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Outdoors
ENLARGE
LAS LENAS, Argentina — I left my house at 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 5, dropped my pup off at my friend's house in Bellyache and raced to Edwards to pick up one of my best friends, who happens to be one of the world's best big mountain freeskiers, Vail Valley ripper Rebecca Selig.
We were heading to South America for the Red Bull Powder Disorder Freeski competition in Las Lenas, Argentina, the first stop on the 2012 Freeskiing World Tour — it was going to be a good trip.
We swung through Edge sports to grab Rebecca's freshly mounted skis she had just received from Icelantic, a Colorado ski company, and sped off to the airport.
We met Aspen local Jacqui Edgerly and made our way to the terminal — our flight to Atlanta left on time, was uneventful, except that my neck, which I broke in March of 2010, still bothers me while sitting on an airplane.
At the connection stop, we met last year's Kirkwood comp winner Josh Diaek and his friend Barnaby who would be on our flight to South America with us. Crystal Wright from Jackson Hole also joined our group of skiers for the trip down south.
As we started descending toward Santiago, Chile, I opened the window shade and my eyes were greeted by the sight of the emerald green coastal mountains, butting up to and contrasting with the blue of the endless Pacific — it was a truly breathtaking view. We landed in Santiago a few minutes later and I set foot on another continent for the first time in my life.
Making our way to the gate for our next flight to Argentina, our crew ran into a bunch of other American skiers headed for the Red Bull event at Las Lenas — John Collinson and his sister Angel, Leo Ahrens, Zach Halverson, Tom Runcie, Ingrid Backstrom, Kevin Omera and a few others.
The flight across the Andes to Mendoza was marked with a few minutes of pretty severe turbulence as we hit an eddy in the lee of the mountains on our descent. The landscape around Mendoza, Argentina, was strikingly different than Chile. It has a great expanse of plains and the gray and tans of the desert-like terrain are dotted with vineyards, making a very beautiful, almost otherworldly appearance, but the imposing Andes dominated all of it.
Rebecca and I, in an effort to save money, had split the cost to bring an extra bag. It didn't show up and we were left stranded at the airport for a few hours. At the Demajuana hostel in Mendoza we caught up with our friends, I would recommend this hostel to anyone — the security in locking up our valuables was excellent and the friendly and helpful staff went out of their way to help get our missing bag to show up in Las Lenas.
The door to the room burst open at 1 a.m. while we were sleeping and Tom Runcie and Kevin Omera who had been out partying informed us we had a taxi waiting. The cab took off at the sight of 10 skiers and all their luggage so we tried to bribe other cabbies to take us. Rebecca and I stuffed our cab with bags and jumped in, the trunk was bungeed shut and holding the two bags containing my ski boots — I spent the bumpy ride with my head stuck out the window making sure my boots didn't fall out.
We made it to the bus, which left at 2:40 a.m. and took five hours to reach Las Lenas, and I stepped out into the cold air.
My first look around made me smile — the towering mountains were covered in 2 feet of fresh powder. After arriving at the registration tent I was told my discounted passes wouldn't be ready until Monday and having little sleep in 48 hours and the promise that the powder would be there tomorrow I grudgingly decided to go to bed.
I woke for dinner and then after some amazing Malbec from the local vineyard Valle de Uco in Mendoza, we sat chatting with our new friends, venue director and our host Jose Beccar, contest director Manu Uranga and registration head Federico Norkus, for a few hours about skiing powder and the politics of resort management and contest judging.
The next morning my bag showed up with skiers Sonja Lercher and Ashley Maxfield and I threw my gear on and went to get my ski pass — Vail Resorts Epic Pass works in Las Lenas if you stay in a hotel here, however my new friend Federico waived this technicality for me and I was quickly riding up the lift with Spencer Brinson, last year's Young Gun Award winner at the tour's annual finale at Snowbird, to go shoot pictures and shred some powder.
My first turns were amazing — it was steep and deep even three days after the storm and just what I traveled all this way to experience. I spent all day grinning ear to ear.
Tomorrow the Red Bull Powder Disorder featuring the top 20 men and top 15 women from last year's tour and some select freeskiers invited by Red Bull is starting and I can't wait for this show to start.
