International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) Valle Nevado Chile August 2017

[coskigirl]

Ali and I landed this morning after pretty good flights from Denver. We flew via business class on miles which was awesome and meant that we both slept decently. We are staying in Santiago tonight so we got to our hotel, cleaned up then headed out to explore.

The view from Sky Costanera which is a 300 meter high building which was constructed since I lived here. It's too bad it is so smoggy here but the views were still incredible.

San Cristóbal


The US Embassy (the reason I lived here)


You can actually see the slopes of El Colorado in this one.



After that we stocked up on supplies for Valle Nevado.



The view of Sky Costanera from our hotel room.

 

[Mendieta]

After that we stocked up on supplies for Valle Nevado.
View attachment 28064

Wait, where is the red wine?

Thank you for sharing, and happy for you.

 

[coskigirl]

Sadly, both of us don't react well to red wine so we'll limit that to amounts consumed as part of Wine Week at Valle Nevado.

 

[coskigirl]

Pisco sours!

 

[AmyPJ]

Can't wait for the ski stoke pictures!

 

[coskigirl]

So today we headed up to the resort. For some reason I didn't realize that we might be able to ski today so when we arrived our room wasn't ready and they told us to go skiing so we did. It was a bit chaotic to pull out our stuff from various bags then change in the changing rooms they provide. Anyhow, we skied for a couple hours exploring the mountain although the light was very flat. A storm is supposed to role through overnight so we're crossing our fingers. One unfortunate bit is that I got on a poma that literally launched me, nearly dislocating my shoulder and causing me to tweak my ankle. I'm currently icing it and hope it's better in the morning.

The mountains here are astounding. I can't wait to see them under blue sky but here's a start!

Darn it. Having trouble uploading photos. Will try again tomorrow. But it started to really snow since I started this post so that's good...

 

[coskigirl]

This is me looking at Cerro El Plomo which is over 17k ft high.

 

[coskigirl]

Spotty wifi.

 

[Pete in Idaho]

Hope you got some powder. Watch those pomas, Portillo has a 5 person at a time poma called Rokka Jac and it is really something, launches you up the hill. Have fun.

 

[dave-o]

Hope NV is good this year and I see you got well stocked with food and drinks before the drive up!
Last time I went there I left my sandwich cheese and ham in a bag outside on the balcony, cos there was no fridge in the room
Me guuusta los piiisco souuurz tambien!

 

[coskigirl]

So, not battling the wifi tonight to upload photos but our days have been fantastic. Even getting untracked afternoon today 3 days post-storm. I want to offer a special welcome and belated happy birthday to our new friend Paul who joined us late morning and made for a fantastic remainder of the day. Paul is from South Reno and skis mostly Mt Rose when he's not traveling the world. And a special thanks to @SBrown for teaching me the powder sniffing technique. We head home after skiing tomorrow until around 1. Five days of great conditions, good food, and pisco sours have made a perfect birthday trip!

 

[coskigirl]

So, as we fell asleep Friday night the snow was starting. When we awoke on Saturday morning it was bluebird with about 7 inches of fresh (eventually they called it 18cm but snow reports come late there). It was a beautiful bluebird day and we loaded the lift about 30 minutes after opening at 9:30 as we had some hiccups getting moving. It didn't really matter though as the slopes were virtually empty and we had our choice of fresh lines. Ali took quite a fall on our second run but I didn't see any of it. However, I did get a fantastic burst photo series of a later digger she took which I posted in a separate thread.

The pomas really did a number on me over the few days. On one ride, er, attempted ride, it caught me too low on the legs and next thing I knew my skis were vertical. Ali said it looked like I'd been sitting in a chair that someone simply flipped backwards on me. I hit my head on impact and the soft portion of the lower back of my helmet left a goose egg and tenderness that lasted a couple of days. The ankle mentioned above didn't bother me skiing so that's good.

Rock bands are plentiful and the bases of my skis show it. My tuner is so used to me being pretty easy on my skis so I imagine he'll be a little confused by the number of repairs he'll need to do. Fortunately I don't think I managed any core shots although I do need to do a good inspection of them.



My tracks are the shortest turns lookers right.



Man soup.



Truth.

 

[Started at 53]

Glad you finally posted some photos.

That hot tube has a very poor ratio for sure.

Hope the skis are ok

 

[coskigirl]

Okay, so Sunday. It warmed up and the crowds arrived. Not obnoxious but more than Saturday for sure. We escaped to the backside for the most part and skied more powder. Plus pisco sours, a perfect wine shelf in the shower, and sunset.

Me looking at Cerro El Plomo in the sun.


Lunchtime view.

 

[coskigirl]

On Monday Paul got off the lift behind us and asked if we minded if he followed us at a respectable distance as we looked like we knew the mountain and could ski. We would have none of that and he joined us for the remainder of a really fun day.

Pugski sticker at the top of the highest lift in South America.





Lunch time pisco sours help lessen the 4th ski day on early season legs pain.


New friend Paul


This was taken at 5pm. The sunlight hours were weird with sunrise at 9am and sunset at 8:15pm.

 

[coskigirl]

Final day on Tuesday. A shorter day so we could shower and eat before the airport shuttle picked us up at 2. The Austrian ski team was training gates so we enjoyed watching that a bit. There had finally been enough warming and refreeze so I was relegated to groomers.





Despite the repeated application of sunscreen I walked away with an obnoxious goggle tan.

 

[Viking9]

Thanks for the pics CO, it's always entertaining.

 

[Started at 53]

How about a short recap of the groomers at Valle Nevado?

 

[Jim McDonald]

Great TR!

 

[coskigirl]

How about a short recap of the groomers at Valle Nevado?

They do a good job of grooming with at least one groomed run or way down (could be a catwalk) from every lift with more groomers on the frontside and they groom all of them every night and again in the morning if it snows.