To my right, my friend Skylar is sweating in his sleep... perhaps his unconcious mind is hiding something from us...perhaps. To my left, my buddy Mot is wearing all his clothes including his goggles and beacon...did he go to sleep prepared in case something was to happen? These thoughts rushed through my head as I tried to narrow down the source of the mysterious noise. I then became aware that I couldn't feel my ears and that the noise was coming from the sleeping bag against my ears. The feathers, as it turns out, decided to escape from several different holes in my $2 a day rental sleeping bag. Mot's sleeping bag was no better, which explains why he was wearing pretty much all the clothing he had including goggles and beacon. Skylar was the only one of us prepared to camp in the mountains... his sleeping bag allowed him to sleep in a t-shirt and yet still be warm enough to break a sweat in his sleep, bastard. And the noise...yeah there was no noise, except for the extremely annoying snores coming from my right. As for the numbness in my legs, feet, and ears...well, not quite, it was just cold. But luckily there were 5 of us packed into the snow cave that we had built the previous day, giving us plenty of heat relative to the open mountain air.

The day before today, the first full day being in the mountains, most of the lines within view of the snow cave and the Frey refugio nearbye were skied and all emptied back into the valley where we were camping. Sun beaten corn made for smooth turns top to bottom, becoming almost too soft to bootpack after midday. But bootpack we did...it hadn't snowed in a while and there was already a bootpack up the 2 main routes. All of us set off for our own individual couloirs with Skylar riding the narrowest by far...about as wide as his snowboard. Construction of the snow cave became the afternoon activity with only snow, rock, and sky around us in this pristine valley. For the quickest way to build a snow cave and make lots of cash at the same time, basically make a huge pile of snow next to a way huger boulder, and then hollow it out with the help of probes to make sure the thickness is even. Then you undercut the nearby regugio's price of 30 pesos a night, offering people passing by a spot in the cave for 10 pesos a night. Then you take this money, and go stay in the refugio, where it's warm.

Once out of the snow cave, the day welcomes us with clouds and the feeling of some snow in the immediate future. Split into different groups, as was the case throughout the trip, to the col and up the ridge we went, two of us skinning and bootpacking, and Mot...walking with snowboard in hand and a stick in the other for balance. He looked like a hobbit out of Lord of the Rings, sticking to walking over the rock sections when possible, and surprisingly able to keep up without too much trouble at all, actually...if you must know. After sussing out our extremely desirable destination, a long narrow coulior across the valley that split a gigantor face of rock in half, we became temporarily obsessed with this narrow pathway. Blinded by greed and overwrought with desire, our communication fell apart, there was no more conjoined effort, it was... in effect, every man, woman and child for themselves. Down the valley we traversed and up the other side we climbed. Only once we got a little ways up the face...we realized we could longer see. Was it greed? Had we pushed the limits of self indulgence? Nonsense, I thought...the most enjoyable par t of the journey had not even begun, we weren't even near the top of the shoulder, from where the coulior began its path down to the valley. Our self indulgence was like a budding flower, struggling to mature in a world full of predators and unforeseeable danger. Or...maybe...just maybe... there was no couloir at all, could this be...were we victims of our own idealistic visions of descending something unique? Had our collective imaginations temporarily filled a void inside us, allowing us to forget the pain of...well... not skiing. Yes! That must be it! Wait! Or.....could it be lead poisoning? Were the soup cans in Argentina made with a lead based binding agent that had melted into the soup during cooking? That's what happened to the Franklin expedition you know. Wait! Snowflakes were coming down, the weather had turned for the worse. Aahhaaaa!! It was the snow all along, fog and snow had moved in, a rush of relief shot through me. As overcome with desire as we were, it was getting fairly close to dark and the visibility didn't go far out the window, as they don't say. Turning back to the snow cave, with a highly versatile and waterproof puffy, excited I was to get shelter from the snow and dry off. However, snow caves aren't known for their drying capabilities so to the refugio it was, everything I had was wet.











A warm meal, a box liter of wine... with subtle hints of rasperry, spruce, black cherry and plum, ripe and firm tannins, combined with a soft and approachable yet daringly affable structure..., and a heavy sleep later, the following day brought more of the same...snowing and cloudy. Everyone took the day off for the most part, except for a couple of individuals, and the last day cleared leaving a soft and cozy blanket of powder covering the frozen corn underneath. Five of us went for the highest pillar of rock in our corner of the mountains, not really knowing where we would come down, with the exception of Skylar and Marius, who were hoping for a long couloir that began as a slot off the backside of the shoulder of the pillar, emptying into another valley. A moderate bootpack, some clambering up the rocks, and some photos later, we were just underneath the pillar, enjoying the environment. It immediately became clear which way down offered the best snow. Some mellow pow turns led to choices between another narrow couloir, some very large cliffs, and a face of ridges and gullies filled with powder, all leading us to an adjacent valley to Frey...and..it's the first week of October. After some rest at the refugio, the sun was going down and it was the perfect time to get a couple laps on the wide face of rock and snow within the closest proximity to the refugio, only a 30 min hike up a ridge. It is the type of face that is perfect for a big mountain competition venue, wide, with lots of rock, orange sunlight lighting up the snow, and...the snow was amazing...chalky up top with pockets of very dry windblown powder that had not been warmed by the suns direct rays. The next morning brought one more lap on that same face, and then a grueling hike back to the resort, since my treckers would not hold on a firm angled slope.