Hola from Argentina
Three weeks have gone by and this is Tom’s first blog post…I think a sacking might be in order! Having landed in Buenos Aires just over three weeks ago, Tom’s had just under a month of discovering a country worlds apart from good ol’ Blighty and making new friends along the way. With tales of meeting local Bariloche rippers, dirt cheap lager and endless freeriding terrain on the Cerro Cathedral, Tom is having a whale of a time. But it’s not all fun and games, Tom’s been hard at work helping to put 60 paying customers through their Ski and Snowboard instructor qualifications (BASI 1 & 2). I think that’s enough of an intro, I’ll leave the rest to Tom.
Hola SB-R readers! I’m really sorry that I haven’t posted a blog yet but I’ve been a very busy person.
I guess most of you will be interested in Argentina and the course that I’m helping to run so I’ll spare you the boring details! As Rich explained, in a news feed a couple of weeks ago, I was offered this ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity by Peak Leaders just a couple of weeks before jumping on a 747 to Buenos Aires. Although I’d had a lot of relevant experience and I’m a qualified BASI Snowboard instructor I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that I’d be offered a job in Patagonia. I’m really sorry to the guys at Hemel Snowcentre and the Old Queens Head in Islington who had just taken me on part-time and were a little confused when I told them I wouldn’t be at work the next day because I’d be on a flight to Argentina.
Needless to say it has happened and I’m now sat in a hotel on the edge of the beautiful lake Gutierrez looking up at the snow-capped mountains, typing away on my keyboard. The job I’ve been appointed to do is to help to coordinate a Ski and Snowboard Instructor Training programme run jointly by Peak Leaders and Club Andido Bailoche. Together with an experienced team of Argentine’s, including one of Argentina’s best riders Marky Green, my role is to help 60 trainees from the UK, Brazil and Europe realise their dreams of becoming fully-fledged instructors……and have a little fun along the way.
Argentina isn’t anything like I’d expected, it’s a melting pot of different cultures and geography with some of the friendliest most generous people you’re ever likely to meet thrown in for good measure. The course is based in the North Patagonian town of Bariloche which is a two hour flight from Buenos Aires and on the extreme east of the Andes Mountains. Although Bariloche is flanked by the giant Patagonian desert the landscape is about as far from desert as you can imagine, although 20km east is a very different story. Patagonia is covered in Lush forests of deciduous trees, conifers, Bamboo and deep blue lakes that weave their way around the towering snow-capped mountains. The buildings have more of an Alpine feel to them than South American, although in the poorer areas you can find the stereotypical Latin American shack with a large dilapidated 70’s American track or station wagon parked outside. Bariloche’s people are a mix of Spanish, German, Austrian and Eastern European; unsurprisingly their immigrant descendents decided to stay in the area because it reminded them so much of home. As a result Bariloche has got a distinctively European feel to it, with an après-ski scene more akin to that of an Austrian resort than the Tango dancing clubs of Buenos Aires.
As previously stated we’re staying at a hotel right on the banks of Lake Gutierrez, it’s a beautiful spot that seems to be very sheltered from Patagonia’s frequently strong winds. The journey up the mountain to Cerro Cathedral is a 15 minute bus ride in the morning and the journey into the centre of Bariloche is about the same, which means we’re far enough out of town and the resort for apes-ski to be a bit of a mission. The fact we’re a bit of a drive away is probably a godsend for the trainees, especially when you consider it’s £1.50 a pint of Quilmes, Argentina’s favourite and extremely tasty beer. Cerro Cathedral, the resort, is nothing like I expected it to be from looking at the piste map. Although there is only a thousand metre vertical descent and just 70km of pisted runs the resort feels a lot bigger because there is so much off-piste that is easily accessible from the lifts. You also only have to trek for 30 minutes and a huge bowl with lots of accessible terrain is at your disposal.
Over the past couple of weeks the snowfall has been fairly consistent so the snow-line has dropped to the bottom of the mountain making a lot of great tree runs shredable. Unlike the Alps and North America the majority of trees in the resort aren’t evergreens so the spacing between the trees is pretty perfect and there aren’t deep holes to fall into. Cerro Cathedral also has a lot of Bamboo growing in the off-piste which makes for a very entertaining obstacle. I must say that if you go to Cerro Cathedral expecting a pristine park, corduroy piste and lightening fast lifts you’ll be very disappointed; although the park puts Courchevel’s to shame it isn’t great and the piste’s never ever get bashed so you’re more than likely to find large rocks in the middle of the slope. What you do get is a very soulful resort with some great terrain, cheap mountain restaurants, accessible off-piste and magnificent views of the surrounding lakes, mountains and desert. You also get to see the 9ft wide Condor circling above your head on a daily basis; just yesterday I had one fly less than 10ft above my head…….unfortunately I couldn’t get my camera out in time!
To date the trainees have been on a fairly intense schedule of riding and general training. They’re a great bunch of people from very different walks of life; from nomadic Gavan who is a deep sea commercial diver and spends his time between 2000m above and 200m below sea level, to David who recently jacked-in his highly paid job in the Oil Industry to follow his dreams of becoming a Snowboard instructor. Anyway, during the past couple of weeks the team have looked in-detail at mountain safety, snow profiles, avalanche rescue, first-aid, stretching, board servicing and there has been a week of instruction and technique improvement from local legend Pety and pro ripper Marky Green. It’s becoming common to see Marky disappear into the trees and 5 seconds later appear 15 ft in the air spinning the most stylish fs7 melon above the trainee’s heads. All the guys are responding well to the training they’re doing and understandably love the daily dumps of powder, especially as Pety knows all the best spots. Rob Norton, BASI trainer extraordinaire, arrives on Sunday so between now and Monday the guys will be focussing very hard on getting rid of those niggling technique issues. BASI 1 starts on Monday so I’ll keep you all posted on how that goes.
I’ll be dropping the next blog in about a week so keep your eyes peeled.
Tom
Posted by Tom Ewbank in Blog & News.
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