After 27 hours of travel and one day of waiting in Santiago Chile for the storm we had flown into to finish its fury I had shifted from toasting my freshly buzzed head in the hot summer sun to freezing the tip of my nose while riding a meter of pow. There is something so very refreshing about face shots in August, causing me to feel very lucky that I had found what I came for on only the second day of the trip. After one bluebird day another storm set in on the mountains around Santiago and kept up for two more days. Between the two storms there was over two meters of fresh snow in a week. When the weather cleared for two more days it allowed for some riding worth writing home about. I met up with friends Lucas Debari, Matt Edgars, Blair Habenicht, and Forrest Burki. This crew did not hesitate to take advantage of the conditions and ride some great lines. With shop set up in Farellones Chile access to the goods is just a short walk and a couple of tbar lifts away. The boys had been here for about three weeks already, so they had the good spots pretty well figured out. So hear I sit one week into a month long trip already feeling that the ticket was well worth the price. Time will only tell what more is to come…

Just coming home after another day at work riding with my friend Alvaro Castro. Taking a metro through downtown Santiago as part of the journey to the mountain is a different pracitce.

This is the small ski town of La Parva.

Matt, Forest, Blair, and Lucas hike through the snowy streets of Farellones.

Forest Burki gets some hang time through the houses on a bad weather day.

T-bar surface lifts are thoroughfare in the ski centers, and can be entertaining in their own right.

These lines are more than fun and there for the taking, but I’m not saying where they are.

Forest Burki backflip off Castle Grayskull.

Mathias Steinhuber and Forrest, Blair, Matt and Lucas wait for a ride after logging some vert riding lines in the background.

A shop owner snoozes in the Farellones afternoon sun.