Exploring, driving and Skiing 1400 km along the Patagonian Andes

Road tripping in hidden Patagonia , skiing and exploring more and more every year

keep reading below is the full story ...

Camilla Skiing in Magical turquoise Patagonia

Camilla skinning and dealing with Patagonian winds somewhere in Deeper Patagonia

We just finished a 12 days ski journey driving and exploring valleys and peaks, leaving from Bariloche at 7.00am on Oct 15th 2011 and just made it back home this afternoon Oct 29th.

This was one of the most beautiful ski trips in Patagonia that I have done, and skiing was really only the excuse to explore and see new places, because half of the time we were hiking, driving and just a percentage was skiing, but this is what it takes to get to new terrain and see more off the beaten path. The plan was about driving and stopping in the places we found worth it to take some days and get into deeper mountains.

Personally I would had like to have 30 days to do this trip, or maybe my entire life to explore and ski some of the most scenic peaks along the way from Bariloche all the way south to El

Chalten, where Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre are located. But of course is not all about skiing, driving, eating, sleeping and laughing but I wish it was sometimes... (or maybe this should be the life plan?? )

We explored some valleys in Cerro Castillo area where was amazing the amount of potential skiing that is down there, some terrain tricky to access but in general stays excellent for Backcountry skiing in Chile until early November.

Cerro Castillo area, the entrance of the Wild Patagonia where winds, peaks and glaciers gets a bigger dimension

Exploring and skiing back valleys in Southern Chile

Hanging out in Local Gaucho ranch after getting soaking wet until our underwear!!

Fitz Roy area offers all kind of excellent ski terrain, culuoirs/ chutes of 700/800 mts, glaciated peaks, peaks in the Patagonian Ice cap , etc... all what you can imagine.

Access could be tricky sometimes too, but not too bad ...

Tom earned his turns to ski right below Fitz Roy, Mermoz and Guillaumet...

Thanks Tom and Camilla for your support in coming in this trip, specially for your flexibility in dealing with the Patagonian weather, the rustic lodging and the wild roads. Is a trip for people with a good sense of adventure!

Dont miss the pictures and check more in Our Facebook page... thanks for reading

Camilla Skiing in Magical turquoise Patagonia

What was happening September and October?

One of the most beautiful things that happened this September was to work with the guys of www.southpolepush.com:

Two adaptive athletes, with the attitudes of Bulldozers, are training with two guides to get the team to the South Pole this next January 2012. They came to the Argentinian Andes to pull sleds behind their sit-skis, camp out on the ice, and PUSH towards their goal.

They have the power and the attitude that inspires others to "push" their own limitations. Johnny D. has continued training as a professional athlete and achieved 2 Paralympic Gold Medals. Grant, aka Captain Korgan, suffered a spinal cord injury less than 2 years ago and is a person that only inspires love. His happiness taught me a lot. Because he does not leave room for anything other than positive thoughts, he has already recovered feeling and movement to his knees. Check his site here...http://www.korgmovement.com/

Also this winter, we did more than six backcountry skiing trips to Frey hut, finding the classic chutes and skiing in between the golden spires, and found some nice new hidden terrain.

We have tons of pictures, but thanks to GO PRO we have a nice little video to share ...

So, now we are in October , and I just came back from a trip from the Volcanoes tour in Chile where we climbed with Tom and his friends. Volcan Osorno, Volcan LLaima through the North face of the beautiful challenging 2000 mts climb. Then we did also Volcan Lonquimay, first in a total blizzard getting 200mts below summit and then again in good powder/ corn day .

Also , we did half way of Volcan Villarica due bad weather and awful conditions (no visibility and super icy)

As you might now the winter was strange due delays, cancellations on flights because Volcan Puyehue ashes... but here we are moving forward... check how it looks the constant eruption of Puyehue from top of Volcan Osorno!!

Tomorrow, 15th of October we are heading to Cerro Castillo and Southern Patagonia to ski the last of spring in Deeper remote Patagonia before heading to Antarctica for most of November!!

That's all Folks!!

Jorge Kozulj

www.andescross.com