Day 2 - August 16, 2009

Word of the day: polvo = powder

It seems I am good luck and that I have brought the snow with me because it started snowing about the time I got on my flight in Orange County yesterday morning and didn’t stop snowing until late last night. It is a blue bird day with no clouds and about 4 feet of fresh pow.

This was the view from my hostel when I got up this morning... Isn't it pretty!!

There are three ski resorts in Farellones – El Colorado, La Parva and Valle Nevado. Everyone woke up around 7:30am and got ready to go up on the mountain. We decide to head to El Colorado for the day. We ride from 9:30am to 3:30pm. It was one of the most amazing powder days I have ever had. El Colorado isn’t a very big mountain, but it has a lot of steep terrain that is great for powder runs. According to the Chilean locals, the mountain was considered pretty crowded today. However, it was dead compared to a crowded day at an American ski resort.

We had fresh powder lines almost all day!!

The scenery from the mountain is unbelievable. The gorgeous freshly powdered mountains seem to go on forever and I don’t think anything could be more beautiful.

This was one of the runs we took later in the afternoon! I love it when you are above the clouds :)

Most of the chair lifts at El Colorado are not really chair lifts at all; they are T-bars. The funny thing is, I was actually kind of nervous to go up the first one because I haven’t used a T-bar since I was probably 5-years old and on skis. For those of you who have used a rope-tow before, it is different than a T-bar. With a T-bar, you actually have to put the tow between your legs and it is pretty awkward when you are on a snowboard. Also, most of the T-bars access pretty steep terrain, so you really have to hold on and put in a lot of effort in order to get to the top of the lift.

This is a T-bar and they are everywhere in Chile.

I dropped three different cliffs today – all about 15-footers. I tumbled pretty bad on the landing of one of them. I definitely won for best fall of the day. Despite the fall, I feel great right now – I’m sure I’ll be soar tomorrow.

What a way to start out my trip - first day is a blue bird powder day.