Drew Rouse is a professional skier who lives in Avon.
We were heading to South America for the Red Bull Powder Disorder Freeski competition in Las Lenas, Argentina, the first stop on the 2012 Freeskiing World Tour — it was going to be a good trip.
We swung through Edge sports to grab Rebecca's freshly mounted skis she had just received from Icelantic, a Colorado ski company, and sped off to the airport.
We met Aspen local Jacqui Edgerly and made our way to the terminal — our flight to Atlanta left on time, was uneventful, except that my neck, which I broke in March of 2010, still bothers me while sitting on an airplane.
At the connection stop, we met last year's Kirkwood comp winner Josh Diaek and his friend Barnaby who would be on our flight to South America with us. Crystal Wright from Jackson Hole also joined our group of skiers for the trip down south.
As we started descending toward Santiago, Chile, I opened the window shade and my eyes were greeted by the sight of the emerald green coastal mountains, butting up to and contrasting with the blue of the endless Pacific — it was a truly breathtaking view. We landed in Santiago a few minutes later and I set foot on another continent for the first time in my life.
Making our way to the gate for our next flight to Argentina, our crew ran into a bunch of other American skiers headed for the Red Bull event at Las Lenas — John Collinson and his sister Angel, Leo Ahrens, Zach Halverson, Tom Runcie, Ingrid Backstrom, Kevin Omera and a few others.
The flight across the Andes to Mendoza was marked with a few minutes of pretty severe turbulence as we hit an eddy in the lee of the mountains on our descent. The landscape around Mendoza, Argentina, was strikingly different than Chile. It has a great expanse of plains and the gray and tans of the desert-like terrain are dotted with vineyards, making a very beautiful, almost otherworldly appearance, but the imposing Andes dominated all of it.
Rebecca and I, in an effort to save money, had split the cost to bring an extra bag. It didn't show up and we were left stranded at the airport for a few hours. At the Demajuana hostel in Mendoza we caught up with our friends, I would recommend this hostel to anyone — the security in locking up our valuables was excellent and the friendly and helpful staff went out of their way to help get our missing bag to show up in Las Lenas.
The door to the room burst open at 1 a.m. while we were sleeping and Tom Runcie and Kevin Omera who had been out partying informed us we had a taxi waiting. The cab took off at the sight of 10 skiers and all their luggage so we tried to bribe other cabbies to take us. Rebecca and I stuffed our cab with bags and jumped in, the trunk was bungeed shut and holding the two bags containing my ski boots — I spent the bumpy ride with my head stuck out the window making sure my boots didn't fall out.
We made it to the bus, which left at 2:40 a.m. and took five hours to reach Las Lenas, and I stepped out into the cold air.
My first look around made me smile — the towering mountains were covered in 2 feet of fresh powder. After arriving at the registration tent I was told my discounted passes wouldn't be ready until Monday and having little sleep in 48 hours and the promise that the powder would be there tomorrow I grudgingly decided to go to bed.
I woke for dinner and then after some amazing Malbec from the local vineyard Valle de Uco in Mendoza, we sat chatting with our new friends, venue director and our host Jose Beccar, contest director Manu Uranga and registration head Federico Norkus, for a few hours about skiing powder and the politics of resort management and contest judging.
The next morning my bag showed up with skiers Sonja Lercher and Ashley Maxfield and I threw my gear on and went to get my ski pass — Vail Resorts Epic Pass works in Las Lenas if you stay in a hotel here, however my new friend Federico waived this technicality for me and I was quickly riding up the lift with Spencer Brinson, last year's Young Gun Award winner at the tour's annual finale at Snowbird, to go shoot pictures and shred some powder.
My first turns were amazing — it was steep and deep even three days after the storm and just what I traveled all this way to experience. I spent all day grinning ear to ear.
Tomorrow the Red Bull Powder Disorder featuring the top 20 men and top 15 women from last year's tour and some select freeskiers invited by Red Bull is starting and I can't wait for this show to start.
Drew Rouse is a professional skier who lives in Avon.
Summer skiing
This is the first part in a three-part series in which professional skier Drew Rouse is documenting his trip to South America on the Freeskiing World Tour. You can follow the athletes and the action in Las Lenas at www.freeskiingworldtour.com.
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