Mammoth Delivers (Yet Again)

My previous four trips to Mammoth Mountain in the SE Sierra Nevada have all been outstanding. I seem to luck out with some combination of fresh powder, clear skies and crowd-free weekdays each time I visit. This streak has led me to believe either that I'm the resort's lucky rabbit's foot or the conditions are so consistently stellar that it just appears that way to everyone.
As much as I like Tahoe resorts like Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Sugar Bowl and Kirkwood, none of them can match Mammoth's combination of acreage, altitude and diversity of terrain. Squallywood comes close but it's interlaced lifts and canyon-like feel is a sharp contrast to Mammoth's wide open spaces. Even through there were ~5,000 skiers and riders spread across Mammoth this past Tuesday, I felt like I had the resort to myself. Even on holiday weekends, Mammoth is still able to spread out and move upwards of 20,000 daily riders. In addition to great terrain, Mammoth's high elevation and dry climate delivers on average drier, fluffier snow than it's cousins to the North. When the weather allows, Mammoth's Panorama Gondola unloads right onto the 11,059ft summit (pictured below), giving riders and gapers alike an awesome view of the serrated skyline above the Mammoth Lakes basin.
I'm always amazed by how many die-hard skiers and riders I talk to who have never skied Mammoth, but have been all over the country and even the world. The main excuse tends to be that Mammoth is too hard to get to or not worth the extra time from Tahoe. I'll be the first one to admit that it's a long drive, especially from the Bay Area but I have never regretted a single trip. Last ski season Alaska Airlines trialed direct flights from L.A. and were so successful that this season they added daily flights into Mammoth from San Jose and Reno. The town of Mammoth Lakes has been working to improve their airport infrastructure for years in order to make it easier for those of us without private jets to come for the weekend. Alaska only runs this route from December through April 11th but even so it's a much needed alternative to the long road trips that had been the only option (7hrs from the Bay Area, 5hrs from LA, 7hrs from San Diego).
As you plan your next ski vacation, consider skipping Tahoe or the longer (and often more costly) flights to Denver or Salt Lake and hop on a flight to Mammoth. Better yet, take me with you to improve your chances of a powder day;)*

* The author of this post is not able to predict nor alter the weather but happily accepts free ski trips.

Last Turns of the Season in Bariloche, Argentina

On my 28th birthday I wrapped up what was a short but memorable 2009 ski season at Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. The two person celebration was the smallest birthday party I've ever had, but left me feeling very much alive and inspired. After a 3-day powder extravaganza in Las Leñas a few weeks prior I was just starting to break off the rust and regain my ski legs. Unfortunately the cost, complexity and time required to go skiing in Argentina and Chile limited me to two long weekends this season. I was extremely fortunate to have such good conditions for the two weekends I got to ski - Las Leñas just after a big storm followed by two of the last blue bird days at Catedral before the snow melted away.

That's one of the big drawbacks to living in Buenos Aires or any large South American city except for Santiago. Getting to the mountains is not as simple as jumping in the car and driving to a ski resort. From Buenos Aires, Bariloche is a 3 hour flight (or a 20+ hour bus ride), Las Leñas is 14hrs by bus provided the roads are clear or a 2 hour flight + 2-3 hour airport transfer. Santiago's residents, on the other hand, are lucky to have Portillo, La Parva and Valle Nevado all within 2 hours of the city. making it the only major city in South America where this is possible.
The photo above was taken on one of my half-dozen trips up Nubes, Catedral's highest lift (see full trail map). Due to high winds Nubes was closed for at least a week prior to our visit but fortunately the lifties got it running during the afternoon of our last day. Given that we had to go half-way up the mountain before we could put on our skis and start skiing, the quality of the snow at the top was impressive. The high winds had groomed and filled in the top sections, leaving a thin spring crust that is typical for end of season conditions (September). Throughout the afternoon we hit almost all of the chutes in the headwall pictured above. By 3:00 my legs were jello, but I couldn't allow myself to pack it in with barely skied lines to be had.
I took the above picture of Karen coming out from one of the chutes early in the afternoon. This one was particularly exhilarating due to the commitment required at the entrance followed by the sweet powdery goodness below. When I took this I remember my heart was racing so fast that I could barely hold the camera still. For the remainder of the day, we would pick our next line during the lift back to the top, traverse the ridge, stop to catch our breath while admiring the view below, and then do it all over again.
The top of Catedral offers one of the best views of the Lake District in Argentina. On one side you have the seemingly endless chain of the Northern Patagonia jutting out of Tahoe sized lakes, and on the other Cerro Tronador surrounded by hundreds of rocky, jagged and nearly inaccessible peaks. You can see the glacier covered summit of Tronador below on the far left. In the warmest part of the summer when almost all the snow is gone, Tronador remains white.
Aside from getting to ski in such an impressive place on my birthday, the part that made this weekend particularly special was the Llao Llao Resort. I can't say enough good things about this place. The Llao Llao is a true 5-star mountain resort/spa located on the crest of a peninsula that's also a national preserve. The rooms are expensive, especially if you don't get the local Argentine rate, but worth every penny. Even with all the things to do in the Lake District, we found it difficult to leave the hotel's plush rooms, lavish breakfast buffet, pools, spa, and activities. The Llao Llao peninsula is blessed with impressive views of the surrounding mountains, glaciers, lakes and forests. Below was the view from one of the private decks in the new lago moreno wing. Not too shabby when the view from your bathroom looks like it belongs in a "best of the Patagonia" calendar.

