The question that will forever bond kindergartners and skiers is, “So, how was your summer?” Just like those elementary bastards, we skiers generally disperse ourselves from the company of our compadres from the Spring to Fall. So when the snow begins to fly in the Fall and we snow addicts re-gather to get ready for the first shred sesh, that question flies around more than the local pro-ho’s long-johns. Most responses for a skier include some aspect of pounding nails, waiting tables and saving money for the winter to come.
Yet, during those miserable heat filled months of Summer, there exists a place a half a world away that fills the dreams of the summertime slaves and just begs us to make VISA a little more rich and us a little more poor. It’s a place I’ve dreamed of while serving every plate I’ve ever served and while carrying every 2×4 I’ve ever carried; The Chilean and Argentine Andes. This year, I decided to give Summer the finger and decided to head to the most bad ass summer shred destination in the world.

This ‘off-season’ started with a brief visit to my home in Santa Cruz, some ski-related business dealings and signings (Yeah Levitation Project!) and a call from a friend in Argentina talking about a nuclear winter ahead. It got me more stoked then a pedophile at a playground and I briskly packed my bags and hopped on a plane bound for Santiago, Chile.
The first destination was a little known and never skied valley somewhere south of nowhere. It took planes, trains, busses and four-wheelers to finally drop me off at a tucked away ranch house where Mark Abma, Kaj Zackrisson and the Salomon product development team waited. We rendezvoused with a team of Argentine snowmobile drivers led by two crazy French snowboard pioneers. The plan was to access the snowline far above us with hand-me-down military vehicles and get to the steeps with a fleet of imported snowmobiles. Soon we embarked an snow-seeking adventure like no other. Just getting to the snow took the military trucks through multiple river fordings, perilous hill climbs and cavernous mud pits. Once to the snow we tandemed the snowmobiles through more creeks, across sketchy handmade bridges and through dense jungles of face-whacking bushes. The travails of the travels paid off though when we finally arrived to the peaks above the treeline and found an immense playground of natural terrain. Windlips, spines, flat-takeoff cliffs, banks, berms and little snow jibs dotted the landscape and created an environment that would stoke out any powder chasing snowslider. For two weeks we filmed, shot, shredded, laughed and romped around in an insanely fun mountain environment. When we finished the mission the others flew back to their respective homes and left me behind in Santiago. They all wanted to get back to the warmth of summer, I had other plans.
I soon jumped on bus bound for Argentina to meet up with some of my best shred buddies from Squaw; George and Greg. After two long and brutal bus rides, I arrived in Las Lenas, Argentina to find that George had chased a chica to Santiago and Greg was waiting and ready to shred.
Day one in Lenas was met by high winds and a closed Marte (the infamous chairlift that access the best skiing in the Southern Hemisphere). So we passed the day sipping on Quilmes and fantasizing about the days to come. I was also laughing to myself about how many damn Levitation Project stickers I scoped at the base of Lenas. (I swear I saw a girl with one on her ass).
Luckily enough for us fortune smiled down on us the very next day and the winds calmed to a mild puff. Marte was soon opened and the 3000’ sustained vertical face that triumphs the mountain of Las Lenas was ready to shred. With I’d say no more than 12 other people skiing that day, Greg and I lapped more than 20,000’ feet of 45º untracked pow. It was pretty much the closest thing you can get to heli-skiing with chairlift access.
After the one day shred-fest, we met back up with George and chased a storm to Bariloche, Argentina. We got some damn fun skiing in at Bariloche’s local mountain, Cerro Catedral, partied till the sun came up, ate some prime beef, drank some fine wine and all in all had an Argentine good time.
After one more departure of friends that sent Greg and George back to the US of A, I headed back up to Lenas to meet up with girlfriend, World Champ and fellow Levitation Project teammate Elyse Saugstad. Upon arrival we sat through a storm that dumped nearly 10 feet of snow in one day (holy fuck!) and waited for it to go blue. Then, just like the ski movies, the clouds parted, the sun shined and didn’t cloud up for another 8 days straight. We skied silky-smooth powder on pitches that allowed for wide-open charging and seemed to go on forever. We spent every day skiing some of the best chairlift accessed faces we’ve ever skied, hiked to peaks over 13,000’ feet and generally came home so exhausted that walking around the house after a day of skiing was a tough task. To put it bluntly, it was fucking phenomenal. Stupid good. After the mountainous massacre, after beating our legs up from a glut of 3000 foot runs, burning our lungs up with high altitude hikes and one close call that nearly left yours truly dead, (it involved tumbling in a 55º couloir over serious exposure) we had to pull the plug and decided to head to the vineyards of Mendoza to sample some wine, eat some of the best steaks in the world and catch a bus to our flight home nearly two months after my arrival in South America.

Now, I don’t remember how I responded to that question above back in kindergarten, but I do know what I’m gonna say this year, “It was fucking perfect.”

  

 

 

new snow is found

south american dreams come true

don

way better than kindergarden

Cody proves how much he likes to ski

worth every moment of travel

 

 

alaska or argentina?

best way to watch the powder blow away

Elyse finds some nice Las Lenas vertical

some of the best las lenas terrain

This is Cody, obviously scarred from Kindergarten

Only in south america