Start and stop June turns into big July
Ski-able conditions are normal in June or even May in the austral winter of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego but this year the real snow held off until late June and July. After a series of storms passed through conditions have been good to excellent and even withstood recent north winds (equivalent to south winds in the boreal hemisphere).
Ushuaia’s local stalwart skier and junior coach Sebastián Menci said half jokingly that the conditions are “just a hair away from the World Cupâ€. The joke refers to the region’s mystifying grooming tendencies and always stretched infrastructure no matter what the snow conditions. None the less, recreational cross-country skiing has begun at the area near Ushuaia as well as training and local races for juniors.
The local outdoor club, the Club Andino Ushuaia or “Andean Club of Ushuaiaâ€, is in the midst of working out the operational details of a contract with the region’s new and modern alpine area, Cerro Castor, to groom the course of the annual Marchablanca race using Cerro Castor’s Pisten Bully during the entire months of July and August instead of just prior to the race’s late August date.
The Boulder, Colorado based company Skifire operates annual visits to the Argentine region and works with local partners to insure about ten days of regular grooming during each August immediately preceding the Marchablanca.
