Andrew and companions are down backcountry skiing in the land of wind and snow, the Patagonia Ice Cap. Got a sat phone call from him yesterday, which I thought would be fun to share as the first backcountry skiing blog post of this season:
“Hi Dawsons, it’s Andrew, we’re calling from halfway up a couloir in the middle of the Southern Patagonia ice cap. We’ve had an amazing trip so far — the worst weather I’ve experienced in my life, including anchoring our tent with pitons and climbing rope, and getting five feet of snow in the last 30 hours, to the point where our tent is completely augured in. We are camped in a place called Cirque of the Alters — Cerro Torre, Cerro Stanheart, all of those big boys are around us — a beautiful location (if you can see anything). And the skiing is looking pretty good, we’ve got a nice descent below us — went about half way up the couloir because of all the new snow. Hope you guys are doing well.”
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
