Ice Skiing in Patagonia

Skiing on ice is terrible. Skiing on ice in high winds with powder skis and tech bindings is far worse than terrible! Thus was my experience on my first day of my ski course here in Patagonia!


Let me back up...saying the skiing was worse than terrible sounds a bit harsh, but no one would have chosen to ski in these conditions unless you had to. In fact the ski “resort”, called El Fraile located here just outside of the town Coyhaique, Chile, wasn't even open. And to be completely honest, I had a fantastic time, and here's why: If you love to ski, as I do, coupled with smiling faces of friends, skiing in August (a phenomenon for us who normally reside in the northern hemisphere) and a lifty that only knew one English word, “lunch”, and kept saying it over and over again because he really didn't have any idea what that one word meant, you get pure joy!



Unfortunately, that joy was short lived as the following two days the resort was closed and our instructors saw no point in going up to ski in windy, icy, and over all quite dangerous conditions. So we have been pounding out some avalanche curriculum previously slated for later this week. Hopefully we will be getting some snow coming in this week and be able to ski some decent snow at the resort before we head out for a couple different multi-day backcountry skiing excursions!