Such a beautiful day, would have been a good ski day....
Tuesday we decided to explore a new area. We took a bus, with our friend Andres, about an hour into the interior, to the top of Garibaldi Pass, which crosses from one side of the Andes to the other. When we arrived, we could barely see across the road and there was a drizzling rain. Off into the fog we went, with 5 hours to entertain ourselves until the bus came back for us.
Into the lenga forest. The bushwacking is much worse than it looks- the branches are very stiff and strong and do not relent without a good fight.
Eventually we found some meadows that we could link together, and the fog lifted a bit, giving us beautiful views of the trees and cliffs.
We headed up a gully in the trees, hoping that the rain would turn to snow at the higher altitude.
Above treeline, it was still raining, but it would freeze instantly to every surface. And then we lost all visibility.
The top, from here we should have had a beautiful view of Lago Escondido (Hidden Lake) but it was living up to its namesake.
No photos of the ski run down. Imagine skiing boiler plate and then breakable crust in a world of white vertigo. We were happy to be back in the lenga trees where we could see again.
We arrived back at bus stop at the pass with 2 more hours to kill, so we skied down an old road that leads to the lake and to a Hosteria, where we had been told the bus could pick us up. Skiing down the road was a joy- good snow and views of waterfalls and the lake below.
Down at the lake, the Hosteria was closed. We admired the lake, which was perfectly still with an eerie fog over it.
Then we started the walk up the driveway to the highway to catch the bus. What we thought would be a quick walk never seemed to end, we put our skis back on and skated for about 3 miles through the rain alongside the lake, hoping we would not miss the bus. We caught it with time to spare and sat in the bus dripping wet and stinking of sweat and ski boots to the disgust of our fellow passengers. Showers back at the hostel never felt so good!
After a snack, we went over to Juan's apartment for some mate while he showed us some routes that we could do over the next few days. He is a ski guide and we felt very honored to be invited to his home and to have him show us his favorite stashes.
Then it was to El Turco for some pizza and pasta. We met little Alex and his dad from Mexico City on their ski vacation.
