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Published: September 15th 2008
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Polly:
We arrived in Portillo at lunchtime on Saturday after a 2 1/2 hour coach ride. As we got close to the Andes the scenery was stunning.
Check in was slightly chaotic as 450 people arrive and depart every Saturday. We managed to get our keys at 2pm, then hit the slopes for a few hours.
We stayed in single-sex dorms of 4 in the Inca Lodge, just opposite the main hotel. I was sharing with Penny from NZ and Nic from Oz. We did have a 4th roomy but I think our stinky socks scared her off. We were all backpacking, and she was of a slightly different class! The 3 of us had so much fun though, and will definitely stay friends. Nic lives just South of Perth with Jimmy (Ross´roomy) and have been promised free digs with them whilst in Perth. In our group was also Ben (Penny´s boyfriend), Stu & Becky from British Columbia, Becky & Shaun who live in the Cayman Islands, Leo from Boulder & Kathlyne who is from Quebec but lives in Jamaica (Respec' Man).
I had the usual boot frustrations and was worried that I might have to board
for the week. They only had 2 different types of ski boots. Salomon for very wide feet, and Rossignol, also for wide feet. In the end I downsized from a 25.5 (which I measured as) to a 23.5, put in 2 footbeds, and bought some thick snowboarding socks. Not ideal. but hey! The skis on the otherhand were great. I started the week on a pair of Salomon Crossmax, (like the yellow ones with pistons on I had in Passo Tonale ), but these were orange. Very cool indeed, kind of racey, great edge and practically turned on their own. Fab skis for packed powder. When the fresh stuff came I switched to the Salomon Pocket Rockets. Went a bit longer than usual with the 165cm, and they floated. Loved them.
I had a gnarly fall on day 2 - probably one of my most extreme to date. Not quite sure what happened as I was going a bit fast and caught an edge. Penny´s a nurse, and Ben´s a doctor so they gave me the once over and checked I´d not broken my leg. I got some pain killers from the medical centre then adopted RICE. Rest in
the sun on the balcony, elevating it on a sunbed, whilst compressing ice on it. I then moved to the cinema and continued to elevate it on a beanbag whilst watching the end of the Olympic closing ceremony. (What were the UK thinking?! After an incredible finale from the Chinese the Brits looked lame). I had a monster bruise, but the swelling went and I was able to ski the next day. The whole experience gave me a reality check and I skied with a little more caution.
I swapped to a board for a day and a bit, and whilst I made some improvement, I still pap myself as I go into every toe side turn, so called it a day, and returned to what I love.
The hotel facilities were amazing. Apart from the rooms and the posh dining hall we had access to everything - shop, bars, disco, pool, hot tub, climbing wall, pool, ping pong, gym, saunas, massage, hair dresser, doctor & cinema. Our self-service restaurant was still great though, and we ate like kings. We were definitely never going to go hungry. Breakfast was orange juice, tea, coffee, chocolate, cereal, fruit salad, rolls,
spreads and choice of eggs. Lunch and dinner were a salad, rolls, soup, meat or fish with a choice of 3 sides & pud. We also had tea at 5pm with some treat or other. A couple of the guys upgraded to the main restaurant on the last night and said it was proper Cordon Bleu stuff, but we didn´t have any smart clothes for the restaurant, and were happy with our canteen.
There are more staff than guests at Portillo and it is run like clockwork. When you have ski boots on at lunch someone carries your tray to your table for you. The guy who looked after our boots/shoes had memorised all our numbers by day 2, so as you walked down stairs your boots were already there, and when you came back from skiing your dry shoes were waiting for you.
We can´t get over the bargain we got. We paid 325 GBP for the week, including lift pass and food. Our bill for expenses at the end was 130 GBP each. This included our equipment rental but we think they made an error there!
Ross:
We're back in sunny and warm
Santiago with goggle marks on our faces and aching legs! We met a really good bunch of people in Portillo, as well as a few pro-skiers and photographers competing in a photo competition for Skiing magazine.
The Austrian mens downhill ski team were also training there (including Hermann Maier, the guy who stacked it big time in Nagano in 1998 then won 2 gold medals a few days after - YouTube it and look out for the yellow helmet in the photos on our blog) and the Canadian women's team had just rolled up as we were leaving!
Amazing week and thanks to the big dump of snow on Wednesday night lots of fresh powder to play in. Portillo is well worth a visit if you happen to be passing at any time (like you do...). The snowboard equipment is slightly more expensive to hire at the hotel than in Santiago but the Salomon boards and boots are fine with well maintained edges and bases.
If you're trying to do things on the cheap whilst maintaining a degree of luxury, make use of the changing and shower facilities near the pool/gym rather than the grimey ones in
The road to Argentina
Everyday queues of lorries waited patiently on these hairpins to cross the border into Argentina the Inca Lodge. Oh, and buy your plonk from the staff shop near the sports hall or from the truck-stop possada over the road - a third of the price... :-)
Along with the aformentioned crew, shouts go out to Marcello and Eduardo, our Brazilian party animal roomies - thanks for (generally) keeping it down in the wee small hours and hope the leg's on the mend?!
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