Having seen this beautiful peak from La Parva and Farellones, I decided a ski mission was in order. Plus you get to walk up a valley called La Yerba Loca (crazy herb) so I figured it would have to be cool.

As the name promised, the environment was indeed crazy. My partner Eben Sargent and I walked about 15 miles and climb 10,800′ vertical from the trailhead to the summit of La Paloma. Our start in the low reaches of the valley had us trudging up a dusty gravel road amongst cow pastures and Saguaro-like cactus. Slowly but surely we ascended through ever-changing ecosystems, a real-time display of nature’s adaptation to its climate. Slowly but surely the cactus and tall, tough shrubs gave way to a few lone stands of pine trees, those gave way to low brush and eventually fragile sub-alpine meadows before we finally reached snowline. Miles of climbing up the snow-filled valley, getting deeper and deeper into ever-growing mountains and eventually we reached the level of the glaciers.

We slept in a stone shelter built against a huge boulder. In the Andes the wind is a force to be feared, and a shelter such as this could be the difference between life and death if the weather took a turn for the worse. Eben and I were luckily graced with perfect weather for the 2.5 days and 2 nights of the trip. When we summited on the second day, there was hardly a wisp of cloud or a breath of wind.

The descent was, lacking any other word, classic. We skied right off the 16,100′ summit, down an ever-steepening glacial headwall. The snow varied from chalk to shallow powder, but never turned to ice or breakable crust. In that environment I consider the snow we skied to be about as good as you could hope. From summit to camp it was about 6,000′ vert. We then skied another several miles down the gradually dropping floor of the valley before reaching the end of the snow and walking the remaining 3.5 miles back to the road.

Link to story on powder.com.