ItÕs another beautiful day in the Andes Mountains. A good 30cm dump came a few days ago and as usual it was followed by clear and sunny skies. My friend Juan and I couldnÕt have asked for a more ideal day to explore the backcountry around Valle Nevado. Today our goal was to lap Seppo, a steep line off the back of Tres Puntas peak. After descending into the Seppo Valley we would follow the river and turn up Ballicas, the adjacent valley where we would begin our ascent back up to the resort.

The classic line we chose is called ÔChristianÕ. I canÕt imagine where such an uninspiring name came from but luckily the line is a whole lot more exciting than it sounds. Valle Nevado actually operates heli skiing in this valley, guiding the clients to the valley floor then whisking them back up to the resort in the helicopter. However, these two ski bums are choosing to do it the cheaper way, or how I like to put it, the old fashioned way.

The views while skiing down Christian are something else. The string of mountains at the opposite side of the valley get larger and larger as you approach them until you are staring up at over 2000m of vertical. We ski past rivers, waterfalls and some of the biggest cliffs I have ever seen. We reach the valley floor and get ready for the next part of todayÕs adventure- getting home. Neither of us had skied this way before and we were prudent in getting detailed instructions on how to get back without getting lost. We were told to stay on the left side of the valley until Ballicas made itself obvious. The only problem is now the river is rather large and it will take some tip-toeing over wet rocks to cross it. I keep telling myself to buy some real touring boots, the advantage of rubber soles is no apparent than right now. We just make it across without getting our feet wet, which would have potentially ruined the rest of the day.

Now we get to the part weÕve been looking forward to, the climb. The valley of Ballicas is a river bed in the summer, after about 10 minutes of touring we are able to skin right up the middle of it. This is what made this day of touring different- we are now in a valley which is more fun to climb than to ski.

After three and a half hours of twists and turns in this seemingly endless valley we can see the drag lift that will take us back into Valle Nevado. It feels strange after almost four hours of skinning to be riding the lift with all the tourists, but at this point we are too tired to care. We did our work for today and we ski back to the lodge with a feeling of contentment thatÕs hard to find from a day of cruising in the resort.