Skiing 40 cm of fresh powder is almost as fun as a ten year old
with free reign of Disneyworld. Actually, I have no idea if that's
fun at all, but I DO know that skiing 40 cm of fresh powder is quite
an elating experience! The literal ice sheet that we skied on
earlier this week is only a distant memory! We are all getting better
at skiing! Some of the guys doubling their experience with the two
days we've been, and others of us able to shred the entire mountain
searching for as many fresh new runs as possible! I've never really
skied trees before, or at least with much success, and now I can't
stay out of them! Tree skiing is super fun for many reasons, but, as
you can imagine, also tends to have more dangers than skiing wide
open runs!
I've been looking forward to our first backcountry skiing trip for
a while! In fact, I actually took a shower for the first time since
getting down to Chile in anticipation of this trip! We were supposed
to leave this morning, but, as luck would have it, because of the
volatility of Patagonian weather we've had warm temps and its been
dumping rain at the elevation we were intending to go. Therefore we
are sitting here at basecamp twiddling our thumbs watching ski videos
trying to keep our stoke up for the impending wet few days we are
expecting to have while drilling our avalanche rescue skills in the
rain!
Speaking of sitting around doing whatever you can to fill the time
waiting out nasty weather, GS7 (guide school 7) was supposed to leave
to do their advanced mountaineering course on the ice cap a week ago!
Due to forecasted 3 meters of snow accompanied by up to 140km/hr
winds for days on end, they have been stuck here at basecamp going
out of their minds! And so it goes as the life of a mountaineer in
the illustrious Patagonian mountains! Even the lift at the local ski
resort shuts down through out the day for an hour or so due to high
winds and zero visibility! Needless to say, there is a very distinct
reason this region is said to have some of the worst weather on the
planet! What better a place than here to cut our teeth training to be
mountain guides! Understanding what it means to suffer coupled with
being able to make sound decisions for the sake of the safety of the
group are paramount for being a guide of any sort in the mountains!
Its sounds weird to say I’m looking forward to our suffer fest here
in Patagonia, but strangely, I am. I have been looking forward to
this for as long as I can remember! I heard a quote by a prominent
mountaineer that has stuck with me for a long time, “Alpinism is
the art of suffering” and yet here I still am seeking after this as
a lifelong goal! And as some of you might have heard me say
before...”we didn't get dressed up for nothing!”
