Last Days at Portillo

The day before our last day (Friday), it started to snow. They had predicted a centimeter or so - we weren't expecting much and didn't even try to get a "powder day start". But throughout the day, it started to pile up and it wasn't stopping. Sitting out in the Portillo pool knowing that we had one more day of skiing and it was dumping was unreal

The torchlight parade was canceled because of the snow. We had our last dinner in the dining room - the girls had mastered the napkin folding

And we had a dinner with our "team" - Diego, Alejandro and Mario (not pictured, the other Alejandro and Agustin who had that evening off)

Last day was a bit of a blur. We had everything packed and checked out early to get out for the snow. It was easily 10-12 inches and very light. Posing for a last picture in front of the hotel:

We went up Roca Jack after it cleared out enough and it was very nice. Something about only taking five people at a time (with about three minutes between every group) keeps the powder from getting used up. It was a great run.

After lunch, Renee and I went out to catch the Cara Cara lift. As we were standing "in line" (one group), we noticed that the traverse wasn't open which was a bummer as we wanted to do the S-chute. But a group was standing up there and a ski patroller had just started in front of us and he opened up the traverse over. We watched a group get first tracks down the S-chute. Up we went, and scored fifth and sixth tracks down the chute (everyone else went further out). Renee ripped it up.

It was sad to leave Portillo. We were on the slopes until 2:45 before our 4pm shuttle to Santiago. A fairly chaotic packing of the ski stuff and a ride down in terrific weather allowed most people to nap. We had a great time at Portillo and it will be hard to live up to that for the rest of the trip...