Powder, slush and lack of shovels

Almost a week has passed in Bariloche, a charming little town just 30 min from the ski slopes on Cerro Cathedral. Ramon, my host and doc in the ski patrol, has busy days on the mountain as it is still high season. Every day huge buses arrive packed with tourists. Although the ski resort itself is not much bigger than Hemsedal, the tourist facilities surpasses Norway by many times in terms of commercializing the concept of lift-based skiing. One example: I planned to go back-country touring, but forgot my shovel at home. I have visited at least 14 mountain stores, but although most shops have the most advanced in googles, sunglasses and fashion ski-wear, nobody sells touring equipment. In one store they didn´t understand what I could possibly need a shovel for while skiing and advised me to try a store that sells gardening equipment! This is also a problem for the local mountain guides; they have very little work during winter as hardly anybody goes touring or off-piste skiing. This is really to bad, as Patagonia has a number of well maintained cabins that provide bases for a vast amount of spectacular ski touring. The skiing is otherwise pretty good, escpecially in the woodlands where I've enjoyed both light powder and heavy slush the past week. However, heavy rains the last 36 hours have made sightseeing Bariloche a more pleasant activity. For the coming weekend and next week I´ll be a student with the Patagonia School where I´ll be taking an intensive course in spanish. Hopefully with a little skiing in between.. No vaccaciones en el Patagonia!