August 04, 2008
Las Leñas
written by Spencer Alexander on August 04, 2008 at 10:33PM in Traveling
Our day at Las Leñas did not turn out at all as I had expected it would, but none the less, I had a great time. Lets split the day up into two pieces, and I’ll let you pick which to read first. If you’re the type of person who likes bad news first, just keep on reading. But if you’re the type of person who prefers good news first, or just no bad news at all, please skip on down to the good news.
Before you read any of the following, I would just like to say that I had a great time on this trip, and my spirits stayed very high the entire time. If I had the opportunity to do it all over again…. (I’ll answer this later).
The Bad News
Okay, so lets start from the top. About 2 months ago, after much internal debate and many changes of heart, I decided not to bring all of my snowboarding gear down to South America. This included everything: board, boots, jackets, gloves, pants, socks. The whole shebang.
I didn’t think that this was all that big of a deal; I knew that I might have had to spring a little bit of extra cash to rent a nice snowboard, but I could find something that would work. WRONG! In all of these calculations, I had forgotten to take into account that there are only a hand full of Argentines that cross the 6’3" (190cm) height, and apparently none of them rent snowboards. Oh well… so my board wasn’t exactly perfect. I’ll live.
The entire trip, we had been planning to use an incredible discount that the mountain offers to it’s near by ski-bum towns: If you stay in Malargue1, you get a 50% discount on the lift tickets, and a 30% discount on rentals. Not too bad, eh? Unfortunately, we missed it my 2 days (we arrived on the 28th, but due to Buenos Aires holidays, the discount was invalid between the 27th of July and 10th of Aug.). So everything was a ton more bit more expensive than we expected, but what choice did we really have? We had to get in at least one day on the slopes2, but we decided to change our plans to include one day of snowboarding instead of three or four.
So we got all set up. We found a hostel, we rented our snowboards, we paid for transportation to the mountain, etc. We were committed.
We arrive at the mountain nice and early3, and what do we find? White out conditions. And due to the white out conditions, 3/4 of the mountain (the good part of the mountain, I might add), was closed, and the other 1/4 could close anytime without warning and without refund. Oh, and no discount4, nor free hot chocolate5. Oh well, we were committed.
Now might be a good time to recall the fact that I didn’t bring any of my snowboarding clothing down to Argentina. So I’m stuck in a whiteout, wearing bluejeans, sunglasses, a light jacket, a very warm hat6, and thin, thin gloves. And they didn’t rent lenses on the mountain; they only allowed you to purchase a crappy set for $60.
And just to throw one more piece of straw on the horses back, my lift pass fell off of my jacket after an hour and a half of snowboarding. Despite the fact that I had my receipt right in my hand, they would not let me back on the mountain, nor would they refund my money or give me a new pass. I’ve been using lift tickets for quite a while now, and I’m quite confident in my ability to attach them to my jacket. Oh well.
Luckly, this is where the good news starts. It’s a great fact of life that when things just seem like they couldn’t possibly get any worse, something grand happens.
The Good News
Nicole and I, after having a very challenging morning at Las Leñas, met a gentleman from England7 who turned out to be our life saver. He let Nicole borrow his jacket (her biggest need) and let me borrow his goggles, helmet, and warm gloves (my biggest needs).
After I came back to the food lodge after a few great runs8 with no lift pass, he introduced me to 5 of his friends from all over the world. They were all on the way to a sauna they knew about on the mountain, and they offered to let me join. I of course said ‘YES’, as I couldn’t snowboard, and I didn’t want to sit around all day in the food lodge. All of them were incredibly nice to the stranger (me), and treated me like one of the bunch.
We chilled in the sauna for a while, played some poker, had a traditional Malargue meal at the hostel, drank some wine, and enjoyed life. Nicole and I had decided that one day on the mountain was enough, and booked the bus back to Mendoza at 2am, but at least we had some friends from our side of the world to talk to before heading out.
Now, if you’re one of the optimistic people, go back and read the bad news …or don’t!
Summary.
To answer the question I started with…
If I had the opportunity to do this all over again, I wouldn’t. But none the less, I had a great time.
Footnotes
0 Impromptu question. How many of you actually read these footnotes while reading the article? How many actually read the footnotes at all? I’m trying to decide if I should keep them or not, and your feedback (as a comment or email) would truly help!
1 We were staying in Malargue!
2 We would’ve just felt silly having spent all of the money to get there, and not even done one day of snowboarding.
3 Early, that is, by Argentine standards.
4 My father, for all those who know him, has trained me to always ask for one. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Sorry Dad, no go this time.
5 Ask me about the time I got stuck on a chair lift for 30 minutes with the Family at Wolf Creek, and the mountain gave us free hot chocolate in exchange. Totally worth it.
6 Always.
7 Cambridge, actually. The world really is a small place, Campo.
8 There was a TON of powder… inches and inches centimeters and centimeters.
Tags: Las Leñas, Snow and England
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Wow! I don’t read your blog for a couple of days and look what happens!!!! You’ve already made the decision without my imput!!! Sorry, I was getting Matt back in school.
Well, it appears that Campo wins again :). At least all the Allegars seem to be on her side.
For all those interested in learning about the new implementation of footnotes on the website, check out the article describing sAlexander’s new footnotes!.
For all those uninterested… try a different, more entertaining article on my website.
I agree Campo!! I like your suggestions and am putting my vote in for the in text look!!
Occasionally I read the footnotes without reading the text. It’s like a puzzle trying to figure out how they all fit together. But seriously, I do enjoy them, and agree with previous comments.
Here’s a thought… Can you make the footnotes pop up in little windows in front of the text when you scroll over or click on the number? That way you could read the anecdote, it wouldn’t be in your way, and you wouldn’t have to scroll down so far.
I have to agree with Campo. It is a bit difficult to keep up with the footnotes while reading the blog…scrolling down, then back up, and then real quick back down. It doesn’t have as nice of a flow as it could have.
I read the footnotes, but not until after I’m finished with the whole post. I’d prefer if they were parenthetical in text notes rather than footnotes, but that’s just my 2 cents.
Good thing I read all the way down to #7 on this post, though. :)