SOUTH AMERICA SEPTEMBER: Jackson crew heads south
Ingrid Backstrom and Dana Flahr just kicked our ass at foosball with a move by the shoeless "Ninja Man" foosball thingy. We are here in Hotel Tres Puntas in Valle Nevado, Chile, duking it out with The North Face kids for rights to A Team/B Team status. We agree they win. Ingrid and the crew have been heliskiing, skiing steeps, and building kickers while Lynsey Dyer, Jess McMillan, photographer Gabe Rogel and myself are have had to create our own adventure in this foreign land on ski-bums’ budgets.
“Vamos a la playa is all I really need to know, right?” says Dyer. Super. And then there’s CLICK HERE FOR THE HUGE GALLERY!
McMillan who thought a Santiago woman selling a tooth-picked sized Chilean flag for 500 pesos (one dollar) was $5 and talked her down to 10 cents. Poor toothless old lady. The B Team is winging this travel/ski thing on a mission to ski as many resorts as possible in Chile and Argentina in the next month. It’s a monster road trip in a Scooby Doo Van, aka Mystery Bus (a diesel Kia that we found at the airport).
Valle Nevado is about a two-hour drive from Santiago up a road with 50-plus switchbacks. The “curves” are numbered, and by the 50s, you’re thankful to have reached the top. The resort is perched atop the Andes next door to two other ski areas: El Colorado and La Parva. Though this week has been dry and cold, there is a reason the A Team and Freeskier mag are shooting here and why K2´s Shane McConkey and Mike Hattrup are here with retailers to test skis. Valle Nevado is close to the airport, offers plenty of amenities and English-speaking folks to point us in the right direction. The sunny skies and hard snow forced us to get creative while waiting for the Santa Rosa storm that hasn’t hit yet. We headed to the backcountry to build kickers and master 360s and spread eagles. Yesterday, we hiked to one of the highest out-of-bounds peaks to ski a slide-for-life-if-you-eat-it couloir.
We’re staying in Farellones, 20 minutes down the road from the ritzy Valle Nevado. We can't afford it up there where it's like the Vail of Chile. In funky Farellones, on the other hand, there are stray dogs roaming the streets, horses in the roads, and garbage alongside the roads. We love it. After spending $40 one night at Refugio Aleman, a cute Euro-esque hostel, Gabe worked his Spanglish in the Farellones bar and asked a local hombre if he knew of a place to stay. At $20 per night, Club Andino was the perfect fit for our budget. So is the $2 a bottle vino and Chilean empanadas.
CLICK HERE FOR THE HUGE GALLERY!
We got a real glimpse of the countryside on our hour-long drive north from Santiago to Los Andes. After a quick bite of all-you-can-eat Chinese food at Casa de Dragon in Colina and a close call with the Mystery Bus, we headed to Hotel Plaza in Los Andes to await our day of catskiing. SKI ARPA is the only catskiing operation in South America, owned by "the Austrian" Toni Sponar. Imagine 5,000 acres of mostly expert terrain, two cats that can hold a maximum of 24, but average 4 people per day at the entire ski area. We´re talking about 2,300 vertical feet per run with views of Aconcagua and the green valley floor filled with vineyards, cactus and goats.
