South America 2009 Season

[Tony Crocker]

Yesterday's press release from Powderquest:
5 FEET HIGH AND RISING

Time to wax up the sticks! Last weeks storm dropped over 5 feet on the Andes helping launch the 2009 ski season.
Portillo and Las Lenas received the deepest snows and as you head south towards Bariloche, storm totals were around 3 feet. Volcano Villarrica (picture above) received around 4 feet.

Resorts Open
Valle Nevado, El Colorado, and Portillo are open while Chapelco in Argentina plans on opening today and La Parva, Chile to follow opening to the public Thursday June 25th.
Las Lenas plans to open this weekend and Alta Patagonia Catedral and Pucon plan on launching on July 1st.

Portillo website says 130cm storm total but 140cm year-to-date. So we should assume nothing before this storm.
Las Lenas link from this e-mail says storm totals were 120cm at base and 260cm on top.

Season-to-date is still below average, but at least there's a base now and August skiing should be good enough with just an average July.

Adam is going to buy his plane ticket. $558RT LAX - Buenos Aires is dirt cheap.

 

[Patrick]

Adam is going to buy his plane ticket. $558RT LAX - Buenos Aires is dirt cheap.

I got mine on Monday. :mrgreen: Arriving in Santiago and leaving from Buenos Aires.

TISA factor is in play. After hearing all that second-guessing my choice of skipping Las Lenas last season. Heard from enlosandes and other on TGR that the major dump that LL just received derailed Marte from Tower 2-5. This apparently happened in 2006 and took about 21 days to repair. Someone was called and the answer was they didn't have a clue when it's going to be back up.

Happy that I won't be close to Las Lenas until September. :wink:

 

[Tony Crocker]

Happy that I won't be close to Las Lenas until September.

This is part of the reason Extremely Canadian goes there exactly during Patrick's "streak" timeframe. Average storm incidence is down from the July peak. There are some places you do NOT want to be during big storm cycles (La Grave, Valdez) and Las Lenas is probably one of them.

This apparently happened in 2006 and took about 21 days to repair.

That was the year Extremely Canadian called them and said they would not come back to Las Lenas if the repair was not done by the time they arrived late August.

 

[Patrick]

This apparently happened in 2006 and took about 21 days to repair.

That was the year Extremely Canadian called them and said they would not come back to Las Lenas if the repair was not done by the time they arrived late August.

That is why Las Lenas wasn't my main focus on my last two trips to SA. Too much commitment and far from any fall back plan if Marte is shutdown.

The current plan is the hit of last 2 of 3 relatively best ski areas from the SA top 14 (debatable, of course). Cerro Castor is the only one which I left out. :shock:

 

[Tony Crocker]

Portillo season-to-date 119 inches. That's probably close to average. Las Lenas website implies Marte is fixed now and only closed for wind etc. Probably worth corroborating though.

On a positive note (for Portillo, VN Group and Las Lenas) the MEI moved well into El Nino territory at +.855 for MAY/JUN.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Big storm this week.
Portillo season-to-date 231 inches, up from 161 two weeks ago.
Valle Nevado 144 inches, up from 106 two weeks ago.

MEI relatively stable at +.897 (mild-to-moderate El Nino) for JUN/JUL.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Portillo season-to-date 270 inches
Valle Nevado 165 inches

Storms are over and weather is clear. So some spring conditions. But coverage is good in the northern Andes resorts from the big dump 2 weeks ago.

Bariloche is crap. It got 2-3 feet from the same big storm, but a lot of rain after that. Note to Patrick from last year's discussion: As in western North America altitude is more important than latitude. He's going to the right place this time. Marte is open today. \/ \/ \/

 

[Geoff]

Portillo season-to-date 270 inches
Valle Nevado 165 inches

We've had this discussion before but I'm somewhat dubious about those numbers based on what I've seen in-person. I think Valle Nevado probably measures what falls on the wood deck next to the swimming pool in the resort complex out the door of the admin office. ...or maybe at the day lodge at the bottom of the high speed quad. There's always a lot more snow up on the surface lifts and in Olympico. I suspect the Portillo numbers are a little optimistic.

 

[Tony Crocker]

On my 2007 trip the off-piste conditions were much worse at the VN group than Portillo. Many more sectors had lost coverage. I went into the VN offices to get snow data, was told I would get some by e-mail. The e-mail saying they didn't have it inadvertently had a chain of prior e-mails stating they didn't want to give out the info because the numbers wouldn't look that good.

So I believe there is a disparity, though the in-season numbers I quote here may overstate the difference. I do know that historical Portillo snow numbers are the entire calendar year, not just the 6 months that I would like. But in its latitude and climate I suspect off-season snow is minimal.

 

[Patrick]

Bariloche is crap. It got 2-3 feet from the same big storm, but a lot of rain after that. Note to Patrick from last year's discussion: As in western North America altitude is more important than latitude. He's going to the right place this time. Marte is open today. \/ \/ \/

I don't know, but today pictures from Cerro Catedral looked amazing. Right place? I'm in Mendoza. :lol: ...taking the overnighter to Leñas. :mrgreen: