hey there cow boys and cow girls,

down here in the southern hemisphere and it is unquestionably winter. damn frio. ratner and i have been having a phenomenal time. i`m broke and he`s in escrow on a house in LA la land and has to be back, so this trip will be over shortly, but we`ve been living it up for the time being. after a couple benderish days and nights in BA we flew to mendoza for vino, lindas, and baby beef. we had tentatively planned to go skiing in las lenas which is five hours from mendoza by bus, but the travel agent in BA told us that the resort had not gotten one inch of snow even though they are half way through the regular season. discouraged, we decided to go to mendoza for a couple days anyway. upon our arrival in mendoza we heard that it was dumping snow in las lenas. the storm was supposedly going to last three days but one guy we spoke to claimed that they already had gotten three feet. now we were at a serious fork in the road.

we had already checked into the hostel, paid, and we had just gotten off the plane from BA. hopping on a bus for five hours didn`t sound appealing. what was more, we didn`t even know for sure if the lifts were running or if the road into las lenas was open. gambling on the bus was risky to say the least. but ratner and i chluv the powder snow and risk takers always win. the only bus left at six the next morning. i had the brilliant idea of drinking until then. so we stayed packed, hit the bars hard and at five thirty, said goodbye to our girlfriends, swooped the bags at the hostel and got on the 6 am bus to las lenas. we awoke disoriented and dehydrated, feeling like total scumbags. but as we looked out the windows of the bus the hangovers seemed to disappear. blue bird powder day. not a cloud in the sky, and all kinds of snow on the ground.

of course the only hotel that had space was the five star Hotel Piscis. i almost threw up in the lobby when they told us the rate. not so much cheap, but we had come all this way and there were a whole bunch of little Argentineans up there taking our powder; this was no time to shop around for better options. so we slapped down the card and went huge. we dropped the bags, rented gear and forced down some horrible fast food, and by 1.30, we were screaming through knee deep powder.

las lenas is absolutely beautiful. it`s a tiny town surrounded by enormous mountains and glaciers. there are thirteen lifts and a ton of steep, rocky terrain. the really steep stuff is all roped off and if you want to hike it and ski it, you have to sign your life away, literally. the patrolman whipped two waivers out of his coat pocket and you have to put all your info and sign it, kind of intimidating. then he gives you a wrist band (feels like a toe tag) and you can ski wherever the hell you want, all you can handle buddy. the lift that goes to the top was on wind hold the day we got there, but our mouths watered looking up at the pristine chutes and bowls that it would give us access to if they opened it the next day.

we skied hard until 4.30 and retired to our pimpish accommodations. amazing powder day. we suited up in the robes and slippers and hit the spa which had this dope indoor/outdoor pool that looked out with a perfect view of the mountains. anticipating another phenomenal day, we decided to go to sleep early and get some rest so we could be first on the lift the next morning.

and on the the lift we were, 9.00 sharp. we went straight to the back side where the summit lift is. ten minutes after we arrived at the lift, they started letting people on. we were among the first guys up. this lift jets thousands of vertical feet up into the clouds. just at the top, we came out, into blue sky and sunshine. we followed these guys under a couple ropes and came out above three untouched chutes, that 1500 feet below, opened up to another 1000 vertical feet of untouched bowls. this was too good to be true. i felt like we were heli skiing. ratner and i hooted and hollered our way down the chutes, leaving perfect powder eights as we flew down and shot out into the bowls. this one run would take us 35 minutes from top to bottom, and that is FLYING. the best part about the day was that 99% of the people don`t ski the steep terrain. we skied fresh powder all day and by the end i thought my legs were going to fall off. in twenty years of skiing, two of the runs were top ten of my life.