“IN WINTER THE WALK UP IS DEATH ITSELF”
Despite the general difficulties of South America (transport, inflation, accommodation, food, water etc), especially when travelling with ski gear, the access to backcountry skiing is surprisingly good and relatively simple in the Andes. I spent three months in the mountains around Bariloche in Argentinian Patagonia, and was seriously impressed.
However, it's not exactly easy to find information on the different places to go ski touring around Bariloche. On purpose perhaps? The locals quite enjoy keeping the tourists in the resorts I think.
In late July two yanks (Caleb Fields and Toby Aberman), two Aussies (Will Nelson and Carla Golde) and I decided we had to check out what all the fuss about Refugio Frey was. I'd only met Will and Carla the day before, at the bottom of La Laguna basin, Cerro Catedral's side country favourite. Will's long bleach blonde locks from his surfing days gave him away, and they were dead keen to join us. I was glad for the company of a couple of like-minded Australasians for the following day.
By this time I'd been in Bariloche for about a month, so had talked to enough people to know there were a couple of options for getting to Frey: over the top of Cerro Catedral and down through Van Titer valley, or walking up the track from the bottom of Cerro Catedral carpark. Touring down through Van Titer would've been more fun and quicker, but due to recent snowfall and the fact that none of us had ever been to Frey before, we opted for the safe option and chose to skin/walk the track.
Caleb had run the track in the summer and said it would be 2.5-3 hours of skinning with the fresh snow. Wrong. Very wrong. A big dump of snow the day before meant we could skin, but it was not easy. It took a few of us nearly five hours to skin up to Frey along the track (the first half was very undulating, not easy skinning at all), and a couple of us nearly secen hours. Safe to say the refugio was a welcome sight at the end of the first day. The cover on the lower section is on and off through winter normally, it's actually quicker when you can hike a good chunk of the way, especially the first few kilometres from the car park start point at the base of Cerro Catedral.
If you can, I'd recommend accessing Frey via Van Titer valley. It's what the locals who know do. Local legend ski guide/instructor Daniel Olivieri (he was on Argentina's Interski Demo Team for years), who grew up here, says, “In winter the walk up is death itself! Going via the top, as well a good ski down, it doesn't take more than three hours to do a couple of great runs before you get to Refugio Frey.”
If only we knew.. However, when we eventually arrived at Frey, I was awestruck. The spires at the end of the valley are huge, the chutes and couloirs are epic and everywhere, and the refugio itself is cute as anything.
We were lucky in that we were the only ones staying in the refugio for three nights. There were some Chilean dudes braving the cold and saving money by camping next to the refugio, so the big bunkroom was all ours (yes there is only one BIG bunk room, for 30-40 people.
The hut manager, Para, was a great dude, and we opted for the full board option, which includes a bunk, breakfast and dinner cooked for you, all for only about US$30. You have to pay in cash at Refugio Frey, so bring plenty of pesos.
It's a proper hut, so no phone signal. You have to walk through the snow to the toilet, and only the kitchen/dining room is heated.
However, being able to buy food and alcohol out here is pretty cool, although I brought my own lunches and snacks to avoid a bill at the end (by the way, thanks Caleb for fronting me that extra cash, I'll pay you back one day, I swear.)
The first evening over dinner Para told us heading up to Torre Principale was the best option the next day. I wasn't about to argue with him. We woke up at 8am, had toast, dulce de leche and coffee for breakfast (it's no luxury hotel) and we were skinning by 10am. Not exactly strenuous, but hey, this is Argentina.
Across the lagoon, up a couple of steep sections of skin track and along a ridge. Only two hours later we were at the top of Principale and GODDAMN it was epic!
Will and I decided to bootpack the last 20 metres of a nice steep chute so we could say we skied from the very top. Everyone else dropped in just below, and I can safely say it was one of the best runs in my time in South America.
The south facing aspect meant it had had no sun on it, so the snow was light, untracked and about 45cm deep. If you turned hard enough, you could eat snow like the cookie monster which, well, if you call yourself a skier, you should be trying to gobble up faster than Popeye before a boxing match.
After a 45 minute skin back to the Refugio for late lunch, we headed back out to try to ski another face straight down the end of the lagoon opposite the refugio in the late afternoon/evening. However, this one was slick, wind packed and not much fun. We skinned and bootpacked for over an hour, but ended up pulling the pin due to the conditions and heading back to the refugio about 6pm just as the sun set.
The next day was another Principale day. We managed a couple of laps this time. We also found some great rocks to jump off for a bit more fun.
Sadly, next day we had to leave. While the option of going up and out via the Van Titer valley was open to us, we decided to head back down the track as wind had turned the face of the skin track into a sheet of ice.
Good option, because it only took us 2.5 hours on the way down, including some fun tree skiing just under the refugio. Tree skiing is on and off here, but when it's on it can be magic.- Nic Lawrence