there she goes...

Yesterday I got a lift up to the refuge with a snowboarder, about my age. He is the son of Chileans and, like all Argentinians and Chileans, he was keen to point out the differences between the two - in this case he favoured chile... its curious, there seems to be an national inferiority complex for both countries, but it becomes complicated down in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia because of the mixing of the two sides and the fact that nothing belonged to nobody, even 50 years ago... it was just Patagonia.
Santi, the full time instructor was up there and after i did some work on technique and a few sprints we went for a ski together... he skating slowly, and i huffing it on my classic skis with no track... Like the two other days that I had been up, the snow sparkled heavily on the trees and the mountain faces and the first climb out of the refuge gave a magnificent view of the celestially white teeth of Monte Olivia and the harbour with the container ships, and there across the Beagle Channel, on Isla Navarino (Chile) against an increasingly pink sky the jagged peaks of Dientes de Navarino.
Yellow light: here,in winter the sun comes up at 10am and goes down at 5pm and never goes much more that a few fingers above the peaks - it sheds a beautiful yellow ray on everything - like sunrise or sunset...but all day.
Santi and I came bombing down a big descent and as we came back into the "stadium" (I´ll call it that, its just a big field with a tracked loop and the refuge) he pointed out the place where the snowboarders and skiers from the ski centre just above, come down in the evening - gliding right into the city. So after our ski, we went back up, this time through the deep powder and the trees, to the track that they take - BACKCOUNTRY on CROSS COUNTRY SKIS! It wasn´t as hard core as it sounds, but it was good fun.

Rain, the slap of tires on wet pavement and a gentle drizzle. Grey. Is this it? I wake up thinking that it simply must be snowing on the trails almost half a kilometer above. I watch the england-slovenia game (although Slovenia is my mother land, I cannot negate that England plays a good and exciting game wins deservedly and keeps me pinned to the television and not thinking about the rain outside!) After the game, i grab my ski stuff, a yoghurt and an apple, throw everything in my bag and start the walk that so far I have done with a sort of ancy sensation that I´d rather just be skiing. At the base of the mountain where the switchback road starts, it is still raining, more like drizzle, not even, a cloud, we are in a cloud. Fewer people are going up the mountain i suppose because of the weather but after a few minutes a car driven by two guys my age (I found out later) picks me up. The car, which I assume belongs to one of the parents, is freshly smelling of weed! These guys are really good guys. They ask me what im doing, they seem grateful and surprised that I speak spanish. One of them used to xcountry ski and asks me if I will compete in the Marchablanca - yes.
So in Canada were you there for the olympics? did you compete there? - A laugh... no, Im not anywhere near that level - And how old are you - 22 turning 23 - and you are just travelling the world, instructing - not really, just travelling, this is a way to be able to ski - Amazing what you are doing! Amazing! when dyou turn 23 - July 4th - Awesome, man, you won´t be working the next day, we will pick you up at your hostel for a party!!
I am not sure if they will... and im not sure that I want them to, but great guys! The sort of people that might be looked at with scorn, snowboarders, potsmokers, perhaps unemployed living with their folks... i don´t know... but I´m not stupid a can tell a good human being when I feel one...
While changing and getting my skis ready (I refused to put klister on and opted instead to do doublepoling and other poling exercises and intervals) in the refuge I drank a few mates with Aimé the refugiera. As I finished my intervals Santi, el Mudo and a guy from the local team came...
I then did some hill work, that is down hill - took a massive highspeed crash (seems I´ve forgotten how to step turn at highspeed) All this in a tshirt and tights and rain. About a hundred metres above you could see that the trees were blanketed in snow...almost almost almost!

Yesterday Aimé, Lucas (her partner) and Santi and I talked about the club, their low prices, the low interest in crosscountry skiing and the sparse resources... this is not the gatineau park...lots of problems!!! I would like to stay out of the politics of this place... because there appears to be a lot of politics (some people thinking others are snobby...etc.) but it would be great to help raise interest -
Interesting how people (the rather repulsive middle class) don´t mind paying almost 2000 pesos (around $500) for a season pass at Cerro Castor (the downhill ski centre) yet the very members of the xcountry ski club balk at the suggestion of raising the season pass price from 80pesos to 160pesos because they say people will stop coming... it appears the base is not good...

and so on...
It feels amazing to ski every day!