Dog Days

A few months of dragging your banged up gear around the hostels (good, bad and ugly) of southamerica


and it comes as a shock to suddenly be staying with a charming young family, toddler, 2 dogs, house in suburbia. Of all the good people I've met on this trip, Steven Hatcher of Ttips and familia were a highlight. Taking in, feeding and generally going out of your way to help a random traveler deserves a lot of sunshine and powder in karmic return. For a good collection of TRs from the Santiago area and an informative read far from the usual summertime Ttalk world of frustratedly single, kneepadwearing wildflowers and lawn sprinklers, have a look at this http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=33650 thread

(Steve's pic)


Picture book day, not a cloud, spectacular scenery, powder and good company. See Steven Hatcher's TR for detailed how/when/where.

Up


More of Steve's pictures, yours truly skinning.






Hatcher dropping






The Kinks in my head, "all I got's this sunny afternoon" and what else could I ever want.





From above you wonder how the people in Santiago breath.



From below all you notice is that the light is different, softer. People fly kites in the evenings in front of hazily golden hills.




A day of dozing off on chairlifts in the sun at La Parva. I met three American telemarkers whom I would like to assure, on the slim chance they are reading this, that, despite the contrary impression they may have gotten, I am actually a harmless hippy girl who loves freeheelskiing for its soulfullness and the flow of positive energy produced by small turns on flat terrain. No, really.

"I don't like the drugs, but the drugs like me."




Earned turns, melting mountains, soggy canyons. Bonus points if you can name the place.

"In the morning when I wipe my brow
Wipe the miles away
I like to think I can be so willed
And never do what you say."



Ran out of snow and ended up downclimbing a bit in a small waterfall. Wet.



Shared a day, cereal bar and line with a random dog who decided to accompany
me. Nice.


Camouflage



Toothy grin, tounge flying, tail rotating... straightline.



Enough is enough



Doom, pending?

"...perdido en el corazon,
de la grande Babylon..."



Mendoza is pleasant, friends, wine, vicious talking birds,


pisco sour, friends, weird rabbit like things (will piss on you if you annoy it),


little rat dogs with huge eyes,


Las Leñas is a weird place, le monde à l'envers, as someone else put it. Maybe in a good season the mountain is worth the bullshit, hard to tell, now.

Waiting Game.


Disembodied Cat.


Gringo:



Valle Las Lenas


Summing up the experience:



"Promises of pleasure mesmerised, but how far can we get?
At least here in the eye of the storm I won't get my hairdo wet
Some of you have already foreseen yourself undone
Some of you seem to believe you've only just begun
Try a little perjury, get rich quick
My eyes are bigger than my belly is, and it makes me sick
Attitude, so much to prove, should've been a beautiful thing
Some of you will already know, and I'm still wondering"



For the last days, back south where they actually have some snow. Just missed the Maggot gathering, unfortunately.

Essential Bariloche:

Beauty, mildly boring


Hell, for ski instructors






Cathedrals



Town, favourite place



Where do you think you're going?


..and, of course, bam-fucking-boo.


Somtimes I really wonder what I am doing. Why I neglect old friends and spend all my money and freetime to ski. I rarely go out because I can't not sleep and also ski. I have a huge bruise on my leg and I can't remember how exactly I got it, because I always have huge bruises on my legs. All my clothes smell like the ski socks (worn for a week) that I stuffed them in a bag with. Flat light, refrozen crud, skis chattering over chunks of ice and as a bonus you slam onto a cat track at full speed. Lying there flattened against the snow, broken pole poking into you side and counting the stars, how can you not wonder why you bothered getting out of bed this morning?




And soon enough you remember that you ski because that's just the way it is.

Last blast at Frey because habits are hard to break.

"This is the place where all the junkies go
Where time gets fast but everything gets slow.
...
This is the place where all the devils plead
Their case to take from you what they need."

Got the early morning corn harvest I came for,




In there somewhere, so hard to pick ony one for the time window before it got too late...


...then went to catch up with these two ladies from Alaska





and later joined them on the slog up and out.




I will miss being alone a million miles from home, not being accountable to anyone for antything, free to be as obnoxious, unsociable and badly dressed as I please without the inconveninence of ever seeing the people I might have offended again. I will miss being able to watch stupid shit on TV without feeling guilty because it's in Spanish and I'm not really watching stupid shit but working on my language skills. I'll miss people and places and I hope to be back soon.


I've also missed home. The mountains are fittingly blue for now but soon they’ll be white again. Until then the raspberries are ok.





Thanks for listening.
FIN