Argentina from a Skier's Perspective

Argentina from a skier's perspective is known for it's Lomo(steak), Malbek and skiing that has the potential to be the best or worst you've ever experienced. Naturally then, I've been rolling the dice five out of the past six years in hopes of catching the legendary Santa Rosa Storm.

It's a long way to go, leaving the best part of a short summer for the opposite hemisphere in search of a storm that is famed to leave so much snow atop the Andes Range that people generally don’t even survive to count it all. (Or so goes the modern myth of the Santa Rosa). I've hit it right and I've hit it wrong but never regretted a few weeks of trading the flip flops for ski boots, especially this year.

The first Ascent ski and snowboard team showed up after three days of travel to a blue bird day and a tracked out mountain but our Guide Jose found us the goods none the less. My first turns of the summer were yummy and I felt lucky, but I had no idea they were only a predecessor to what would come to be some of the greatest skiing I'd ever had. Jose claimed a meter would fall in twenty four hours as the mountain shut down and the flakes began to fall. We didn't think much of it but three days of that later we found ourselves first in line at the gnarliest chairlift in the world accessing over 3,000 feet of untracked, untouched perfectly stable POW! It was one of those special moments even to a professional skier where you know this opportunity may never come again and in humble recognition, we put our camera equipment down and shredded the most famous run in Las Lenas, Edwardo's, top to bottom.

We all agreed it was the best lift access run of our lives and it only got better from there. Six more days of hiking, skinning and exploring got us unheard of descents in some of the most beautiful terrain I've ever known only to collapse into our rooms at the end mending our shin banged, frost bitten, and for one, food poisoned wounds all in the name of powder.

It will be a trip worth talking about for a long time and to paint the picture for you, I was inspired enough to sit down for three days straight to make a video about it. Enjoy.