TR: Vallecitos, Argentina, 8/31/07

[alto]

The place is sick. El Cordon del Plata is the range´s name. Big peaks accessible include Plata, Rincon, and Vallecitos.

First of all, the view from near the Mendoza valley of the line we chose to go after, biggest snowfield on the looker´s left of the high peak:



Then, the single chair at Vallecitos, skis dragging along the ground (snow or rock) here and there:



We skied this couloir as a warm-up before the ass-spanking the following day:



OK, time for ass spank. Ryan going up:



So it was like this: Several miles of skinning up moraines. About 5000 feet of vert from the lodge just to get to the apron of our line. Due to my dumb ass missing my alarm clock we got a 2 hour late start, which turned out to be a serious fuckup. We only got about half way up the line before we had to bail due to the approaching twilight. We were at 15,000 feet on the dot. View from our high point:



Time to go down the 6K to our tennis shoes. Dave looking. Note lake Potrerillos far over the ridge:



Dave skiing:



End transmission.

[powdherb]

Estaba cierto.

[Trackhead]

That last pic is super funky.

[Stani]

lack of snow there, how about the altitude and the name of the resort?

[truth]

Originally Posted by Trackhead

That last pic is super funky.

Yep...the angle compressed that valley to his ski tips.

[enlosandes]

Those parts of the Andes are mighty decieving!

[facedeep]

STANI, resort is Vallecitos. the elevation of the resort tops out at around 11,000 ft, 3300 meters. the mtns around range between 5300 - 6000 meters aproximately. I have never been in such decieving mountains. not only are they huge, they are extremely harsh. We saw temperature swings of 15 to 20 degrees c between shade and sun. at night the temperatures were around -20 c at 9500 feet.

[alto]

Originally Posted by Stani

lack of snow there, how about the altitude and the name of the resort?

Vallecitos is the name.

The problem is that there is no accurate mapping in a lot of areas. You can´t get the equivalent of a USGS quadrangle. We met the author of a well-respected guidebook for the area called Montanas de Luz, but didn´t get a copy, unfortunately. I think he has done a lot of work trying to select the best maps from the generally inaccurate military mapping that is available as well as compile a great climbing guide. The peaks up one valley (Plata, Rincon, and Vallecitos) are where most climbers go and there is some info about them in Biggar´s Andes Guidebook for Climbers. As facedeep said, they range from about 4,000m to 5,800m +.

But we went up the other valley accessible from the base which I understood was called Lomas Blancas, but my searches for that only yield an area near Penitentes. So we don´t even know what the fucking spot was called. We were going up a chute that probably would have topped out near 17,000 on the ridge, and the summit stood a couple hundred feet higher.

Low snow yes especially through the gut of the moraines. But we took a snow ramp up the climber´s left of the moraines that went bottom to top and back again without really ever needing to take our skis off.

Also, I think Klar was in the area too, maybe she´ll have some beta when she reports back.

[Stani]

thank for the infos, I found their website: http://www.skivallecitos.com/

form another site:
Altura en Base: 2.900mts
Altura en Cima: 3.350mts.

Se encuentra ubicado a 80km. de la ciudad de Mendoza y a 2900 mts. de altura, entre el majestuoso paisaje de la Cordillera de los Andes, al pie del Cordón del Plata, que alcanza los 6300 mts

The nearby Cordón del Plata is 6300 m high, nice

The temp swings are amazing
should be the same as in the mountains of Sahara, at least in winter

[Huckwheat]

Need to brag for my buddies Pete and Dave (lurkers CP1 and ujayi).

They skied Rincon (chute down the middle) about 5 years back. According to the guys at the local mtneer shop in Mendoza, it may have been a first decent. Aldo, ask around.

Originally Posted by alto

The place is sick. El Cordon del Plata is the range´s name. Big peaks accessible include Plata, Rincon, and Vallecitos.

First of all, the view from near the Mendoza valley of the line we chose to go after, biggest snowfield on the looker´s left of the high peak:

[straight outta sultan]

buen trabajo dave, ryan y drew,
Estoy en Costa Rica, y estoy un poco envioso que ustedes estan esquiando. buena suerte schralpadores

[Tri-Ungulate]

Bueno. Was that the 17K+ peak you had planned or just the warmup?

[CP1]

Originally Posted by alto

The place is sick.

To say the least, we were blown away when we ventured in there 5 years ago. Props for getting after it, so did you guys go up Vallecitos proper? We were blessed with a monster year, which happened to fill in the Supercanaleta on Rincon. Getting info on the area is a real challenge, I happened on a guide book for climbers "The Andes" by John Biggar. There were some hand drawn sketches of routes and the one for Vallecitos and Rincon looked to hold some good lines. We were blown away when we saw the area, quite a few possibilities. Heres what the Supercanaleta on Rincon looked like in Sept of 01.

[powders]

Was up there with Covert about a month ago, crappy snow conditions, but super cool place. CP1 did you ski the supercanaleta? I had dreams/plans of giving it a go, in Refugio San Bernardo the guy that runs it Michel, told me he believed it to be unskied, but there's so little info... Back in Lenas, i heard about a friend of a friend that had skied it some while back.

Will put up some pics of the place soon, the peak in huckweats reply ain't Rincon though

[CP1]

Originally Posted by powders

CP1 did you ski the supercanaleta?

Yeah, Ujjayi (Dave) and I got it back on 9/10/01. I spent an incredible summer in Las Lenas and this was the icing on the cake. Las Lenas got pounded that season, I remember multiple 3 meter storms. I think it was one of the rare years when Supercanaleta fills in and is ridable. Most climbers we talked with had only encountered ice when going up it. We got lucky and were able to ski the entire pitch from the summit.

[Huckwheat]

Originally Posted by CP1

Yeah, Ujjayi (Dave) and I got it back on 9/10/01. I spent an incredible summer in Las Lenas and this was the icing on the cake. Las Lenas got pounded that season, I remember multiple 3 meter storms. I think it was one of the rare years when Supercanaleta fills in and is ridable. Most climbers we talked with had only encountered ice when going up it. We got lucky and were able to ski the entire pitch from the summit.

You left out that when Dave dropped in to follow you, he thought he was skiing to death.....but those are just details.

Cool Pic, wow.

[Squirrel99]

Good stuff guys!

I{ve got some beta pics for you from the Lanin region so watch for those in a few days. Good to share some drinks in Bariloche. Heading home tomorrow - keep killing it kindly for us.

[alto]

Another self bump:

Couple more pics from our time in Vallecitos. Here is the peak called Rincon, same as the one shown above by CP1, but with a little less snow:



And here is some random 17,000 foot high gnar next to the face we skied. Im going back there. Place is stupid gnarly:

[alto]

Self bump for Independence Day.

[llyon]

Anyone know whats up at Vallecitos this season? Last year it was closed for most of the season.

[userpro64]

nice place to ski!

[MadPatSki]

Originally Posted by llyon

Anyone know whats up at Vallecitos this season? Last year it was closed for most of the season.

Bump for the question asked by llyon.

Any info from the maggots in SA?

Thinking of a maybe one day recon in early September for future trip in 2010 with possibly some of my NA ski partners.

[klar]

it's not like it matters that much whether the lift is open, for rincon and that whole valley it is completely useless, for the side alto went it saves you maybe 200m vert or so.

edit: blog

i was there twice, not great snow both times. we got about halfway up the supercanaleta and skied some smaller things. take your time to get used to the altitude.

[TomyLight]

Nice! But not much snow there, normal ?