Anden

It seems everyone comes out to play in the summer. Even those of us that love the snow find other ways to stay entertained in the mountains. For a while, it seems winter can be forgotten. Though for some, something is missing.

Last week we were spoiled every day with great weather, lots of sunshine and little wind. We were finally able to ski the peaks in the touring area around the ski resort. At high altitudes, we found set powder snow in all exposures and top-quality firn in the lower half.

Argentina - The land of beef and red wine! Of tango and beautiful women! And above all, the Andes!

Last Wednesday evening, November 16, 2011 at 7:30 pm, the doors of the 8 Seasons Club opened for the premiere of the film "Soultrip Argentina". Shortly before the club doors opened, a large number of winter sports enthusiasts were already standing at the entrance. The Argentinean steaks were already smelling from the grill and the anticipation of a good evening could be seen in the guests' facial expressions. Not only the "Soultrip"movie was on the agenda, but also the premiere of "Path of Roses" with Eva Walkner and Katharina Schuler.

Fabian Lentsch is a freerider from Innsbruck and Austria's up-and-coming talent. He is spending this summer in the (almost) endless expanses of the South American Andes with his friends Leo Rauch, Eric Zeller and photographer Jonas Blum. He has summarized his summer freeride adventures in a blog.

Canyons, mass tourism, big cities and lifeless deserts - after the first part of the Peru report, the Andean peaks and world-famous Inca sites beckon in the second part of the four-week trekking travelogue.

Find out more about Chile's volcanoes here...

Does Peru offer more than Machu Picchu? What do the high Andean peaks look like in reality? What are the people of Peru like? Condor or puma, what do we see of the diverse wildlife? We wanted to explore all this and much more in four weeks of trekking. In the following report, we try to describe what we found out on our trip

Photo trips are hard work. Freerider Gex Rathfelder found this out (once again) on his last trip to Chile. He was on a photo trip in the South American winter with photographer Michael Neumann and gives us an insight into his travel diary here. Seemingly endless travel hardships and poor snow conditions – circumstances from which beautiful images are nevertheless to be created, which will ultimately appear in a book entitled "Endless Winter".

Las Lenas is huge, but it isn't scary. It is supremely aesthetic and inspires you to leave a single, snaking track down each of its many faces. The thing is, it is very possible to do so with the Marte Chair running and incredible peaks within easy boot-packing distance. From the top of these, the mountains stretch on seemingly forever, and so do the possibilities...

Winter sports in Argentina begin for us with a wine tasting in a bodega in the "Valle de Uco" in the hinterland of Mendoza. It is mid-July, we have come from the European summer and are in search of South American powder snow. But here at 700 meters above sea level, it's not as cold as we expected and the sky is so clear and blue that it almost looks fake. Only the view of the snow-covered Andes towering high into the sky suggests a little winter.