On Thursday we parked at CaseyE’s condo and walked down to the Parva Chica ticket office. Per his advice we had bought “fixed tickets” for Sept. 17-18 for $53 vs. $83 window or flexible tickets. The ticket lady said we would have to reload the second day online. 
We rode the 4 lift sequence to Tortolas starting 11AM as it had winter snow while lower runs were still frozen. From Tortolas we had this view out to the corn run we skied with Skiwild at far upper left.
We met CaseyE at top of Tortolas, and after a warmup groomer skied the chalky La Muela face.
CaseyE is at upper right.
View down of Tortolas chair:
We skied the long Amarillo groomer down to Fabres. Once up that chair it was about 1PM, so we headed out to Skiwild’s north facing corn run.
Lower part leading to Fabres:
Casey went in to meet his family for lunch while Liz and I moved to the Aguilas chair. On the way here’s a Euro style sign near the top of Alpha chair.
I first skied Aguilas Norte, dropping in via the widest chute in center of the pic below.
View below the chute:
This was all winter snow but as in 2007 you can see a line of wind stripped gravel across the center, with the only exit a traverse next to the big rocks at right.
Past that choke point was a good pitch of windbuff.
Liz first skied this upper groomer.
Then she traversed into the lower half of the windbuff.
Next we both skied Aguilas Sur.
The snow fences at left keep this run open. I think it had a narrow groomed strip in 2007 but was all ungroomed now.
The Aguilas chair rises 1,872 feet but is slow so a lap of off piste skiing takes about 25 minutes. We took one more on La Pared. On our 4th and last ride, Liz skied to the base via the empty corn groomer Capacho.
For my final run I wanted to explore the Manantiales area. In 2007 there was a long groomed trail along the northern boundary but the off piste had sketchy snow and lots of wind stripping. Now there is no groomer so I traversed out to the first exposed gravel ridge, with this view down.
While I had the camera out this skier passed by.
I followed his path on the upper part, but when I saw a snow fence I skied to the left of it for likely good coverage. View up from there:
You can barely see the Chiminea couloir diagonally above the middle of the snow fence. That requires a hike well above the traverse I used.
As I skied around the exposed area in the pic below the upper part of Chiminea is more visible.
The final pitch opened up into some good corn.
From the gap right of center in the gravel band below, it’s a straightforward ski to the La Parva base.
When I stopped at that gap there were skiers above.
I had skied the same way as the three on the left.
The two at far left here are about to step or sideslip through a thin/narrow part.
One of the skiers in the corn below:
Liz and I both got down to Casey’s place for an après ski beer about 5PM.
We skied 17,300 vertical.
We rode the 4 lift sequence to Tortolas starting 11AM as it had winter snow while lower runs were still frozen. From Tortolas we had this view out to the corn run we skied with Skiwild at far upper left.We met CaseyE at top of Tortolas, and after a warmup groomer skied the chalky La Muela face.
CaseyE is at upper right.
View down of Tortolas chair:
We skied the long Amarillo groomer down to Fabres. Once up that chair it was about 1PM, so we headed out to Skiwild’s north facing corn run.
Lower part leading to Fabres:
Casey went in to meet his family for lunch while Liz and I moved to the Aguilas chair. On the way here’s a Euro style sign near the top of Alpha chair.
I first skied Aguilas Norte, dropping in via the widest chute in center of the pic below.
View below the chute:
This was all winter snow but as in 2007 you can see a line of wind stripped gravel across the center, with the only exit a traverse next to the big rocks at right.
Past that choke point was a good pitch of windbuff.
Liz first skied this upper groomer.
Then she traversed into the lower half of the windbuff.
Next we both skied Aguilas Sur.
The snow fences at left keep this run open. I think it had a narrow groomed strip in 2007 but was all ungroomed now.
The Aguilas chair rises 1,872 feet but is slow so a lap of off piste skiing takes about 25 minutes. We took one more on La Pared. On our 4th and last ride, Liz skied to the base via the empty corn groomer Capacho.
For my final run I wanted to explore the Manantiales area. In 2007 there was a long groomed trail along the northern boundary but the off piste had sketchy snow and lots of wind stripping. Now there is no groomer so I traversed out to the first exposed gravel ridge, with this view down.
While I had the camera out this skier passed by.
I followed his path on the upper part, but when I saw a snow fence I skied to the left of it for likely good coverage. View up from there:
You can barely see the Chiminea couloir diagonally above the middle of the snow fence. That requires a hike well above the traverse I used.
As I skied around the exposed area in the pic below the upper part of Chiminea is more visible.
The final pitch opened up into some good corn.
From the gap right of center in the gravel band below, it’s a straightforward ski to the La Parva base.
When I stopped at that gap there were skiers above.
I had skied the same way as the three on the left.
The two at far left here are about to step or sideslip through a thin/narrow part.
One of the skiers in the corn below:
Liz and I both got down to Casey’s place for an après ski beer about 5PM.
We skied 17,300 vertical.
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