Old friends, new friends and the Freeskiing World Tour

So the La Parva stop of the Freeskiing World Tour ended going up in flames, but we had some really good days.

Day one of registration was beautiful and sunny. We checked out the venue, skied some nice fresh little lines, and caught an amazing sunset. The MSI guys where busy scrambling to find a spot for their live feed satellite and uploading edits. It was pretty amazing to see their operations given the fact they were on a skeleton crew over 10,000 miles from home base.

The first day of the comp went off well. Most of the athletes got a sunny yet windy run. And everyone was smart and safe. The Ladies killed it and Chopo Diaz showed everyone how its done in his homeland. He lead the day well deserved. I had the pleasure of sitting with the extended Diaz family and friends as we waited for the Apres party to start. Chopo was still in the zone with thoughts about day two that we would not get to see.

I wish I could have gotten shots of the infamous Cliff Benett. That kid did not stop dancing nor found it necessary to take off his helmet. Way to play it safe Cliff. Dancing in ski boots with a Smirnoff- Ginger in hand is almost as extreme as the line you just double pole planted down~

So our high hopes of weather holding up went up in flames, literally. The owner of this burning house(photo coming) luckily has two restaurants at La Parva to fall back on as well.

Day one's results defaulted to finals and we just partied. Everyone was super happy for Chopo and his win was for sure well deserved. See his helmet cam view of the winning run and the highlight reel at skitownunderground.net/media.

So with the comp over and everyone stuck in the mountains due to crazy life-claiming mudslides down below, we took advantage of the opportunity to ski and had some super good times. Kieth Carlson, long time editor of POWDER mag, had his camera gear and we went on a two day mission of skiing through the ski properties of La Parva, the venue, and other cool zones in the western slope of the Andes. Our buddy AK Abe asked Rodrigo the Marketing Director if we could jump off of roofs. I told him, “Abe! Always better to ask forgiveness than permission.” Next time I guess.

With the road finally open Mike Reff and I took our opportunity to get down to the city for his last few days in Chile. We used my newly developed Spanish and city knowledge to make the best out a couple days in a 6 million person city hitting up markets, sushi, a Fat Cow killer steak house, and a party night. I sent Mr. Reff off feeling confident he saw a good chunk of what Santiago has to offer.

After that it was back to the mountains for me to re-set and get ready for my travels to the south. I skied a sweet sunny day at El Colorado and moved all my stuff to the city to stage for the last part of my Sudamerican Adventures. The plan was Chillan, Pucon, Bariloche bringing me into October and 13 days left to spend saying farewell to Fare, the beach, and Santiago.