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Pantagonia!

6K views 38 replies 15 participants last post by  Mr. Polonia 
#1 ·
Cerro Catedral. Bariloche, Argentina.

Alright Alright.. I admit this isn't yet a "proper" trip report... Because I'm on the verge of passing out. BUT I'm so STOKED to be here. Had to share the photos taken today. I promise I'll fill in details once I have a minute to be more descriptive of the trip.
But I will give a shout out to:SGT Argentina | Argentina Summer Snowboard Camp & Ski Camps
for making this a great week!!!
Still several days to go.

WISH YOU WERE HERE!!!

Atmospheric phenomenon Landscape

^My First night in Bariloche. Invested in a Nikon D5100 the night before my flight.. the snow just started to fall that night so I had to give the camera a whirl.

Mountainous landforms Snow Mountain Ridge Winter

Hiking up to the 7k summit of La Laguna (taken yesterday Tuesday 8.31.11)

Snow Mountaineer Geological phenomenon Winter Freezing

View off one side of the summit.

Snow Winter Mountain Mountainous landforms Sky

Erin Comstock at the top.

Snow Winter Snowboard Geological phenomenon Winter sport

Today Robin Van Gyn with the SGT group. Top of the Bowl.

Snow Mountaineer Geological phenomenon Mountaineering Mountainous landforms

Group photo. Today bottom of the bowl.

Snow Mountaineer Winter Mountaineering Geological phenomenon

Me today after a sick pow line in the La Laguna bowl.

Mountainous landforms Mountain Mountain range Ridge Massif

Todays view!!!

Mountainous landforms Mountain Mountain range Ridge Nunatak

Todays View!!!

Snow Winter Footwear Recreation Tree

Todays traverse out of the bowl through a forest that reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. Snow was pretty packed there.. had some Deeeeeep powder in the trees in another section.


3 solid days of pow Slack Country riding and lots of hiking... I'm beat. Glad I got a chance to put up some pics! WINTER IS ALMOST HERE PEOPLE!!!!!!:D:thumbsup:
 
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#2 ·
And YES I did see my first ever human triggered avalanche. Argentine guy that didn't know what he was doing Just headed into the back country with another guy and no gear. Slab broke above him and he almost rode it out.. got caught in it at the bottom luckily the slide stopped just as it caught him and he was able to get right out... :eek: scary thing to watch.
 
#6 ·
Very nice Karasene! Psyched you are having a great time. One of these years I am going to put together a summer trip down there. I should have done it when I was much younger.

As for the dude in an avalanche. Gear really doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. It's a last ditch effort to save your or someone else's bacon if it all goes south. Obviously if he was carrying gear he would have probably of been thinking about the danger and maybe not have chosen that line. He is lucky to get out relatively unscathed. Especially since he triggered a slab that broke above him. More often than not that situation ends badly, even if the victim was carrying avy gear.
 
#7 ·
Yeah that is true. The sport is way behind down here. Resorts don't do any snow blasting and there are a lot of dangerous areas even in bounds. The guys with SASS were saying how lucky the Argentines have been so far.. A lot of guys drop together in a group the guys here are afraid one day they're going to hear about an entire gang bang of dead skiers off one of these mountains. For the most part many of them just follow our head guy.. They know if they see him hike and take a line it's safe. Others just go off and do what they want. No bueno.:thumbsdown:

They're calling for snow tonight and tomorrow!!! Hoping to finish the week with a couple more powder days! Very excited.:thumbsup:
 
#10 · (Edited)
Yeah true.


Here's a clip from today at sitting at the top of the bowl.

Riding with Chris Coulter and Jon Conway.

"This was right before our first run today. Hiked up into the bowl through some serious winds. Was pretty intense weather this morning. We were sitting just above a cornice we had to get past which broke when one of the guys was testing the stability of things. Awesome run tho!"




It hadn't snowed in 4 days in this footage.. its mainly all just wind whiped into the bowl. Its DUMPING right now tho. Tomorrow there's going to be lots of coverage in there.
 
#11 ·
Looks sick Karasene! Next summer is Disneyland for the kid, but the summer after that is looking like it will have to be somewhere quite a bit further south. Winter in the summer looks to good to pass up forever.
 
#17 ·
Yeah I have to say I had one of the best tree runs in my life. After a fresh storm is was sooo sick in there. The only down side to tree runs at Cerro Catedral is the cat tracks. If you down keep an eye out for them it'll just open right up to flat. But again best tree run of my life so far. Just point and shoot and it was all powder.
 
#19 ·
haha:laugh: yeah I think that's a good point.

When I think of splitboarding in this area tho I still think most all the riding is above tree line.

The week I was here Chris Coulter did a 2 day trip out a place called Refugio Frey with several of the guys a part of SGT. These guys have been riding the Andes around Bariloche for 7 years now. http://www.ccoultershred.com If there's anyone to ask about backcountry riding in the Argentina Andes its these guys. I'll have to ask him about the tree runs off the mountain.
 
#20 ·
There are quite a few resources for getting info on Argentina for Splitboard trips actually. The Sweetgrass guys have also been going down there for years. I would definitely have to look someone up to guide us around. No point in spending the money to go do there and wing it.

I've seen plenty of vid from Sweetgrass to know there are plenty of tree runs to be had in that area.
 
#26 ·
Hahaha! That's pretty funny. Had a friend leave his board base down like that on a chute we were teeing up on Berthoud Pass. A gust of wind came through and blew it into the chute. It went down 1k ft to the exit gully at the bottom. Great powder in there too. The rest of the day we got to give him crap how his board got more turns than he did...
 
#28 ·
Maybe Jeri will see this. Jeri and I were touring one day and I was slacking ass on the uphill. He already had one of his skins off and I had just gotten to the top and was unstraped. He set one of his halfs down on the base and I saw it starting to slide down. It started to take off and I did some ninja leaping after it. I don't think we ever would have found it had it gotten away especially since it was over 2K vert.
 
#29 ·
almost lost my board on Mt. Rainier. Had it sitting bindings down with the high backs dug into the snow when a 70 mph gust flipped it and sent it sliding. Luckily, the wind also knocked me over which gave me a head start on the diving scramble to prevent my board from going for a fun ride.
 
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