More photos from Cerro Catedral and surrounding area

I'm back home in snowless England now, for a few weeks. The upside is I have easy access to the internet again so have no excuse any more for the lengthy gaps between posts. Here are a few more photos from Argentina to begin with.

A stunning view and an ageing chairlift - two features that sum up this ski area

One of the large fleet of piste bashers hard at work

The River Limay, taken whilst rock climbing in the Valle Encantado, about an hour's drive from the ski area.

You can see from the photos that the landscape is pretty spectacular - to be honest the images don't really do it justice. It is well worth visiting the are just for this. Skiing wise, there are some good runds, and when the conditions allow some great off-piste possibilities. However the ageing lift system means it takes a long time to get up the mountain, and lack of snow making (and a reluctance to use the snow cannons they do have) means the lower runs returning to the base are often patchy.

Why leaning too far forward is bad as well

Its been a while since I did a ski lesson type post, which was the initial idea of the blog, so here goes with a post on being balanced over the middle of the ski. I have read posts on other sites about finding the sweet spot in the center of the ski. This is a fairly important idea when moving into advanced skiing, so I thought I would put my own spin on the concept.

A common misconception is that it is necessary to lean forwards when skiing. This is probably because many an instructor can be heard telling their clients to get their weight forward, or not to lean back. I have been guilty of this myself on numerous occasions, and as corrective feedback it is perfectly valid to tell somebody who is over the tails of their skis to bring their weight forward. The danger is that they will overcorrect and end up over the fronts of the skis unless it is made clear that they only need to move forward enough to find a balanced position.

In general beginner and intermediate skiers are much more likely to lean backwards than forwards, especially when nervous or tired. It is natural to try and lean uphill, keeping the body as upright as possible, but this translates into leaning back. It is also true that in a snowplough or basic parallel turn leaning back will make it much harder to turn the skis, whereas leaning too far forwards will not cause too many problems. Many skiers will therefore be told to move their weight forwards, while far fewer will be told to move their weight backwards.

The upshot of this is that good intermediate skiers can easliy find themselves leaning too far forward, without ever realising that this is a bad habit that will inhibit their progress towards advanced techniques.

The trouble is that in higher level skiing leaning too far forward is at least as big a problem as leaning too far back. The key is too stay more or less centered over the ski. I say more or less because the point of balance can move forward and back during a turn, but that is a subject for another post.

If the weight is too far back the skis will be sluggish and difficult to turn. When carving the skis will tend to go straight. If the weight is too far forward the skis will tend to pivot around their tips, meaning skidded turns will be less controlled and when trying to carve the tails will break away and skid sideways. In between these two, in the centre of the ski, is the balance point where the ski performs as it was designed to.

Cerro Catedral Views

I've been skiing at Cerro Catedral for a about a week now, and I have heard many times that the best thing about the mountain is the views. I have to agree with this. The skiing is okay but at currently needs much more snow. It looks like there should be some good posibilities off piste when we get a decent snowfall, but for now the views are indeed pretty spectacular.

Buenos Aires Photos

Well, I've been in Argentina for 3 weeks now, and I've discovered that at this time of year its rainier than the North of England. The mountain finally opened this week, a lack of snow having delayed it until now, and I had my first day's skiing yesterday. The visibility was pretty poor, so no photos yet. In the meantime here are some sightseeing photos of Buenos Aires from the journey over.

Off to Argentina

Well the ski season is over almost everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. I stretched it out as long as I could with a few weeks in Chamonix after the season ended in the Pyrenees. I'm finally back in England though, with a pile of gear to sort out and skis to service. For those of you in the Southern hemisphere the new winter is just around the corner.

I plan to head south in a few weeks to Bariloche in Argentina. This will be a new experience for me as I have never skied anywhere in South America before. I was tempted to try Australia, but that will have to wait until another year. There are just so many places to ski in the world. So this time next month I'll be posting some photos and writing a few posts about skiing in the Andes.

Silly Places to Sit (or stand)

I don't know if it is just my observations but there seems to be a distinct lack of common sense in the mountains this year. One particular symptom is in the places people choose to stop and wait or even sit down for a picnic. This seems to apply to all situations from the beginner slope right the way into the off piste and back country. So here is my top 5 list of places not to sit down. None of these are made up - I have see all of these done recently.

1. In the middle of a race course. Ok, if it was a major race the course would be well fenced off, but when the local ski club set a training course they will still be moving down it pretty fast, so sitting on the racing line is a really bad idea.

2. On the landing slope of a jump. The landing of most jumps cannot be seen from above, so sitting here is likely to lead to you being landed on by a skier or snowboarder. Yet people keep on doing it. This one has amazed me for as long as there have been freestyle parks.

3. On a crevasse. A crevasse covered by a weak snowbridge will look like a hollow in the snow. This might seem like an inviting place for a picnic, until the snowbridge collapses and dumps the picnicers into the bottom of the crevasse.

4. Below seracs and icefalls. These towers of ice at the feet of glaciers break away suddenly and without warning. Not good for the people sat below.

5. Directly below a group of beginners learning to ski or snowboard. Often beginners will lose control and people sitting below are prime targets - particularly as beginners tend to be drawn to any object they are trying to avoid.

The most important advice in the mountains is to be aware - aware of the surroundings and aware of the potential dangers. Treated with respect, ski slopes need not be particularly dangerous places. However it is important to remember that despite the ski holiday packaging, there is still a mountain environment to consider.

Saving Money During Your Skiing Holiday

When booking a ski holiday obviously most people are looking for the best deal they can find at the moment. However if you are booking a package it can be tricky to decipher what the tour operators are offering and what extras you need to buy. The tour operators can give out quite misleading information at times, and it is easy to get talked into buying unnecessary extras, either when booking, on the transfer bus, or on arrival in resort. The resort reps are your point of contact with the company and are often very helpful, but remember that part of their job description is to sell as many extras as they can.

Some extras are obviously important - ski pass, tuition and equipment hire are all essential for a beginner and many more advanced skiers will also need the full ski package. However, even here the options can be misleading - in this resort (Arinsal) several tour operators charge intermediate skiers a higher price than beginners for the ski pack. This is for the same ski pass, the same ski hire (upgrading the ski hire costs more again) but for intermediate rather than beginner lessons. Oddly though, the ski school charges exactly the same for lessons regardless of the level. So if a tour company asks for more money for the same product based on your skiing ability it is worth asking exactly why. In some resorts there might be a different ski pass for more advanced skiers, covering a larger are, but here it just seems to be a case of the companies charging more because they can.

Other extras you might find include trips to other resorts and all manner of excursions, plus various evening entertainments. Again it is worth looking at exactly what you get, especially if you are on a budget. If there is a trip to another resort could you get there for a fraction of the price on local public transport? And if you are a beginner is it suitable for your level of skiing? Are the night time activities really worth the money? The 10 (or more) Euro pub crawl is a favourite of the reps, but you could probably have a much better time finding the pubs yourself, and get the same drinks cheaper.

Of course some of the activities offered will be a lot of fun, but don't feel you have to sign up to everything that is offered to you as soon as you get there. Ask some of the locals for the real story about what is worth going to - your ski instructor or the bar staff are useful sources of information and are not generally trying to sell you anything other that a ski lesson or a pint of beer. If you do want to sign up for anything later, the reps will be only too happy to take your money then.