Patrick
Active member
Day 6 - September 2
Sidewalk under thick wet slush. Winter Wonderland for all the tourists in San Martin de Los Andes. Many were still sleeping when I left, I took a cab in order to catch the early bus (7:45am) out toward Bariloche.
This trip took sidetrip to Villa La Angostura, the 2 hour sidetrip/detour road was only 20km away from Bariloche when it took the road to Villa. So instead of the normal 4 hours, this trip took 6. However I wanted to be on this bus, the other buses were in mid-afternoon and didn't arrive in Bari before 6pm, which was only 30 minutes before the last bus to Esquel. I wanted to take fully advantage of this non-skiing/travel day to get as many kilometers out of it.
The scenery along Ruta 40 was pretty spectacular. Dry plains, river canyon, rock cliffs and peaks. Once passed the 20km from Bariloche sign, the bus changed roads and headed toward Villa La Angostura. Road runs along the north side of Nahuel Huapi lake, beautiful snowcover peaks on each side of the lake. Bariloche is on the south shore of the lake.
I eventually made it to the Bariloche bus station, I wanted to head to Esquel, however I wasn't sure what was happening at the ski area. Surf the net at the bus station, nothing on their website. Were they open? I know that Catedral was closed yesterday with no power with the wet snow that fell around town. Similar story in San Martin, which on and off power. Got on the bus at 3:15pm for a 5 hour bus ride.
The scenery was very different on this portion of the trip, however it wasn't less spectacular. Forest, lakes, mountains and glaciers, landscapes looked somewhat like Banff National Park. Watched the on=bus movie and took a nap after sunset. Woke up in what looked like a snow cover moon surface, it was surreal. Bus arrived in Esquel passed 8pm, it was dark. Esquel isn't a tourist town and is very different. No snow on the streets, but much colder. This place is off the beaten path.
Connections between buses isn't always easy. So I decided to use the whole day to travel. From San Martin (A) to Villa La Angostura (B) then Bariloche (C). Change bus in Bariloche for Esquel (D). Pretty much left by taxi at 6am and got at the Hostel in Esquel at 8-9pm.
Ruta 40 between San Martin and Bariloche.
Road between Bariloche and Villa La Angostura.
Bariloche bus terminal and my stuff
Ruta 40 between Bariloche and Esquel - Cerro Catedral ski area across the lake.
Ruta 40 between Bariloche and Esquel
El Bolson, Patagonia, Ruta 40, Argentina. Bueno.
Waking up to this. Where am I? Getting closer to Esquel.
Day 7: September 3, skiing at La Hoya
I was getting ready to leave with the organized transport at 9:30, however just before 9, an Argentinian told me that he had a spot in his truck if I wanted to hop in. Hell, yeah!!!
This Argentinian lived in El Bolson and was the friend of a group of French skiers. La Hoya is 15 km out of town up a winding road up to the base at 1341m. There is minimal lodging at the base and is surrounded by mountain walls. We get on the lift and slowly climb out of the valley. I at the lines on that face on the left side of the chair. As we get out on that valley, we're out of the shade and a whole alpine terrain appears in front of my eyes. Next chair up, It's a beautiful bluebird day and it's ...trackless !!!
Up a poma lift on the left side of the terrain, few lifts and a traverse into a powder field. You can traverse and choose your line, very few tracks. This is background, this is in-bounds. Hard to say how much new snow there is, 1, 2 feet. more??? The snow isn't heavy and is pretty cold.
\/ \/ \/
Trackless lap down all the way to the midstation chair. Back up the chair, instead of taking the poma lift, the upper chair is running and we hopped on it. Much of the same. We're going small laps on that upper chair. The terrain that we're skiing isn't real steep, but we're taking advantage of the trackless snow. The steeper lines are more out of the way.
I was ridding the chair with Martin, the Argentinian, he was saying he couldn't believe how fast the place was being tracked up. We'll, I told him, you do the math, we were 5 in our group and we had probably just finished our 8 run on this lift, that 40 different lines in trackless powder. :mrgreen: Most of this tracking, was done by US!!!
In afternoon, the French and their friend got their sails in the truck... It's called Speedriding. The Argentinian was friend with the ski patrol and got the green light to do their thing.
http://www.speedriding-school.com/
As they flew off, I skied elsewhere and had lunch. Did I mentioned that I was about to eat breakfast when I was offered a ride this morning. I wanted to eat at the mountain, but once I saw the conditions, I said that I didn't need to eat ... it was that good. I couldn't ski all the at down, they had closed down the bottom run due to grooming. :roll: Had to eat at the midstation cafeteria. One plate of spaghetti? 15 pesos or $5 US!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: That bottom run was closed for a few hours, I guess this is SA after all.
At the end of the day, we took a few extra French skiers in the back of the truck. There are definitely a lot of French skiers in some part of the Andes.
Coming back tomorrow, I bought a 2 day ticket for 60 pesos.
To be continued...
Ski map for La Hoya (source: Nevasport)
Estacion de esqui La Hoya (Esquel, Argentina). Top chair (del Filo)
Small hike from the top chair (that Q was talking about last year in the Bayo thread).
TS del Filo and mostly our tracks.
Poma del Sol.
From the ridge above the top chair. Poma is seen in the middle.
Chaiten volcano cloud (in Chile) in the horizon - view from top of ridge.
La Hoya mid-base at 1650m.
Some speedriding.
View from TS Del Frente and valley below.
End of day at the TS del Filo.
Mid-base and some good terrain.
Left-side of the Poma Del Sol.
Heading back toward Esquel.
