With my massive signing bonus from agr, I had the funds to make a trip over to Valle Nevado, Chile and do some snow surfing. Conditions were excellent; sunny with no clouds, 2 meters of snow (that´s over 6´ for those of you aquainted with the archaic US system), and more than 800 hectares of Chilean shRADness. All on opening day. Sick mode.
Awesome snowboard trick at Valle Nevado from El Gato on Vimeo.
.note: After this report was filmed, I decided it was time to get radical and bust out my stock switch backside 1260.
Spanish Version of Opening Day at Valle from El Gato on Vimeo.
Chile in itself is a different breed. Aside from the snowboarding, the road from Santiago to Valle Nevado has a gnarly 59 switch backs. I´m talking serious switch backs, like the type where a bus has an ice cubes chance in hell of making it to said destination. Endless cliffs on one side and crumbling dirt walls on the other with a road wide enough for Mr. Bean´s whip. Throw in a few crazy Chilean drivers and it makes for an eventful day of shred.
Although Valle Nevado is a measly 36 kilometers from Santiago, a typical day can run up to 4 hours of travel time, one way. While agr did manage to throw me a large signing bonus, I had trouble negociating a helicopter for my trip so my local connections have shown me the correct Chilean way:
- 1. Wake up
- 2. Put on smelly snowboard boots and other rancid snowboard gear and walk to the bus with shred attire plus board
- 3. Take the bus from downtown Santiago and have everyone give you funny looks
- 4. Hitch hike from the gas station to the cross in Farellones
- 5. Hitck hike from the cross to Valle Nevado
- 6. Kiss the ground and thank a nondemoninational diety that you made it to Valle Nevado without going over the edge
- Shred
After all was said and done, Valle delivered and I accepted.
In the words of Danny Sul, “dollar bills is all we know”.
Stay tuned……