Sequels Go Better With Powder

Danger, freshies ahead! A nasty storm had shrouded Las Leñas in a soupy haze for 3 days prior to our arrival. When the storm cleared on Saturday and the main quad (Caris) opened, there was knee to thigh deep pow covering the upper sections of the mountain. I took the above photo in front of the off-piste gate about 10min after Caris started running to show how momentarily untouched it was. An hour later the entrance to this gate was so frenzied that it looked like the patrollers were handing out free beer. The pic below was taken on our third run from directly below the off-piste gate. I wish I took one after the first run, but I was way too distracted with getting back up for another untracked line.

(above) Between the rock formation on the left and the ridge above, there are numerous chutes that collect heaps of wind drift snow. (below) Karen floats through some shelves of snow cut by people traversing back to the main lodge.

Those who have been to Las Leñas know that when it's clear and the snow is soft, the next logical question is: did they open Marte? In our case, unfortunately they did not. Not even once. It was buried in snow too deep to dig out. Now that's a problem you can't be mad about. Plus, I imagine the strong winds would have made creaking our way up Marte something less than enjoyable. When I looked up the rock and shale lined chute that Marte ascends, it occurred to me how ridiculous of a location it is for a ski lift. On my first trip to Las Leñas last season, as my chair rose above the ridge and unloaded, the view made me forget about the unnerving way up. The ride down made me want to do it all over again.

But alas, Marte never opened. On our second day we lucked out with a handful of sporadic windows where Volcan was running. We found all sorts of barely skied goodies on the far side of the lift. Right place, right time, but with a couple hundred similarly motivated peers who didn't get the chance to ski Volcan all weekend. During the last run (pictured below) an ominous storm started to eclipse our sunny afternoon, which made for some excellent but surreal 4pm night skiing.

At least we thought we took our last run at 4pm. Neither Karen nor I could remember who, but someone told us that there was a 1hr time difference between Mendoza/Las Leñas and Buenos Aires. Seemed logical given Mendoza's proximity to Santiago, which is also an hour behind Buenos Aires. On our last day, just as we returned our gear, the clock on the wall read 5:15. We realized that we may have just spent the entire 4-day weekend on a one hour delay. Looking back, it made perfect sense. We were the last ones to dinner in a country where people commonly start eating at 11pm. The hotel breakfast was half gone when we got up "early" for first tracks. Those slacker lifties kept trying to shut the lifts down early. Oh well, if we had set our watches correctly, we would have never gotten that last sweet, solitary, powder-filled run.

The photo above shows the types of lines you can get from the front side of Marte, when it's running of course. Some are wide, steep and fun while others are narrow, exposed and generally unnerving. Below a view from Caris towards an intimidating, lift free range that hardly contains any flat sections. The guys who own the Las Leñas resort envision it becoming the ski center of South American. These guys will have more than a few competitors for that claim, but at least they are not going to be lacking for good terrain.

