Alex from UNITED STATES writes:
Preamble: Virtually any ski area is awesome if the snow is. Therefore good powder snow generally trumps good (i.e. steep, gnarly) terrain.
Pros & Cons of LL:
Pros
--Amazing terrain. The resort itself offers a sizable massif replete with steep chutes, open bowls, and easy access from the elusive (see Cons) Marte lift.
--More amazing terrain. Behind the resort proper are a series of backcountry peaks accessed with 40-minute to 4-hour boot packs that rival the best of North American terrain.
--Friendly people. The locals are nice and always eager to show foreigners around, mostly out of pride and eagerness to showcase their terrain.
--A lot of English-speaking foreigners. There's no shortage of good, English-speaking skiers with whom to connect and tour. Whether at the few bars or in the apartment houses and hostels, you'll find loads of ex-pat skiers and riders with whom to party.
Cons
--Crappy snow. Though it typically snows significantly once every week on a good year, it's often associated with a lot of wind leaving you with a small window during which to ski soft pow. Within 24 hours you're generally relegated to 2 inches of breakable crust atop heavy powder (it falls heavy being a maritime snowpack). If you're on a snowboard or super fat, stiff skis it's easier to manage but by no means epic.
--Lift closures. Marte, the lift that gives you access to the excellent inbounds and backcountry terrain, is closed the vast majority of the time, at least in my experience. While there for 2.5 weeks, Marte was open a total of 5 days. It was closed the rest of the time due to wind or weather, and sometimes it wasn't entirely convincing that the wind or weather were the culprits.
--Expensive. A beer at pretty much the only "boliche," or disco (i.e. club), in the evening will cost you as much as a beer in a nice Manhattan bar. The lift tickets are as expensive as most US resorts, as well, and the lifts are much less reliable (see above). Food at the one grocery store is expensive. If you're looking for cheap accommodations for an extended period of time, you should expect to pay around $35/night for a bed/cot in a ghetto apartment usually full of other dirtbag ski bums which isn't bad if you don't mind filth.
--Poor infrastructure. If you're staying in an apartment near where the ski instructors live (i.e., the "residencias") you have to take a shuttle ("colectivo") from the base of the resort or walk about 7 minutes. They run regularly, but they look and smell like Cold War, Soviet relics and run on dirt roads that get muddy with the snow. The lifts run slowly (there's one quad and the rest are doubles) and often shut down due to wind.
--Smokers galore. I've traveled all over the world and can say with confidence that I've never encountered more cigarette smokers than in LL. In the bars, in the apartments, in the lift lines, on the lifts, you name it (and will smell it).
--Customer service. In the hotels service is decent, everywhere else it's mediocre at best. Most of the people working there are young and disinterested. The patrollers don't seem to be well-informed about run and lift closures, telling you that something will open at such and such a time and then it won't.
Bottom Line: LL requires a lot of time and patience. I don't recommend going there for a 1-week holiday. The inconsistent weather conditions make it unreliable for powder skiing, and even when it does snow, wind and lift closures hamper pow skiing opps. On the other hand, if you have more than 2 or 3 weeks, don't mind extended periods of groomed skiing and hunting for wind buffed faces during dry spells, have a lot of money to stay in one of the nice hotels or are a dirtbag, ski bum not concerned about staying in squalor, then LL can be cool.
2008-08-26 |