The town of Esquel.
Sidewalk under thick wet slush. Winter Wonderland for all the tourists in San Martin de Los Andes. Many were still sleeping when I left, I took a cab in order to catch the early bus (7:45am) out toward Bariloche.
This trip took sidetrip to Villa La Angostura, the 2 hour sidetrip/detour road was only 20km away from Bariloche when it took the road to Villa. So instead of the normal 4 hours, this trip took 6. However I wanted to be on this bus, the other buses were in mid-afternoon and didn't arrive in Bari before 6pm, which was only 30 minutes before the last bus to Esquel. I wanted to take fully advantage of this non-skiing/travel day to get as many kilometers out of it.
The scenery along Ruta 40 was pretty spectacular. Dry plains, river canyon, rock cliffs and peaks. Once passed the 20km from Bariloche sign, the bus changed roads and headed toward Villa La Angostura. Road runs along the north side of Nahuel Huapi lake, beautiful snowcover peaks on each side of the lake. Bariloche is on the south shore of the lake.
I eventually made it to the Bariloche bus station, I wanted to head to Esquel, however I wasn't sure what was happening at the ski area. Surf the net at the bus station, nothing on their website. Were they open? I know that Catedral was closed yesterday with no power with the wet snow that fell around town. Similar story in San Martin, which on and off power. Got on the bus at 3:15pm for a 5 hour bus ride.
The scenery was very different on this portion of the trip, however it wasn't less spectacular. Forest, lakes, mountains and glaciers, landscapes looked somewhat like Banff National Park. Watched the on=bus movie and took a nap after sunset. Woke up in what looked like a snow cover moon surface, it was surreal. Bus arrived in Esquel passed 8pm, it was dark. Esquel isn't a tourist town and is very different. No snow on the streets, but much colder. This place is off the beaten path.
Connections between buses isn't always easy. So I decided to use the whole day to travel. From San Martin (A) to Villa La Angostura (B) then Bariloche (C). Change bus in Bariloche for Esquel (D). Pretty much left by taxi at 6am and got at the Hostel in Esquel at 8-9pm.
Ruta 40 between San Martin and Bariloche.
Road between Bariloche and Villa La Angostura.
Bariloche bus terminal and my stuff
Ruta 40 between Bariloche and Esquel - Cerro Catedral ski area across the lake.
Ruta 40 between Bariloche and Esquel
El Bolson, Patagonia, Ruta 40, Argentina. Bueno.
Waking up to this. Where am I? Getting closer to Esquel.
Day 7: September 3, skiing at La Hoya
I was getting ready to leave with the organized transport at 9:30, however just before 9, an Argentinian told me that he had a spot in his truck if I wanted to hop in. Hell, yeah!!!
This Argentinian lived in El Bolson and was the friend of a group of French skiers. La Hoya is 15 km out of town up a winding road up to the base at 1341m. There is minimal lodging at the base and is surrounded by mountain walls. We get on the lift and slowly climb out of the valley. I at the lines on that face on the left side of the chair. As we get out on that valley, we're out of the shade and a whole alpine terrain appears in front of my eyes. Next chair up, It's a beautiful bluebird day and it's ...trackless !!!
Up a poma lift on the left side of the terrain, few lifts and a traverse into a powder field. You can traverse and choose your line, very few tracks. This is background, this is in-bounds. Hard to say how much new snow there is, 1, 2 feet. more??? The snow isn't heavy and is pretty cold.
\/ \/ \/
Trackless lap down all the way to the midstation chair. Back up the chair, instead of taking the poma lift, the upper chair is running and we hopped on it. Much of the same. We're going small laps on that upper chair. The terrain that we're skiing isn't real steep, but we're taking advantage of the trackless snow. The steeper lines are more out of the way.
I was ridding the chair with Martin, the Argentinian, he was saying he couldn't believe how fast the place was being tracked up. We'll, I told him, you do the math, we were 5 in our group and we had probably just finished our 8 run on this lift, that 40 different lines in trackless powder. :mrgreen: Most of this tracking, was done by US!!!
In afternoon, the French and their friend got their sails in the truck... It's called Speedriding. The Argentinian was friend with the ski patrol and got the green light to do their thing.
http://www.speedriding-school.com/
As they flew off, I skied elsewhere and had lunch. Did I mentioned that I was about to eat breakfast when I was offered a ride this morning. I wanted to eat at the mountain, but once I saw the conditions, I said that I didn't need to eat ... it was that good. I couldn't ski all the at down, they had closed down the bottom run due to grooming. :roll: Had to eat at the midstation cafeteria. One plate of spaghetti? 15 pesos or $5 US!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: That bottom run was closed for a few hours, I guess this is SA after all.
At the end of the day, we took a few extra French skiers in the back of the truck. There are definitely a lot of French skiers in some part of the Andes.
Coming back tomorrow, I bought a 2 day ticket for 60 pesos.
To be continued...
Ski map for La Hoya (source: Nevasport)
Estacion de esqui La Hoya (Esquel, Argentina). Top chair (del Filo)
Small hike from the top chair (that Q was talking about last year in the Bayo thread).
TS del Filo and mostly our tracks.
Poma del Sol.
From the ridge above the top chair. Poma is seen in the middle.
Chaiten volcano cloud (in Chile) in the horizon - view from top of ridge.
La Hoya mid-base at 1650m.
Some speedriding.
View from TS Del Frente and valley below.
End of day at the TS del Filo.
Mid-base and some good terrain.
Left-side of the Poma Del Sol.
Heading back toward Esquel.
The town of Esquel.