Te extrañare Las Leñas. Interactive trail map

Vallecitos - The Gateway to Cordon del Plata, Argentina

Before attempting to climb Aconcagua, many mountaineers head to a small, local ski resort ~1.5hrs outside Mendoza called Valles del Plata (a.k.a. Vallecitos). As the snow melts, the rusty, 1960s era lifts at Vallecitos grind to a halt and climbers begin to replace skiers. The 6 old lifts and beginner slopes make Vallecitos far from an international skiing destination, however summertime draws a completely different crowd. Climbers, hikers from all over the world come to tackle some of the more challenging routes in the High Andes. The trails starting from Vallecitos' main lodge lead to scenic high camps from which you can access dozens of peaks, some above 6,000 meters.

We found out through Lonely Planet that the Centro de Ski at Vallecitos sells maps and has guides on hand who can provide directions. Additionally, for ~$18 USD they sell a comprehensive guide book for the area titled Montañas de Luz by Alejandro Geras. This book details routes for each of the area's 12+ peaks, varying from short day hikes to week long expeditions to El Plata (6,050m) which is said to be more difficult and technical than Aconcagua. If your route planning can't wait until you arrive, I would recommend checking out this page on SummitPost.
The above image was taken from the Vallecitos ski area site and shows just how expansive and varied this resort really is! Seriously, I think I would be bored to tears if I came back in the winter to ski groomers there. However, the slopes on either side of the valley where the lifts have definite backcountry skiing/riding potential. Their lifts would not help out much in terms of access, but given my experience at other Argentine ski resorts, you would be the only one not following a cat track.
“Pol”, one of the mountain guides at the lodge gave us a bunch of options for what we could hike in 4-5hrs. We ended up choosing a 3 peak traverse from Andresito to Arenales to Lomas Blancas (3650m). Before setting out on the 7-10 day ascent of Aconcagua, Vallecitos seems like the perfect place to test our gear and comfort level with heavy physical exertion at such high altitude. When I asked Pol how long he had lived in the area he told me "8
years and I still have not come close to climbing everything there is to climb here."

BC day at Pocket Creek, Mt. Hood Oregon

I should be well versed in Backcountry options near my hometown, but unfortunately that's not the case. This past March some friends of mine introduced me to one of their regular BC spots that's accessible from the mouth of the popular Pocket Creek XC trail head. As a small kid I lived just 30min down the road in Rhododendron, but having recently learned to telemark in the Sierras, this was like rediscovering my own backyard.

I found the area above Pocket Creek to be really accessible and uncrowded, even on a Saturday. In terms of terrain, there are manageable patches of small trees, chutes and ravines to choose from.

For those who want to get a clear idea of the approach and potential lines in the Pocket Creek area I embedded markers with trip notes into the Google MyMap below.

View Pocket Creek in a larger map

Las Leñas - Argentina's off piste paradise

Located near the Chilean border, about 500km outside the city of Mendoza, Las Leñas is widely considered to be Argentina's premier ski resort. Las Leñas stands out from other South American resorts because of two key factors:
1) Elevation and therefore drier snow. Las Leñas has ~4,000ft of vertical starting at a base of 7,350ft.
2) World-class out of bounds (a.k.a. off-piste) terrain that is lift accessible.

Between Las Leñas, Valle Nevado and Cerro Catedral, I found Las Leñas to be the most complete resort. While Catedral has more in bounds terrain as well as more lifts, the snow conditions are more variable and the terrain in geared towards beginners and intermediates. Valle Nevado is slightly higher than Las Leñas and it's a great, modern "resort" in the typical sense, but the terrain is nowhere near as unique or challenging as Las Leñas. Additionally, as I mentioned in my previous posting about Valle Nevado, you are far more likely to die on the road up to Valle Nevado than if you were to huck a 20ft cliff blindfolded. Ok, moving on...

As a resort, Las Leñas is not especially old (they were celebrating their 25th anniversary this season), but don't expect anything modern by North American or European standards. For example, there are no high-speed lifts, only one quad, and the majority of the lifts consist of 2-person chairs or t-bars. Additionally, the infamous 2-person chair named "Marte", is the only lift that gets you towards the top of the skiable terrain. When it's windy, this lift is usually closed, thereby shutting off the majority of the best sections of the resort. That said, the terrain is like nothing North America can offer, the snow is consistently good, and there are enough out of bounds skiing options to keep even the most advanced riders busy for weeks.


