Argentina snow: Part one
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"If you don’t like the weather in Ushuaia," Juliana tells me. "Wait five minutes! That’s something we say here."
Juliana Gonzalez Fuster is my Argentine skiing companion and this local saying inspires us to stop and watch the clouds roll through the valley below. We are standing on top of the most southern mountain tip in the world. The snow-capped Martial mountain range completely fills our view ahead. We reached this incredible panorama of mountains via the chair lifts of Cerro Castor, the world’s most southerly ski resort, some 26km from Ushuaia, the world’s most southerly town.
Clouds are covering the sun but, as Juliana promised, they pass to the east and allow the fabulous yellow sunshine to illuminate our way. This is our cue to drop down the mountain and Juliana leads the way as we carve off the edge of the world. Snow fell yesterday and the blissful descent takes us around the mountain top, over open powder fields and then into the woods. The journey through the forest is picturesque. We cut fresh lines through the partings in the trees before eventually reaching the southern side of the mountain where Cerro Castor’s pistes reside. This is where we find local snowboarding legend Diego Linares.
Diego has seen Cerro Castor grow over 10 seasons working here. He tells me how he had just one piste to ski on before the station’s birth, describing a childhood of freeriding a small hill. He used to only dream of riding big mountains but now Cerro Castor, Diego’s recreational ground, has been extended to 24 pistes with 600 hectares of skiable terrain.
Resorts in Argentina are constantly improving due to better equipment and a growth in tourism. Each year, more visitors venture south to test South American powder and thanks to the dedication and passion of the local skiing community, a visit to Argentina is full of charm and adventure.
The magical feel of Ushuaia, coupled with the extraordinary beauty of Cerro Castor, will satisfy the most hard-to-please visitors. Like Juliana Gonzalez and the local expression about the weather, those in doubt of skiing in Ushuaia should “wait five minutes” and think again. It’s an epic adventure, forever changing, shaping and sharpening up at the edge of the world.
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Argentina snow: Part one (text) by Armelle Burke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (5)
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Finalliy I found your pics....Hope that you are doing fine and I´d love to hear from you soon.....