just us and a couple of rucksacks: Argentina...all about the snow

The trip over the Andes was lovely, possibly the prettiest mountain pass on record, but the journey was very slow going and 12 hours later we finally arrived at our destination. It became obvious pretty quickly that it was not cold enough for snow in Bariloche and the constant rain was a give away that things on the mountain were not going to be good. With the pending arrival of family the next day (and the concern about the fact there was no snow) I hardly slept at all the first night and when we were greeted with more rain in the morning the concern developed into action. So good to see Andrew and Keith arrive safely in Bariloche the next morning and after some hotdogs and a serious conversation over the snow report, we changed our plans.

The problem with this whole global warming thing is that places that had LOTS of snow the year before are not guaranteed to have it the next, but the fact that all they currently had was rain didn't bode well for us and our boards. We cashed in our airtickets, quickly booked bus tickets and an appartment in Las Lenas (700km away) and headed off on an entertaining overnight bus journey. Simon and I are quite acustomed to long bus trip by now, but I am not sure the other two were as entertained by the movies in Spanish and bus bingo (also in Spanish) A connection into a minivan in San Rafael and we arrived in Las Lenas by noon the next day.

Las Lenas is Argentina's premier ski resort, so this means the prices for things are too!! They also only book accommodation Sat to Sat , so our arrival early on the Thursday confused them no end, but in no time we were dropping off our bags, into our snowboarding gear and off to the hill. The studio appartment we managed to find was good for us and the bunkbeds make it feel a little like a school camp. Most important is the kitchen as we are able to cook up a storm and save some cash in the process. Also good is that we are right at the bottom of the hill, so we come home for lunch and it is sometimes the only time we see each other in the day (the boys are so fast I lose them regularly!)

At 3000m we are guaranteed snow and that is exactly what we found. On day one they had 30cm of fresh powder for us to play on and within a few warmup runs we were back in the groove. One or two falls for me has turned into 7 or 8 and with injured ribs I have had to take it a little easy. Sunday was a bit icey and windy, so I stayed away while the boys did their thing, but being 5 days in with 5 days to go not much can keep us off the slopes now. Keith and Andrew do the very nutty boy thing and do a fair bit of off-piste-ing...Simon is trying a bit, but I stick to the runs.

That is all from me for now as the lifts have opened and it is a bluesky day...the slopes are calling.