After kicking off the 2016 ski season and getting a second day in at La Parva, I was looking forward to getting back out. Graeme and his wife Yara, with whom I have skied before, were also itching to get out again. So, after some consultation of the snow forecast (which often feels as effective as consulting a Greek Oracle) we decided Sunday offered the best chance of fresh snow.

On the appointed morning, I caught the first train out of the Santa Lucia metro station and made my way across town to the launching point for the daily shuttles up to the ski areas. There I met Yara, Graeme, and two of their friends who were eager to try snowboarding for the first time ever. In fact, one of the friends had never experienced snow before! So, it was exciting to see them looking forward to the day.

After the usual lengthy trip up to the mountain, we were greeted with a light dusting of snow. Yara and Graeme ended up in another van and were delayed, so I took a few laps while they worked their way up.

The first two runs were awful. Skiing is almost always fun; I cannot remember the last time I went skiing and did not enjoy myself. But today’s first two runs were definite Type III fun. The snow was pretty good, but the visibility was non-existent. Thick fog covered the upper slopes and there was no differentiation between snow and sky. The widely-spaced run markers ensured you felt like you always on the verge of hurtling yourself off some unseen cliff. The lack of a reference point meant a creeping feeling of nausea as your ears felt movement and your eyes claimed you were at rest.

At least the snow was good; it would have been extra-tough feeling my way through icy or wind-carved slopes. A few more runs of that and I would have called it quits and returned to the bar to enjoy pisco sours. But, fortunately conditions did not stay that bad all day.

After meeting up with the rest of the group and declaring: “It’s terrible!”, I took a run on the lower half of the mountain with Yara and Graeme while they got used to skis again. Fortunately for my day and my wallet, the visibility had improved somewhat, making their warm-up run a much more enjoyable experience.

The rest of the day went fairly smoothly, with conditions varying from the aforementioned whiteout to clear skies and great visibility. I did not take any photos during the actual whiteout, but if you would like to visualize it, grab a light gray blanket and use it to cover your eyes.

Image for View of El Colorado
Image for Valle Nevado Basecamp
Image for Temporary Clearing at Valle Nevado

Overall, it turned out to be a good day, as are most days of skiing. Unfortunately we never got the fresh snow that we had hoped for (it did begin snowing just as we left the mountain, but apparently there was not much accumulation overnight), but what they had was fun to ski. I’ll be keeping an eye on the oracle – hopefully I can get out again with a little more sunshine and a little more fresh snow.