TR: 6 weeks in Argentina

[klar]

Thanks to all the maggots and Ttips people who helped with info and answers to my many, varyingly silly, questions beforehand. Sorry if this is somewhat lengthy, I had a lot of time to kill on buses and planes. I’ve posted some of the pictures before, I think, but felt like doing a proper TR after all.

Here goes.

I arrive in Bariloche and it rains. In fact, it rains for about ten days after I arrive as well. It is depressing, the snow retreats far up the mountains. One wonders why there are chairlifts on Cerro Catedral.

This means I am happy enough to spend my days studying Spanish. After having made my way from Munich to Bariloche, I have mastered with great fluency and but the slightest accent the important sentences “No hablo Espanol.” And “No entiendo.”

The American kids at the language school seem to speak in exclusively in capitals and exclamation marks.
“HI!! WHERE ARE YOU FROM???”
“germany. Hi.”
“COOL! WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY???”
“uh, well, the weather is pretty shit so I stayed inside and read a book.”
“AWESOME!!!!”
As an evening activity we are encouraged to go to a Salsa class, which is REALLY FUN!!!

Occasionally the clouds clear a little and reveal tantalizing glimpses of what lies beyond the lake.


The rain is frustrating. In desperation I enter a gym voluntarily for the first time in my life. In my best Spanish I explain to the lady at the counter that I would like to run on a treadmill for a bit, please, no I don’t need a trainer. The result of this is that 5 minutes later I find myself on a spinning machine, Monica, my personal trainer for the next hour, is screaming at me in Spanish and It never rains in California, the techno remix, is playing at deafening volume in an endless loop.

After a week in a hostel I move to stay with a family for increased cultural immersion. This means I smile and nod a lot and remain largely clueless as to the content of my conversations. They are all quite lovely and the weather is starting to be more to my liking. There is even some snow in town now. (who can say he has not asked himself, on a bleak and dreary morning, waiting for the bus,
)

The fact that it might snow in a ski town surprises people greatly. So you really can’t drive up a steep, icy road in a snowstorm with a Fiat 500, huh? Even if it still has the original tires?


View of Tres Reyes from Catedral resort. Out of Refugio Frey, a hut in the area, this could be a nice tour. The problem is that it ends in a wilderness of trees and truly evil bamboo like vegetation. Bushwhacking for 15 minutes through that stuff is bad, I am not willing to risk several hours.


At some point the constant wind ceases, there is not a single cloud to be seen. Lo siento, no puedo ir a la escuela mañana porque tengo que esquiar. My touring partner having bailed out at the last minute, I set off for Refugio Frey on my own, armed with a bad map and vague Spanish directions. For the next few days I am in paradise.
Pedro, the swiss guy who manages the hut, deserves special mention. He has been up there for 15 years, goes to town twice during the winter and spends months without seeing other people. The hut has electricity because he built some kind of wind and water generated power source. He channelled a spring to create an icefall for climbing in winter and has perfect hand drawn topos of every rock around the hut, and there are many, for the summer.

On a good day he is the first up the chutes in his backyard and damn fast at that.

This is his set up.

As long as the poles match it’s all good.

Conditions were amazing.

View of the hut.






Tronador in the distance


Some Americans were at the hut with a guide. We let them go first since there was enough room for everyone….








After scrambling back up the other ridge and looking back at our tracks, they’re in there somewhere,

it’s back to the real world.

[klar]

Having given me the noble gift of this last run,







my beloved skis die a sad death. RIP, lovely, short, floppy Work Stinx.

Hello long, heavy, sluggish HEAD Monsters, which someone thankfully gave me for a decent price. Victor, the skishopguy, is a bit confused by my exotic fixación and it is only in a time intensive teameffort that they are eventually mounted, if somewhat crookedly. (a few days earlier he replaced a broken screw in my Garmont boots, happily exclaiming: “Ah! Scarpa!”) It takes some time and bruises before the monsters and I are comfortable in each other’s company.

The weather seems to alternate between stellar and completely awful. Trying to clip tickets at the resort is good Spanish practice and yields the odd afternoon of nice stormskiing in the trees with even a break in the clouds now and then. Apparently this Condor is only a bebé.


Of course adjusting to the Argentine nightlife schedule and going out all night, i.e. sleeping during the day, is also quite effective to pass the time. I quite enjoy watching drunk gringos trying to impress the local chicas with their fiery Latino dancing skills. My thanks to the little bird who whispered to me the names of places that tourists seldom find.
As for Spanish lessons, being able to tell the difference between people complementing me on my blond hair and people trying to sell me drugs seems good enough for now and sitting indoors on a clear day is downright painful.

[Trackhead]

I love this pic! Great TR.

[klar]

On a second trip to Frey two weeks or so later the skiing is still fun but I am amazed how much conditions have changed. Spring is full on.



In a memorable chat with Pedro (3 people speaking 3 different languages) topics range from the advantages of snow caves over iglus, to remote, no name, mountains in Austria, which he inexplicably knows, to him informing us that we are in the middle of the apocalypse.
-Es escribito. The world is going to end. Die Zeichen sind da. Eet is known.
-Si? Umm, yeah, well. Dann machen wir halt the best of the time that’s left.

Note prominent placement of t shirt.

Clear nights here are very pretty. The milky way does indeed look like spilt milk. I am also past my confusion concerning the moon. It looks like it’s waxing when it’s actually waning. (Southern Hemisphere, yeah, duh.)


