Spring Skiing, in summer, in winter

Alternate title: Tio Bob's and the S-Chute

 Most of the family is on Chilean time!

I was the only one that made it to breakfast this morning - everyone else slept in. I went out to scope out some lines, as today the goal was to put a chalk mark next to the Roca Jack. They had also opened up the Cara Cara lift (unclear if it is meant as a literal translation - the Face Face lift?) and I went up that one, traversed skier's right and saw what looked like a nice chute.

Unclear if it was skiable at this time, I passed it by and continued the traverse and enjoyed a more open run. Down to Juncalilla, back to the hotel to shed some layers quickly and met up with the rest of the family.

A quick warm up run, and up the Roca Jack. I took a new method and wrapped my arm around Anna and grabbed onto her poma to keep her from slipping off. It worked well and we made it to the top without incident - this one is far longer than the Condor lift that we had practiced on. The unloading of Roca Jack is fairly easy this week, as there is a bit of a flat spot on both sides.

You feel like you are on top of the world.

A short rest from the lift ride:

And down we skied:

I had now had a chance to scope out the line that I had seen from the bottom. We later found out that this was called the "S chute" due to its two prominent turns. Here's a picture taken a bit later in the day:

The Cara Cara lift is on the right hand side of the picture - you can just make out a group that was at the top of the va-et-vient lift right where the traverse starts.

Everyone else was still tired from the Roca Jack and decided to sit this out, so I went up alone. The S-chute run was quite fun. The snow was nice and soft given that this chute probably starts to get full sun at around 9:30am (it was around noon).

After a false start up Cara Cara with Renee, we decided it would be best to go to lunch. Today was the day we had planned to go to Tio Bob's for lunch - the on mountain restaurant at the top of the Plateau lift. We got up there, found a table and sat down with a bottle of wine.

More spectacular views.

and family pictures

A group of ski instructors sat with us. One of them had a thermometer and we placed it in the shade of a ketchup bottle. The reading was 81.3! While we doubted that a little bit, it certainly felt like that in the sun. With the soft snow, it was spring skiing, while we were in our summer and their winter. Three of the four seasons represented.

The lunch was very enjoyable and we were probably there for close to two hours. Even Anna decided to shed a layer for the run down.

Back to the room early, we napped. I went to the yoga class. For some reason, the yoga instructor singled me out halfway through the class and asked if I was doing OK. I think there were four men in the class, and I personally thought I was doing the best of them!!! :-). I'm going to believe that she singled me out because I was the only person to say that my Spanish was spotty (at best) and she did the class in English for my benefit.


Dinner is soon. Anna hasn't been feeling well, so she may just have some soup and retire early. I wonder if we will make it to the "mask party" tonight. Each night, we've had good intentions to go out, but the 11pm start time is too imposing.