We came to Las Leñas in mid September, which is near the very end of their season. The upside of late August or early September is that the rates were lower and it's more likely to be sunny and warm - like spring skiing in Tahoe. The downside is that much of the snow had melted and the window for good conditions was between 10am and 3pm - in other words, after the ice and before the slush. We got lucky with 3 days of clear, sunny weather and no wind. One of my friends who has been to Las Leñas a handful of times said that the wind can be so strong that it can blow away a fresh dump of snow in just a day. It snowed ~6in two days before we arrived, which made for a great first day, but by the end of our second day, the warm afternoon temperatures turned much of the snow into peanut butter. They do a good job at grooming, so even though most of the out of bounds areas were sloppy and heavy, you could finish up your runs with some nice groomers. Vulcano, which is right below some of the gnarliest chutes and bowls has some particularly nice corduroy into late in the afternoon.


For me, the highlights of my trip to Las Leñas were Paraiso and the ultra sketchy, but thrilling chutes that drop you from Marte Iris down to Vulcano (photo of enterance above). Paraiso is a winding, fairly wide-open field that descends all the way down to the road that leads to Las Leñas. On a powder day, it would be a hundred turns of sweet, perma-grin glory to the road, but you have the option to traverse back to Vulcano or Urano and avoid the hichhike back to the base.

The photo below was the entrance for the chute run I mentioned above. First you shimmy through a throat that's about as wide as your skis, then down a very steep, rock lined chute, across a saddle to a 3rd adrenaline inducing chute and finally to two epic side-by-side bowls. This run was scary, exhilarating and exhausting - the perfect last run to finish off of my extended ski season.


Logistics: At Las Leñas, the season runs from late June to late September, with July/August being the peak. To get to Las Leñas, you can either fly to the small town of Malargüe and take a 90min transfer, fly into Mendoza and take a 5-7hr bus ride, or take a 14-16hr overnight bus ride from Buenos Aires. We took the overnight bus from Buenos Aires, which was surprisingly comfortable, but not the best option if you only have a 7-10 days.

Like Bariloche, the accommodations in Las Lenas were far better than the lifts. Las Lenas has a variety of great hotels and apartments, most of which are ski in, ski out.

For those of you who decide to visit, here is some helpful vocab:
pista = ski run, slope
esquiar = to ski
esquí(s) = ski(s)
tabla = snowboard
nieve = snow
hielo = ice
poma = t-bar
doblar = to turn
fuera de pista = out of bounds
silla (short for telesilla) = chairlift
bache = mogul
botas = boots
casco = helmet
bastones = poles

Valle Nevado, Chile

After reluctantly checking out of our awesome surf side hotel in Vina del Mar, we headed back across Santiago to a small mountain town called Farellones located at the base of a group of 4 local ski resorts.

Farellones - tiny and geared towards beginners.
La Parva - caters to a high-end crowd of rich Chileans who want something closer to Santiago.
El Colorado - just above Farellones and both La Parva and El Colorado connect to Valle Nevado via joint lift tickets.
Valle Nevado - the largest and most modern of the 4 ski areas. Good access to backcountry.

Looking at the trail maps and photos, I don’t see how La Parva, Farellones or El Colorado can even compare to Valle Nevado. The only downside of Valle Nevado is that the road to the main lodge is a treacherous death-trap. It’s a narrow, ribbon of a road, littered with potholes and rocks that slowly and steeply winds it’s way up to the main lodge. We were driving a Pugeot 203 – a small 4 door, 4-cylinder compact car that required chains to get through the last 4-5mi.

Next to my van driving debacle in Mallorca, this was the scariest driving experience of my life. I can’t imagine doing this drive once a year, let alone on a regular basis. Vans routinely come speeding up and down this road with little to no regard for the other cars on the road. They literally played chicken with me, except that I’m not even sure you could call it chicken when you have no intention of moving over to avoid the other. It was definitely a “my (car) is bigger than yours” moment. This caught me off guard because in general, Chileans drive really conservatively and courteously compared to their Argentine neighbors. People at the ski resort were even fairly mellow and didn’t try any of the line cutting or ski tip crossing bull shit like we encountered at Cerro Catedral near Bariloche.

