Aug 26: La Escoba de Dios

Warning no pictures!!( we thought we would be lift skiing )
La escoba de Dios ( the broom of God) is what some call the wind down here and it felt that way today.
After 2 days of torrential rain that just about killed all the skiing, Rob and I set off for the ski hill pretty despondent as although the rain had changed from torrential to just light we were bummed.
The ski area was a mess with only a couple of small  lifts open so we had a coffee and decided to just head up into the alpine on skins.

After skinning for an hour was saw 3 other people skinning ahead so put on a surge and caught them. They were 3 guides/instructors from Club Andino ( the Argentinian equivalent of the American Alpine Club) who were going up to dig some pits and collect snow data to post on an avy website they are starting down here. One spoke good English and explained that he was in communication with Bruce Temper and various Avy professionals in the USA and they were doing this on a volunteer basis and trying to get a good avalanche center set up with snow pit data etc,.

We asked if we could join them and they said they would be delighted.
We toured way up into the alpine and the wind was howling over the ridges  but the skies had cleared and we got our first really clear views of the surrounding mountains and lakes. Truly spectacular.

Two of the guides had to go back suddenly as a client they had been expecting had arrived early so we stayed with Jimmie who spoke a little English.

Jimme is a guide working in Bariloche in winter and guiding trips on the Patagonia Ice Cap in summer out of Chaltern. He has climbed the West Face of Cerro Torre which if you know your climbing means he is a bad ass.

We helped him dig a snow profile down to ground and he did the whole snow science bit. Temp gauges, density tests, crystal shapes and sizes. Then we skinned up to a much steeper area below the ridge where the wind was howling, spindrift blowing, the full Patagonia ambiance.
Here Jimmie dug another pit, did a compression test and then it was time to ski.

We where perched on a steep ( 38 Deg ) slope below a ridge of beautiful red granite with the wind howling, spindrift blowing into your face and my buddy and a new friend and I felt so lucky to be there even though la escoba de Dios was doing a good job of trying to sweep us off the face.

We had a great continuous ski down some pretty good snow and then took Jimmie for a beer.
We swapped email addresses and I told him about TAY and wrote out the website for him and he gave me the website for the company he guides for.

Great to make new friends on the other end of the earth who love skiing and the mountains as much as we do!