I'm not sure if it's because of the routine I've developed here, most recently to catch the shuttle to Las Leñas in the mornings back in Argentina, but I'm finding it very difficult to sleep much past 7:30am, regardless of when I go to sleep. I dozed a little bit more, but with more than an hour to kill before breakfast, I decided to catch up on the blog in the interim. (Ed. note: this really would be so much easier and timely if I'd had my laptop.)
I met up with Chris and Summer at 9:30 for a breakfast that we nursed until about 10:30. Chris once again filled up the water bottle with jugo de frambueses. We weren't sure if we'd encounter the wrath of the Mistress de Sur (the name of our Hotel's restaurant) but we escaped her ire this morning.
We returned to our rooms to change. When Chris called at 11 saying they'd be ready for 11:45, I was basically dressed and chose to make one quick run before meeting them. It was very warm today, probably in the 3 to 4 degrees above zero range. Today was going to be slushy. At the top of Mirador, the wind wasn't nearly as strong or as cold as the prior day but had clearly been scrubbing the mountain of any loose snow during the night. The Retorno Medio and Retorno Bajo runs were both hard packed, bordering on icy. I stored my board at the base of the hotel complex and went to meet Chris and Summer back at the Tres Puntas Hotel.
We made a few runs, noticing the the 4 to 5 degree change in temperature as you went from Base Prado at 2680m to the tops of Cima Mirador at 3300m and Cima Andes at 3480m. We ventured into my powder field one last time and all agreed that it's glory days were over.
Before breaking for lunch we decided to try and enter one of the last untouched areas on the mountain, a gentle sloping hill to the right of the terrain park. While it wasn't powder, with the warm temperature and intense sun, uncooked risotto may be the best description of the snow. If the temperature dropped tomorrow, this would turn into a skating rink. The gently slope led into a natural serpentine halfpipe that eventually led out on to the Prado cat track. We all had a good ride through that.
What a difference a day makes. Being a weekday, the hill was nearly empty. The lift lines were easily 1/3 their size of the prior two days and were slightly better behaved. Even the Bajo Zero restaurant was civilized. Ordering food still involved a rather chaotic ordeal amongst the four tills. While Chris waited for our food, I picked up a round of the oh so delicious and addicting Pisco sours. The mild temperature and clear blue skies prompted another round of Pisco sours as we continued to lounge on the snow patio of Bajo Zero.
It was nearly four when we decided to leave. We all headed back up to Mirador where Chris and I parted ways with Summer and made one more run over to Andes Express and then back to Mirador for the Retorno run back to the hotel.
Following dinner, we proceeded to complete an early checkout before heading up to the pub for 80s night. Summer ordered rounds of Caipiriñas. After the third round, our server told us about a bimonthly staff party taking place at the onsite gymnasium/climbing wall and that we were welcome to drop in. While the tunes in the pub were a real trip down memory lane nothing much was happening at the pub. We agreed to meet in the lobby at 1am, after completing our packing, and head over to the staff party.
The staff party was a riot. $2 cans of Escudo beer (think Pilsner) and a Latin Hip-hop DJ. Both the energy and the crowd were great. After nearly an hour there, we headed back to the hotel. An 8:30 breakfast would come much too early.
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