All in all, the resort, the lifts, and the snow were excellent. There was a good variety of terrain, logical run placement, grooming, cat tracks and intermittent lifts to get you back where you needed to be. Once you are there, Valle Nevado is world class – I just can’t imagine having to go through what we went through just for a day on the slopes. Another aspect to consider is that there are very few lodging options in Farellones and even fewer in Valle Nevado. The few lodging options that exist are mediocre at best and exorbitantly expensive – to the point where it’s downright insulting. For example, Hotel Farellones charges $250 USD/night (in low season) for a cramped, motel-esque room with two lumpy, single beds and a private bathroom. For all of Cerro Catedral’s faults, they had everything from luxurious slope side lodges to dozens of hotel and hotels options 20 min away in Bariloche.

If I go back it will be for at least a week and I would most certainly look to share a house/cabin rental with a group of friends. That way you could avoid all the lodging pitfalls as well as the need for a rental car and still explore all the lift accessible terrain surrounding the areas mapped out below. With the right gear, skins and maybe a guide, you could get to some epic spots.

Skiing Mt. Lassen's NE Face

Lassen Peak is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade range, secont to Mt. St Helens in recent volcanic activity. At just under 10,500ft, Lassen is by no means a huge peak, but it consistently gets some of the deepest snowpack in the West (CA for certain) due to it's location. This makes it an ideal destination for spring backcountry skiing.
We planned to drive up to the main trailhead (8,500ft) and pitch a tent about 0.5mi from the parking lot, which is what the rangers request of hikers and climbers. It was raining as we entered the park and by the time we got to the park entrance, there was 2-4in of snow on the road leading to Lassen. Soon after the entrance at Sulphur Works Trailhead, we learned that they had closed the road and that was as far as we would be able to drive. It was a holiday weekend, so we had three days to get to the base, set up camp, ascend, descend and get back to the car. If we only had two days, this curveball could have forced us to turn back. Since it was raining down below and we were already sort of where we planned to be, we decided to pack up all our gear, slap on our skins and head up the hill in the direction of the trailhead.

The map, and a salty old dude on tele skis led us to believe that if we headed north of the road, we could save time and get to the trailhead faster than following the road for a windy, switchback-laden 5-6mi. Well, let's just say we were wrong. I don't doubt that "dude" knew of shortcut, but it was not even remotely straight forward, even with a topo map, compass and altimeter. It also didn't help that it was snowing pretty hard and there was no more than 300ft of visibility. We ended up spending almost 3hrs climbing something we think was called Diamond Peak, but whatever it was, it was exposed, surrounded by scree and it was not Lassen. From there we headed down and eventually found the road, where we decided to stop gambling and skin up the remaining 4-5mi to the parking lot. Let's do the math on that...3hrs of climbing saved us...about 1mi on a gradual road. One hell of a shortcut indeed.

Needless to say, that 4-5mi of skinning with a large pack was easier than the previous hours of climbing through deep, untracked snow, but it was extremely difficult. As one would expect, the road gets steeper and curvier as it goes, which combined with the fact that we were all used to touring with day packs, made this one of the most exhausting days I can remember. By the time we got Emerald lake, we barely had enough energy to set up camp and make some food. By morning, I had to be persuaded to get out of my tent and get my gear ready for the Lassen climb.


We were one of a handful of groups (if not the only one) that crossed the road closure, so our silver lining to the previous day's tough approach was that we would have Lassen to ourselves. As we were approaching the parking lot, as if by some cruel twist of fate, suddenly a stream of SUVs appeared in the distance, heading up the road to Lassen. Crushing. We never figured they would open the road before the storm ended. By the time we got to the trailhead, there were a couple dozen tele and randonnee (at, alpine touring) folks that had already headed up. In retrospect it was a mixed blessing, since the group ahead of us had already tracked the trail ahead, and we ended up passing some of them on our way up to the summit.


We chose to ski down the Northeast face and then cut West (skiers right) back to the parking lot. At the summit, memories of the grueling, uncomfortable approach and lack of sleep drifted away with the passing storm. We were looking down at 2,000ft of vertical along a wide field of fresh, semi-corn spring snow. Every one of us were grinning ear to ear with the kind of satisfaction that only hard earned turns can bring. I highly recommend it and will certainly be back. Check out my Picasa album if you want to see the trip album in its entirety.

