bernardo peak. Snow coverage wasn´t very good but remarkable in that i have never skied so many shitty snow types in one trip, shallow hiding rocks, deep isothermal, breakable crust over, ice, rime you name it. the next day i opted for running shoes instead of skis and hiked up a ridge behind the hut to see if i could spot some snow in the higher peaks. On the way out i met a couple, les and camilla, skinning in to ski a nearby peak called plata. I made plans to meet them at their camp the next night and give it or another peak, rincon, a go.

camilla approaching salto de agua camp

Still feeling ill i struggled up the valley the next morning with a big pack and small motivation reserves. I caught camilla and Les just as they were getting to the salto de agua camp (about 4200m) where we met an argentine couple in their second week of camping and climbing in the nearby peaks. They shared some mate and tips on where to camp to avoid the rats in the trashy campsite. there is lots of aconcagua influence around here and it is curbing any interest i had in climbing or skiing purely for altitude. Unfortuanately the cool peaks around here seem to be the 5-6000 meter ones so some more altitude practice is probably in store. We spent a nice afternoon in the sun but by the next morning the winds were whipping up a storm on the ridge a thousand meteres above us and we opted for a mellow tour in the valley instead of any peak bagging. I struggled with even this easy effort, partly sick but i think i dehydrated myself by trying to stretch a small amount of fuel to stay a second night. I have been burning auto gas mostly out of laziness, but Les had a bottle of white gas from a mendoza outdoor store that froze solid in the moderate 15F temps, cut with water apparently? Feeling a bit whipped i skied out and hitchhiked back to mendoza, the high peaks looking all the snowier in the rearview mirror.

downvalley views (towards mendoza)