Unofficial Squaw - Reporting Daily From Tram Rock

Here's a video edit that Garret Russel put together for us of Session 2. 

Patagonian Summer - 141 Degrees SSE by Miles Clark

This summer continues to be un-summer-like.....which is the point down here, I suppose.   Yet, the relentless lack of girls in bikinis is beginning to take it's toll.  Thank God the skiing has been good!

During the first two weeks of August a big high pressure system came in and sat over us for about a week.  We used this opportunity to get deep into the backcountry.  Two different groups head to refugio Frey (a backcountry hut here) and got after it for a few days each.  The rest of us were doing long single day backcountry trips from the top of the ski resort everyday.  The temps stayed cold and good snow was found on all the south and east facing aspects with 141 degrees SSE being the money spot.  I'm now sorta obsessed with this number and constantly bust out my compass to test potential backcountry terrain against it.

We had some real fun and I got to ski my favorite line down here which I generically call 'Little AK', (in the video Pete Connley skis parts of it) even tho there really isn't too much little about it.  That line already has me dreaming of an AK trip this April.

We are getting hammered with snow again right now and the forecast is showing a huge amount of snow, then very cold temps.  We're lining up some bigger lines that those conditions would be money for.  I'll keep ya posted.

What a lucky monkey I am to get to go to Chile to ski and shoot for K2's catalog.  For a week, we stayed in this old building/ house/ former restaurant that was built in 1951.  It is the oldest building in Farrelllones, which is the center village amidst the 3 ski resorts near Santiago.  It is the building behind me in the portrait taken from the T Bar lit.  The building is a bit run down, but it is the coolest, coziest pad in the area.  It is called Tupungato.  The house has lots of history and really cool old school ski posters and stuff on the walls.  We played backgammon for money every night and enjoy the smog sets from the window and our deck. In the mornings, we rise, ski from the house take some photographs, hike, wait around for something or another ski some more and then ski on back to the house.  It was great to live the simple life for a while, and get in the winter groove, even if just for a week.

As for the skiing, the region is a bit low on snow this year, but we consistently found good snow on the Santa Teresita road lap.  This is a real gem.  In between Valle Nevado and El Colorado is a lift accessed ridge that is "closed". If you ignore the signs and drop in you can ski about 1900 vertical feet down to the road.  From there, you hitchhike or have a ride pick you up and take you back to either ski resort.  Santa Teresita had consistent offerings.  When it snowed 2cm at the house, it would blow in to magic carpet status over there.  Things were really bony for taking any airs, but you could at least ski fast at the top, and find a fun straightline out the bottom to get the heart pumping a bit. A tthe bottom, I ran into these Brasilians that were experiencing their first ever encounter with snow.  They were fascinated by my gear.  I let them try on my goggles, and try sliding around with the skis and poles.  They could not believe all the stuff and were very reluctant to stop playing with it once my ride arrived.  They were adults, but were fascinated like little kids.

Check out the photos i snapped during the week.  The crash sequence I have to credit to my man Claudio who was a huge help tot he K2 crew and is a low key mountain badass and great photographer.  He snapped the sequence as photographer Alex Obrien narrowly dodged getting pumbled by him as he spontaneously detonated mid turn due to his binding releasing for no particular reason whatsoever.

Snow conditions have been pretty poor this past week in New Zealand.  Lucky for Mat Jackson and myself (Ralph Backstrom), there are some pretty decent mountain bike trails near by in Wanaka.  They're fairly low angle trails with smaller jumps, but super flowy, and they're well manicured by the bike club in town, just like the dirt jump park is.  You access the trail network with a 10 minute climb, then a 5 minute climb for each lap.  It's a scenic area and fun network of trails to ride with friends.  

Wish we could have seen the event in person but this is a great edit from Blaster Timy Dutton, who nursing an injury caught some of the action and put together these highlights.  Check it out!