Sunday, August 13, 2006

Portillo!

¡Hola amigos! Hope everyone is doing well at home! The picture to the left is my best attempt at Ansel Adams...what do you think?

So last weekI found out that most of the ski resorts close in mid-September, and I immediately got the crazy notion that I should arrange a ski trip to Portillo. I had seen a package deal for three days and three nights of skiing, with 4 meals a day, rentals, and andarivales (lifts) included, only for 250 or some rediculous price. Wanting to investigate, I went and talked with Ale, one of the women who directs ISA and also happens to be a travel agent. She made some calls and found out that the hotel at Portillo was full, but that there was room at a hotel in Los Andes, a town 60km from the resort. I thought that sounded good, so I reserved the hotel for Friday and Saturday night (no I wasn't playing hooky mom, we didn't have classes Friday). I sent out an email to various gringos in my program, and ended up with three people who wanted to come: Adam, Kelly, and Jeff. On Thursday we hit our first glitch. Portillo sits on the mountain pass that connects Mendoza, Argentina with Chile. The actual pass itself is PAST Portillo, but if the pass is closed, like it was on Thursday and Friday, buses don't run to Mendoza, and subsequently not past Portillo. Therefore when we tried to buy tickets on Thursday, we were told that maybe a bus would leave Friday, but they weren't sure. "Show up tomorrow at 7:30" they said, "and we'll tell you if a bus is leaving."

We showed up at 7:30 sharp Chilean Standard Time (ten till eight to you folks) and after some wild-goose chasing caught a bus to Los Andes. We had planned to ski Friday, but we hadn´t been able to find a bus all the way to Portillo. Subsequently, by time we arrived in Los Andes, it was too late to ski. Jeff had cut out, so it was just Kelly, Adam and me. The first thing we did after checking in at the hotel was try to find a ride to Portillo in the morning. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anyone to take us before 10:30 am, and we started to get frustrated. Finally, we got a fellow named Raul to pick us up at 7:oo am. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling Los Andes, and it was very pleasant.

The next morning Raul showed up right on time, and we began our journey. Finally, we were going skiing! About 20km from the resort, we came to a road closure. More accurately, the pass was still closed, but we weren't allowed to go to Portillo either, even though the road was clear. Those of you who have been skiing with me know how frustrated I get when something keeps me from getting an early start. I was going crazy, but I just decided it was part of the experience. By 9:30 they began to let people through to Portillo, but to ensure that no one lied and tried to continue on to Argentina, they were checking for reservations at the hotel as well as chains (even though the road was completely dry), neither of which we had. Auuugh! We had to stop again. By 10 am, after paying 10 bucks to rent chains, we were on our way. We arrived at the resort, rented skiis, bought tickets, put our bags in the gear check, and were on our way.

Fortunately, the skiing was incredible. Portillo is completely different from any resort I have ever skiied. The lodge sits in the middle of a huge valley, with rocky jutting peaks on all sides. The andarivales climb up the mountains from either side of the lodge, and all the runs dump skiers back to the lodge. The resort isn't actually that big, and with a full day to ski, I could have skiied every official run. However, if one is willing to hike, there are a lot of steep chutes and really cool terrain that is virtually untouched due to the nature of the clientele (wealthy, fairweather, prefer the lodge to the lift). I actually found a chute about 20 feet through a gate that was absolutely untouched thigh-deep powder. It was really steep so I made about 5 big jump turns down it, and my tracks are probably still there, completely unmolested. One really cool thing about the resort was the surface lifts. To get higher up on the mountain, there are several poma-style lifts scattered around. However, unlike the standard poma, these lifts can take 5 people at a time, and they BOOK! I swear they go about 15 mph up the hill. We were catching air on the way UP the hill! Unbelieveable.

We knew that we had to quit skiing early to catch a bus back to Los Andes, so we left the slopes at 4 (resort closes at 5), returned our gear, and headed out to the road to flag down a bus. After talking to a resort employee, however, we learned that the last bus down had left about 20 minutes ago. Oops. Just as things started to look bleak, a guy left the parking lot driving a jeep, with three empty seats. I figured "what the heck, why not?" and stuck out my thumb. To my suprise, he stopped and offered a ride. The ride down was probably the highlight of the trip. We chatted the whole way, and he was very friendly. He was trying to learn english, so the whole way, the three gringos spoke spanish and he spoke english. It was a riot. Anyway, he dropped us off at the bus station, refused the money we tried to give him, and went on his way. Obviously at this point our luck had turned, because the bus for Viña left 5 minutes after we arrived at the bus station. whew. All in all, it was an interesting couple of days. We learned to navigate unplanned travel in South America, haggle with stubborn police officers at road closures, hitchike, and most importantly learned not to ski Portillo without reservations at the Hotel (it's the huge yellow thing in the picture, and it's the only thing at the resort).




Road closed.





When we finally made it past the road closure, we figured out why it is so difficult to keep the road open. There are no roads like this in Colorado.

Meet Adam. He's a surfer, from Florida. He also thought it would be a funny joke to buy an 80's one piece ski suit. In the end the joke was on him...he fit in better than either Kelly or me.










Me.













Kelly.













The lodge at Portillo.
















Buster 5 man surface lift. ¡Cuidado!















ya me voy
Andrew

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