Crónicas de Viaje

On the radio there is chatter of a piquete as we get ready to leave our cabin in San Martin de Los Andes. Our friend Marcello sounds discouraged about driving us to our destination, Volcan La Nin, but three hungry skiers prove to be hard to turn away and soon we are speeding along until the road turns into a twenty foot tall, burning, pile of tires.

No one ever said that living your dream was going to be easy. Our Volcan expedition starts with a walk around melting tires and jobless protesters who are rebelling against the government with two stacks of flaming tires on each end of a bridge. We thank Cello for getting us halfway, hop out of the car and gather our gear. Walking through the smoke and ash with hot flames turning our skis aglow is a powerful feeling.

On the other side of the bridge a taxi picks us up. Once again we are speeding towards the massive, white, cone in the distance. Upon our arrival we check in with a guardabosques, who is stoked to see one French and two American skiers ready to climb the Volcano.

We begin our ascent in warm, August, sunshine on mashed potato snow just above tree line and push until reaching a refugio about halfway up the east face of La Nin. With the sun at our backs we drink fine-boxed wine and eat hearty French bread while taking in the rugged Argentinean landscape.

The morning brings another shimmering day with just a little wind. As we climb in the fresh air there is rime ice a foot thick that flakes off of our skis and skids down the mountain. The final push is too steep for skinning.  We strap our skis to our packs and kick steps to the top.

On the summit we meet two climbers also from France and are all lucky to feel settled in a place that receives such harsh weather.

The shaking bones decent turns softer about halfway down. After making creamy turns in the setting sun we are back at the flaming piquete. If our skis don’t open eyes to the mountains of possibility at least the ice dripping off of our gear will send out a reminder to keep cool.

Copyright: Tom Hite

21 de Diciembre, 2012