Valle Nevado

I can finally say I have snowboarded the Andes Mountains and I must say, it was pretty damn cool. We mobilized at 8am this morning, an hour earlier than scheduled since everyone was pretty excited to hit the slopes. Unfortunately, the whole process of mobilization for 16 people took quite awhile. First, we hit the rental shop in town to pick up our gear. Everyone needed to try on their stuff and a few people changed their mind and decided to snowboard instead of ski. (Without any extra charge which means I have to talk to the coordinator about refunding my $55!) I was really disgruntled because they didnt have any snowboard boots in my size. (I KNEW I shouldve brought my own boots!) Thankfully, they had my size on the mountain so I was able to pick them up later... but the whole ordeal caused quite the delay. And aching feet, as expected.

After the whole rental debacle, we headed up to the mountains. The road was treacherous. It is practically a one lane highway with approximately 50 hairpin turns. (They literally have signs at every turn saying Curvo 31, etc.) I am also convinced that they dont believe in using snowplows because the snow from yesterday formed ice on the road. And upon our return, the road remained unchanged. Based on these conditions, its obvious we couldnt drive very fast. An hour later and with the resort in sight, we stopped to find another tour bus stalled on the side of the road. We attempted to pass but instead found ourselves scraping the side of the other bus. We spent the next hour waiting for the bus to get towed so that we could get to the resort. Annoyed but amused at the situation, we made the best of it and enjoyed the sunny weather.

We finally arrived on the mountain around noon and since I had to sort out my boot situation, the first group of skiiers (and one boarder) went on their way. I got my boots, scarfed down my free lunch and headed down the slopes with my fellow boarder, Marissa. It ended up working out for the best. Her and I are on equal levels and enjoyed the wide open runs, while avoiding the deep powder. There are ZERO trees to be seen and mountains as far as the eye can see. It is pretty amazing and I would love to come back again. I must warn others that it takes awhile to figure out how to navigate the trails (since their marking system is unusual), there are red and black runs instead of black diamonds and double blacks, and they really dont believe in shovels, snowplows and maybe even grooming. Luckily, the conditions were pretty amazing without the grooming, but the shovels sure could have been handy. Oh, and they love their T bars (which I avoided at any cost) and they also have this weird conveyer belt system at the lift that I have to share a picture of to help explain.

All in all, our group returned in one piece (although we were nearly ready to send a search party after one guy, Benny) and are now exhausted and resting up for our last full day tomorrow. On our agenda is a light hike, another wine tasting and to finish, karaoke! Haha. Should be interesting. Hasta mañana!