CASA Tours Switchboard

Saludos from Chile: Excellent start in the Andes

Posted on July 14th, 2007 by gomez.
Categories: From the Guides, The Ski Diaries.

Saludos from Chile,
Well once again Independence Day marked my departure from the United States and summertime and my arrival to the Southern Hemisphere and winter. Each time it amazes me how I can wake up to an Andean sunrise and in 1 night travel from summer to winter.
Going from 100 degree plus temperatures in Montana to 40 degree temperatures in Santiago is a welcome change and as I fly above the Andes looking down on its snow covered mountains I become giddy with excitement and another ski season beginning.
Unlike last season the Andes have received excellent early snowfall and another storm left 6 inches of dry Andean powder at the resorts outside Santiago.
CASA picked up its first guests on the 7th of July for our first Endless Winter tour. When we arrived at La Parva on the 8th the clouds had us socked in. That afternoon though the clouds broke and the Andes unveiled themselves to us. The sight of these familiar mountains poking out of the clouds sent tingles throughout my body.
The temperatures have been consistently cold and the snow quality I would describe as velvety powder on top of a chalky, carvy base.
As the sun powered through the clouds my guests got their first glimpses of these magnificent mountains and were inspired by their beauty and grandness.
Our afternoon was glorious and a high pressure was awaiting us for the next 2 days of skiing and snowboarding.
The following day we ventured to Valle Nevado where we were treated to a powder day and bright sunshine. The early season coverage is excellent this year and we rode the Los Andes Express, Valle Olympico and had 2 runs down Santa Terasita, one of my favorite off piste areas in all of South America.
Santa Terasita is an 1800 vertical foot face with a mile long ridgeline that drops into a variety of chutes, banana couloirs, cliff drops, and natural half pipes. It is accessed from either a short hike from Valle Nevado or by ducking a rope at El Colorado and descends to the road leading to Valle Nevado. One of the great things about CASA Tours is we have a driver who shuttles us from the road back to the resort after each run. This is our version of heli-skiing and this entire face had less than a handful of tracks before our arrival. Our smiles were ear to ear as we looked down at 1800 feet of untouched powder. I would best describe the skiing as silky smooth and we were able to lay out huge turns and the snow quality was consistent throughout the entire run allowing us to open it up.
We spent the following day at El Colorado, my favorite resort in the Tres Valles.
El Colorado offers the easiest access to Santa Teracita and has some superb inbounds terrain accessed from the Conde Este and Cornisa t-bars. Steep slopes and prominent red rock features distinguish El Colorado’s backside.
After playing around at the resort it was time to return to Santa Terasita.
Even a day later there were hardly any tracks on this face other than our own from the day before. We took one of our quests who spends his winters in France snowboarding. He was thoroughly impressed and hearing the words “That was one of the best runs of my life” gave me an incredible sense of joy. Seeing my guests have an epic run in terrain that is bigger than they’ve ever ridden before makes me feel like a proud papa. Needless to say he wanted more and we were happy to oblige, 2 more times, each one better.
It is on down here and we are stoked with how everything is setting up snow-wise. From Santiago to Barilcohe the Andes are covered

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