Las Lenas Trip Photos: TheOctopus

[skicdave]

Here are a few pics and captions to go along with TheOctopus's Las Lenas trip report. Nice! Love those first 2 shots especially. {drewl}

This is the old Juno lift area. Everything you're looking at is
skiable. Note the cat track/skin track/boot track winding its way up. We
hiked and skied the terrain that drops away in the foreground. And remember,
this is a very low snow year...

http://timefortuckerman.com/members/theoctopus/Image1.jpg

Mrs. Octopus is ready to drop into a chute in the Sombrero region.
All that brown should be white, but she's still sporting a big grin anyway...

http://timefortuckerman.com/members/theoctopus/Image2.jpg

Hiking to Cornercito, overlooking the Valle Hermoso and the peaks
beyond (and, beyond that, Chile)....

http://timefortuckerman.com/members/theoctopus/Image3.jpg

Mrs. Octopus carves up the corn in Cornercito, a huge
northeast-facing bowl and gully with dozens of chutes to chose from for an
exciting entrance...

http://timefortuckerman.com/members/theoctopus/Image4.jpg

Here I am on Cenidor, a very long ridge that terminates in the
valley in which the Neptuno lift runs. This was a popular spot, accessible
without any hiking from the top of the Caris lift. Still, one could spend
days exploring the various lines on this 1000', 34-37 degree slope. Note The
Octopus, strapped to the pack for the ride. When Marte closed prematurely
one afternoon for wind, this is where we passed the time....

Thanks Paul !
http://timefortuckerman.com/members/theoctopus/Image5.jpg

[DMC]

Cool shots!!! Brings back great memories!!!

But - *** happened to the snow????!?!?

I hope their season isn't indicative of ours.... :(

So Tia Marte's prety cool huh???

[Mumster]

Excellent pix, TheOctopus. What was the snow quality like?

Next time, pack me away in your luggage... :D

[kfarrar]

Anybody out there got a bib for me. My shirt is soaking wet from my drewl.

[Jolly J]

speechless

[TheOctopus]

Dave -- thanks so much for posting the photos! Glad to give everyone a brief respite from the summer swelter (although it IS cooling off more and more each day!)

Mumster -- we skied just about every kind of snow imaginable. The real game in town was corn, since it was warming up nicely during the day and freezing hard at night. We played the follow-the-sun game with mucho success. East and North-east facing slopes were the best skiing of the week. We also skied a surprising amount of powder and wind-packed powder, given that it hadn't snowed in FIVE WEEKS. Anywhere the sun never shone (south-facing couloirs) it was all about pow pow. Amazing, and a very plasant surprise. Even the stuff that wasn't corn or pow was pretty managable -- old windpacked snow that wasn't icy, but was a firm yet edgable styrofoam consistency. You could ski the steeps that had this surface, but better not fall (see my most recent post under "tips")! Then there was the stuff that sucked, which is inevitable in just about any high alpine environment. The traverses off the Iris poma were like skiing the surface of the moon. I biffed twice here real good because of digging a tip into that junk. Still, I was all smiles 99% of the time.

Yeah, the Marte chair rocks. Some folks have called it the single best chairlift in the world. My experience is limited (though I'm ever interested in expanding it!), but so far I'd have to agree!

[Frankontour]

Very very very nice pics, Octopus !!
Thanks a lot to share them with us ;)
Another place on my "to ski" list !

[kmrnskier]

absolutely beautiful pics TheOctopus! Looks like you had some bluebird skies!!

[RR]

:envy: , that's right, :envy: :envy:

But thanks for the :happydog: pix.

[elwood]

WOW. On a good snow year that place would be sick!!! Anyone who has been there before, how is the powder there? It is surrounded by desert like regions, right? I would assume the have light, fluffy, dry stuff?

[Skilasnow]

According to my Colorado friends the usual powder there is not quite as fluffy as the famed pow in the Rockies but almost, And if you are there at the right time you might get so much that it doesn't mattewr

[Skilasnow]

That first photo "Juno" is also the way to El Collar, DMCs picture from another thread. El Collar falls off to the rear left of the this photo. It took me 2.5 hours to post hole up there while my buddies skinned up to the right and had a run meeting me at the top just as I got there. It was soooo worth it

[DMC]

The thing about the Andes is - They dont get consistant snow.. But when they do IT DUMPS!!!!
So the snow can get old.. And you pray for corn...
The wind blown stuff gets to be like the surface of the moon - all sun cupped.. It's really tough to get an edge..

When I was out(down) there it was sun and corn until the last couple of days when it DUMPED!!! But Marte closed to to Avi danger..

Do they still have the avalanche collars around the lift bases on Marte?

[TheOctopus]

DMC:

Do they still have the avalanche collars around the lift bases on Marte? Oh yeah. And a recent rockslide from the Cenidor ridge into the valley that the Neptuno run in totally took out part of that lift. The lift had been fixed, but one of the collars was still knocked over, and the MASSIVE amount of debris had been pushed over to the other side of the valley -- pretty much where the exit to El Collar is.

The Marte chair is litterally clinging to the mountain; the entire lift line is a massive avy chute. But as long as they keep digging the thing out and rebuilding it every few years, it's schweet!

[DMC]

When I was there, the face below Marte is where a guy broke his face and slid leaving a trail of blood which stayed until it snowed ...

[M@]

That shot with Chili in the backround, those mountains, it's kind of un-real. How can you stand it! AHHHHH! I hate this damn cube.

[Skilasnow]

The Marte chair was originally the Juno chair. When Las Lenas wanted to move it the manufacturer (Doppelmayer maybe?) refused, saying that it was too steep and dangerous for that lift. Management hired a local engineer to move it anyway.

And the Vulcano chair lost a pilon in 3 succesive avalanches and they decided not to bother replacing it. The first time I was down there the US ski team (and others)were all training off the Vulcano chair. The spot with the missing pilon gets really close to the ground and on really windy days it has been known to pop off. The US team was on it when it fell once. No serious injuries but one guy bit right through his tongue when his knee jammed up into his chin on impact.

So... the skiing is great, but they are not so good when it comes to safety