Riding the Beaver
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008Day 193
One of the joys of travel is the people you meet along the way. Some crazy, like Brian in Santiago and others like Sheamus and Natasha, whom it feels like we’ve been friends with for years. Since the weather outside was more suited to winter activities we decided the four of us should go skiing and snowboarding instead of hiking. Sounds like a good idea except other than myself nobody had actually been down a hill on either skis or a snowboard before. Oh and I haven’t skied in over 10 years. We all agreed it would either be a blast or we’d be sharing another 4 bed room, this time at the hospital.
The girls decided they wanted to try snowboarding and us men would strap on skis. We rented all our gear in town at waited for the 10am transfer to Cerro Castor or Beaver Mountain. A mountain located 25km outside of town. We also made quick friends with Juan, a funny and friendly Argentine from Buenos Aires who was down for the week to snowboard. He’d give the girls some tips and us boys would just figure it out or get drunk in the bar.
We arrived at the slopes, paid our ridiculously low lift pass of 40 pesos or $13 CAD and made our way to the lift. Half way up the mountain we stopped at the beginners area. Juan was really helpful with the girls and not before long they both managed to board down the small slope without falling. Well mostly without falling, without major incident at least. For his first time on skis and with no lessons Sheamus made progress as well. As for myself I was feeling a bit more comfortable and was going to leave the group to hit some bigger runs. The conditions were excellent, a good base, some powder overnight and no wind. I was actually warming up quite a bit.
“Juan, you want to head down and put our jackets in the locker?” It was to warm out for all the layers I had on. “Sure, let’s go”. Juan replied, as we turned off on a trail next to the chair lift. Juan knows I haven’t skied much and haven’t done it for years, he’s been boarding for 8 years and is quite good. So as I skied past the name of the run and noticed it was a black run I wondered where the hell he was taking me? “That must be another run, I can handle this, this is no problem” I thought to myself as we followed a gently sloping trail through the beautiful woods. I enjoyed the wild mountain scenery in the distance. “OH shit, this is a black run!” Juan yelled as he flew by me. I didn’t have much time to react as the trail turned left and suddenly plunged down. I pictured myself tumbling down the mountain with poles and skis flying all about. Was skiing included in our insurance? I was absolutely flying, I tried to keep my speed down making wide turns and so far so good. At one point I thought I was going to lose it but recovered and before I knew it I was at the bottom. I calmly came to a stop, in that sort of, “Yeah, that was nothing”. It was such a rush, and such a great start to the day. The run hadn’t been skied by anyone else that day, freshly groomed the snow was perfect. “Wow, sorry man I didn’t know that was a black run”. Juan said with a laugh as I met him at the bottom. I wondered if he really didn’t know? Sneaky Argentinians!
I met the others back at the top, I was surprised of Jordanas progress. She was doing pretty damn good for a beginner. so was everyone for that matter. I left them to go ski on my own and Juan headed to some more challenging spots. We saw each other on different runs throughout the day and met up again for lunch. The 4 of us enjoyed a much deserved beer on a patio as we watched people come down the mountain. As the day neared to a close I encourage Jordana, Natasha and Sheamus to try the longer, slightly steeper beginner hill. Jordana and Natasha did great getting down with relative ease. I was proud of Jordana, she usually shys away from a challenge but she was determined to do well today. Sheamus? Well he was determined but says he’s the first man to ski halfway down then walk up a hill. The real fun was watching Jordana and Natasha try to get on the bar back up the hill with their boards. If you don’t know this is a difficult thing to do. I swear they each tried 10 times, always falling back down in fits of laughter. It was like a comedy sketch and a good one at that.
Finally the day came to a close and we all agreed it was one of the most enjoyable things we’d done yet. Yet another claim as well, we skied in the most southerly ski slopes in the world. Then again pretty much anything you do down here can have that claim. Back at the hostel we cooked dinner and shared some much deserved 1 litre bottles Quillmes beer. The hostel bar/lounge is a perfect place to chillout in the evening with travellers from all over the world. Skiing in Ushuaia was as unexpected as the amount of snow we’ve seen here but we’ve certainly enjoyed it so far.
Michael Coroneos