Bear Valley Backcountry

After a day at the 2008 Bear Valley Telemark Festival, a group of us decided to charge up a couple peaks surrounding the Bear Valley Mountain Resort. The options for backcountry skiing around Bear Valley are abundant, with many areas accessible just off the resort access road. There is no lack of fun terrain to explore - most of which is intermediate to advanced, but nothing too difficult. One of the ridges we traversed along had a really cool wave-like cornice that had lots of potential (see photo above). Overall, Bear Valley was an excellent place for exploring acres of intermediate level backcountry terrain. Certainly worth a return visit...or five.

Catedral Alta, Patagonia

My fascination with the Patagonias began sometime in Middle School, flipping through National Geographic, climbing and skiing magazines and gear catalogs. I've always wanted to take a summer vacation down to Argentina and ski in the Patagonias and this summer I got my chance. After a weekend of partying and exploring Buenos Aires, we flew south to Bariloche and Argentina's famed Lake District.

The 4 hour flight from Buenos Aires to Bariloche was super simple. They have a separate airport for domestic/regional air travel which is far more central and exponentially less complicated than EZE - the international airport which I affectionately call "the most inefficient, cluster-f*#! of an airport I prey I will ever be subjected to." That's an entirely different entry I won't pollute the blogosphere with. We stayed at a nice little 3-star hotel called Aconcagua near Bariloche's Civic Center. It was a great location and for ~$45USD/night it was an excellent value. My only complaint was that the bathrooms were small and poorly designed, but the breakfast made up for it. Not that they served anything extraordinary, but it was welcome contrast to the bad coffee/tea and croissants that most continental breakfasts in ARG seem to consist of. Enough about the hotel - frankly it should the most trivial consideration when planning a trip to Bariloche. If you spend most of your time in the hotel while visiting the Lake District, you are likely the type that dreams about weekend all-you-can-eat Disney Cruises off the coast of Florida.

Bariloche is fun and has about as many bars and restaurants as you would expect in a sizable ski town. A little pricey, especially compared to the rest of ARG, but it's no Aspen. Those who say Bariloche has lost it's small-town charm are probably right. It reminds me of what I hope Hood River never becomes. If you go to Bariloche, I highly recommend renting a car and driving around for a day, or two. There is tons to see and staying in Bariloche the entire time is a huge missed opportunity. We rented a tin can Fiat Uno for 3 days for about $75USD. It even made it up to the ski hill to my surprise. They plow the main roads really well because very few people have AWD/4WD autos.

We got to ski for 2 of the 5 days we were in the area - both at Catedral. Catedral is a great resort - the best in ARG next to Las Lenas, which is closer to Mendoza on the Chilean border. When I say Catedral is a great resort, I mean that it has luxurious hotels, restaurants and most impressively, beautiful wood lodges, perched on top of panoramic view points throughout the mountain. What I don't mean to insinuate is that Catedral is a well-run, finely groomed resort with modern, high-speed lifts, because it's not. The only grooming is done on the cat tracks, the runs are not very challenging, the lifts are actually hand-me-downs from Swiss resorts (I wish I was kidding) and the lift lines resemble a bread line in a refugee camp. Not unlike the airport...hmmm. Catedral has lots of potential though. It's hard to complain when you spend a day skiing in the Patagonias, surrounded by undoubtedly the most impressive views I have have ever seen from a ski hill. Oh, and lift tickets are about $25USD.

There was a really heavy snow storm on our first day which closed down @80% of the mountain, making the lines even worse. The day started off slow, but we eventually found an epic stretch of pow up the mountain, which could be accessed by the highest lift that was still running. Once I took my first turn in that soft, knee-to-thigh deep powder, I knew all the hassle of the lines and rentals was worth it. We ended up doing laps on that until we almost passed out from exhaustion. It was up there with the deepest days I have ever had. What amazed me about that day was that the vast majority of people skiing/riding in the same area as us were avoiding the powder like it was quicksand. There were certainly some solid skiers ripping alongside us, but most people just eased their way down the groomed run, not 20ft from a field of 3-4ft deep pow. If that was at Kirkwood or Squaw, it would have been skied out in a matter of minutes, but thanks to those aprehensive Argentines (some Brazilians too), we got to hit it lap after lap:)

My camera got lost/stolen before I had a chance to upload the photos I took that epic day, but fortunately Karen brought her camera out the following day to capture the views. The photo below (& at the top of this post) is from our second day at Catedral, after the storm passed. Sadly, it rained at the tail end of the 5-day storm, so it was kind of slushy. Very small price to pay.