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The Super C

Posted on March 17th, 2007 by abearc.
Categories: Best Lines in South America.

This article written by CASA guide Mike Taylor was featured on Big Lines. props to them for publishing it.

I’ve skied the Super C once before, two years ago, led by a couple of Portillo locals. Since that day I’ve referred to it as the most spectacular couloir I’ve ever skied. It’s a solid 1000 m vert., on a slope of 35-47 degrees, and 15-30m wide. The granite walls are 20m and higher on both sides; very aesthetic indeed.

Sept. 6/06 started with a 6 am alarm, a couple stiff espresso’s off the gas stove in CASA Tours’ apt. downtown Santiago, and Mike Mariash and I drove north of the city just ahead of the morning rush-hour chaos. An hour and a half later we picked up Gary Newman from San Esteban, who works as a guide at Valle El Arpa cat skiing, and we continued up the pass to Portillo. We were the fourth vehicle in the parking lot, one being a military Mercedes Unimog with a dozen teenage soldiers in full camo, gearing up for their day of alpine carnage/training, always a treat to watch.

At 10:40 we dismounted the Roca Jack lift and started the 3 hour boot-pack with a light snowfall that was forecast to accumulate to 1 cm. Variable surface conditions made for a relatively quick climb up to the crux, which is a 50 m traverse on a 45 degree slope, from which losing your purchase is definitely not an option. It was at this point where the 1cm had accumulated to 5 or 6. Loose snow sloughs from the rocky bluffs overhead were becoming more frequent, and group positioning more relevant…

The last 100 vertical m was completely out of overhead hazard, but the powder was preserved at this elevation from the previous storm, making for crotch deep trail-breaking for the last hour.

One of the big attractions of this run for me is that the descent is only visible from the access road well below the resort. Cresting the break-over at 4000m, and looking down beyond the first roll-over of this couloir is breathtaking. With limited vis, continuing steady snowfall, and wet to the bone, we hopped in as soon as we could free up our frozen buckles to crank them down.

The snow in the chute was preserved, dry, and between boot top to waist deep. The steady rumbling sound of loose snow sluffing down on us was unnerving, and added a real ingredient to the adrenaline mix. We spent an hour skiing from the top of the couloir out to the base of the resort. We were in complete whiteout conditions for the last 500 vertical m out of the couloir, with a minefield of frozen avi debris hidden under the powdery surface.

Funny, no matter how cold and soaking wet you are, a good cerveza always tastes great. Five days later I guided a couple guests of CASA Tours (along with another Arpa guide) into the couloir, and we were awarded with a sunny day, although the snow conditions were a mixed bag of wind crust, breakable only at times. We enjoyed a decadent soak in the outdoor jacuzzi afterwards at the Hotel Puerta del Sol.

The Super C remains my favorite.

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Environmental Sustainability

Posted on March 17th, 2007 by abearc.
Categories: Recent Posts, Sustainable Travel.

CASA Tours is dedicated to environmental sustainability throughout our North and South American operations. We recognize that in the adventure travel business, activities like air travel and car travel lead to the emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere, contributing to the influence of global warming. Widespread climate change will have long-term consequences for ecosystem form and function, greatly affecting human populations and how we live on Earth. In terms of the sports of skiing and snowboarding, global climate change may influence the amount of snowfall that accumulates in high elevations throughout the world. Thus, the ski and snowboard community has a stake in the reduction of fossil fuels and other drivers of the climate change phenomenon.

One method of reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is through “carbon offsets”, or the practice of reducing emissions through the development of alternative energy sources or increasing the absorption of greenhouse gases through tree planting / preservation. Trees sequester carbon through photosynthesis, converting carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and plant matter.

CASA Tours practices our carbon offset through the preservation of existing, mature forest lands in Chile and Argentina. The conservation of these areas also provides enormous ecosystem services, by forever placing critical Patagonian habitat into permanent protection. CASA Tours pledged $500 and will contribute 2% of our 2007 profits to The Conservation Land Trust. The Conservation Land Trust is the brainchild of Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face) and his wife Kris Tompkins (Ex-CEO of Patagonia), who founded the largest privately owned preserve in Chile, Parque Pumalin.

We are also working on minimizing our paper use and using recycled paper products when necessary. In the future, CASA hopes to contribute to the local communities we visit by promoting alternative energy use. We acknowledge the environmental issues we face today, and are working towards a global effort - with many small entities joining forces to create sustainable change.

Jeremy Thomas, CASA Tours Director of Sustainability, was one of the two original founders of CASA Tours, and continues to work professionally as an ecosystem restoration scientist throughout North America. He strives to use CASA Tours as a small business model that demonstrates how progressive environmental sustainability efforts can be profitably integrated into a business.

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The Best Lines in South America - Volcan Villarrica

Posted on March 17th, 2007 by abearc.
Categories: Best Lines in South America.

The towering peak of Volcan Villarrica welcomes us to Pucon, a favorite summertime destination for Chileans and also home to a tiny ski area. In the Lakes District of Chile, Pucon is set between a lake and a mountain. It is the mountain, an active volcano, that has brought us to this charming town. The weather report calls for a few days of high pressure, so the game is on, we will climb! Morning dawns clear, we gear up with plenty of snacks, water and layers, plus crampons. We hop several lifts to get above the ski area, then set out for the top. The sky above is perfectly clear and so blue. The view of town and the lake are breathtaking and drive us to the top. Soft snow helps us cruise quickly up the flanks of this great volcano, though winds increase throughout the ascent. Several hundred feet from the top the snow firms up, we put on our crampons and continue our ascent, still under sunny skies. We push on, through the wind and crest the top! The crater s! preads out before us, bare rock kept snow-free by the constant spewing of sulfur from the depths. Though it is mostly just barely out of sight, occasionally lava bubbles and spits, showing orange on the inside walls of the crater. The wind backs off and we wander the enormous crater. We eat empanadas up top to celebrate and relax, soaking in the sun. Then comes the best part, the descent. By the time we are ready to leave the top the sun is starting to dip lower in the sky. We set out downward, the first several hundred feet firm, changing into perfect corn as we descend. Whoops and yells fill the air as the group carves down the hard earned vertical. With the setting sun as a backdrop, we ski and ride for long minutes, savoring the perfect snow and the joy of a day well spent.

Alice Bremner - CASA Guide