Two thirds of the group had never been before and there was definitely a quiet foreboding not knowing what to expect. We started off with a shorter run of only 2000 vertical ft and there were a couple sections you where you had to be careful as the snow conditions changed.  This was  our warm up run as you don't have the luxury of geting the legs warmed up on groomed snow - it's right into the deep snow for your first turns.  We were all getting getting use to the snow conditions, some had to more than others as it was their first time at El Arpa.

We had had a great powder day two days before when we got to ski down from the summit of volcano "Chillan Nuevo" at Termas de Chillan (now called Nevados de Chillan - that's for another blog) and the less experienced people had that experience to build on plus all the ski coaching they had received over the two weeks on tour.

After two cat trips up and already 5000 vertical ft it was lunch time & everyone was in the groove and well warmed up and use to the terrain and snow.  The plan after lunch was to ski "Ratronera" a spanish word meaning "Rat Trap".  Not so pretty sounding when translated.  However it earned its name from the staff who had many times tried to ski it from top to bottom in one go only to end up crashing big with some cartwheeling as the snow conditions changed suddenly at the bottom and there are no legs left and suddenly too late to make the adjustments at high speed after skiing fresh for 2500 vertrical feet non-stop.

Our El Arpa back country guide Derek had the experienced group take the high traverse over to the top section of Ratonera while the other guide, Anton, took the less experienced skiers to a lower traverse missing the steep top section.

As we rounded the corner of the high  traverse - bang - right below us was the best pitch of the day - steep and wide open for 2500 vertical ft!  To relate it's vastness is hard.  If you have ever seen video of Heli skiing on a glacier with nothing but wide open terain forever then you can start to imagine the vastness of what we were looking at.

Niggle dropped in first as he had been prone to all day.  He took a great line and eventually had to stop for his legs and lungs.  Next our back country vet, the Lone Wolf dropped in and showed us how.  I was loving it and trying to capture it all on video as it was right out of a movie - fresh snow for as far as you could see and no one around.  The only thing missing was the blue bird skies.  It had been over cast all day.

Everyone was stoked after that never ending run of fresh.  The terrain mellowed out a third of the way down and you could just rip it at full speed in 25 cm of smooth fresh or take your time and really enjoy un-ending turns if you were less experienced! For our final descent we were off to "Avalancha".  These are run names but  in reality they are seperate valleys. El Arpa has 4 of them and Avalancha was the longest valley and had the sweetest pitch of the day at the top section for what was promising to be a great finale.

And then it happened...

The sun came out! It made for the ultimate run!  Endless fresh, sunshine, and skiing with a great group of people.  Everyone had a stellar final run.  Except Niggle. He had to ski the last half of the run with one pole as he managed to crash big and break his pole earning him the honors of wearing the big red clown nose for Crash of the Day!

It was an incredible finish to another fun year in Chile and left everyone with big smiles and great memories of those sensations of flight and freedom that only skiing can provide - especially in endless fresh!   It left me wanting more after all my seasons here.

Gerry