We ski out through another valley and, after some serious forestnavigation, cliffscrambling and mudcrawling, find the road and hitch back to town.

















Meeting people is not difficult. The gringos congregate and, among the crowds of brazilians and argentine students in their distinctive outfits,
it is not hard to pick out the helmets, backpacks and fat skis.

Talking to likeminded people is always nice. No matter what your differences may be, there is always that one common theme throughout the conversation. Girls are rare and girls on their own even more so, which can be very nice and also very annoying. Some of the professional skibums have impressive egos. X thinks Y is a fat idiot, Y thinks X is a chain smoking psycho. Both have a point. Luckily I am far from entering their “competition radar” and get them to occasionally point me in the right direction by smiling nicely and batting my eyes.

[Atrain505]

Noice. So much inverted summer winter action messing with my brain.

[klar]

Eventually I really do need a change of scenery and decide to go to Esquel. The bus breaks down and the 4 hour journey turns into a 7 hour one. There could not, however, have been a more beautiful place to wait for the mechanic so that was alright.

The Alps seem splendidly huddled in such a small stretch of Europe, narrow valleys that the sun doesn’t reach in winter, separated by rocky spikes, roads go to the most remote corners and everything crawling with people. Here, the world is big. A spread out, wide, empty and achingly beautiful country.
Fuera de pista at La Hoya



Over the rim of the hoya everything is windblown and icy.


Of course all the snow ends up being blown somewhere. My happy place.

Windy selfportrait. I do have two eyes.

I can’t get over how empty this place is and could spend hours just staring off into the distance.


Dario, who manages the hostel I am staying in with his lovely wife Laura, offers to take me exploring a bit. We drive around no man’s land as far as the car will go and look at possibilities.

La Torta

Nahuel Pan




We went for a walk.






Dario took up skiing last year. He does alright but doesn’t like the trees.


He knows these mountains better than he skis though, which is helpful as the closest thing to a map for the area is Google Earth. Excuse geeky cloud pic.

Dario self portrait steeze. Unfortunately we didn’t see any people all day that I could have impressed with my shirt.

[splat]

Donde esta las klar rock?

Aqui!

[jonesy]

This shot says it all. Thanks.......

[klar]

Time really does fly when you’re having fun. I tried changing my flights to stay longer but unfortunately it didn’t work. If you are planning some travels, do me a favour and boycott Iberia. They were incredibly unhelpful. I am also sorry I did not get to ski with any maggots, one or two of whom I literally missed by an hour. Anyway, I will have to come back to see Las Lenas and all the other places I missed this time.

Some random Bariloche scenery. Peeking through a gap between buildings or hiding behind street corners to jump out at you there is always that promise of what lies waiting beyond the city.

Refugio Frey area from the balcony:

see anything unusual about the tree?


I‘ll end with a happy little discovery we made on one of the last days. Hey, look, what’s that behind the ridge?

Was a bit windy.

I got to pick one, ski it and, as this place is unknown, unnamed and apparently unskied, make up a cheesy name for my personal lovely chute. Sadly there was time for only one. I have a picture of this on my wall and something to dream about till next time.

Until then I will sip some mate and try to get over my Dulce de Leche addiction, read the TR’s from all the happy people still in South America and depend on my memories to sustain me till the snow starts falling here.

[GBB]

Stellar TR.

Thanks for sharing, it looks like you had an absolutely amazing time.

[f2f]

you have vindicated the 4 mounts of shit and garbage that this board becomes during the summer! stellar TR, fantastic writeup!

thank you!

[burny]

yeaaa ... great !!! Thanks a lot ... maybe you could post it in german as well

[Tri-Ungulate]

Most excellent, klar. Thanks for the great Southern Hemisphere stoke - freeheel, even.

[bbirtle]

Nice!

[backpack]

I'm going to be late to a dinner, but it was worth it to finish the TR.

[Meadow Skipper]

Yes! Great TR - thanks for putting it up. What a cool trip.

This picture killed me, two different kinds of skis, two different types of bindings (did his boots match?):


Bummer about your Work Stinx, but maybe Pedro at the refugio could have worked the other one into his quiver somehow.

[Cono Este]

I really do not know where to start. All I can say is, way to kill it!!!!!

Nice Condor too.

[Rontele]

very nice TR. and excellent stoke.

[hutash]

Great winter in summer stoke. If only winter would arrive here in the north.

[Hayduke]

Einfach geil! Danke!

[Kellie]

Fabulous TR! Bummer you didn´t make it to LL for some turns, but sounds like you had a stellar trip . . . hopefully your TR will inspire me to put mine together, but we will see . . .

[freaks~in~creeks]

way to BRING THE FUCKING STOKE!!!!!!

that is one of the best TRs of 2006
FIVE FUCKING STARS

[gimpy]

outduckingstanding!!!!!

[RootSkier]

SI SI SI.

CAW CAW CAW.

Best TR of the summer....that is so awesome. Thanks for sharing all the possibilities of the Bariloche area. I am so inspired to go back in winter and ski there.

Damn.

That is all so fucking sweet.

[PNWbrit]

Kicks my Bariloche trip in the nuts......way to get after it.

Would you send me a PM or post more stuff about the Frey - Place looked so tempting to drop down to. I have to get back down there next summer.