Vámonos: Baguales Mountain Reserve
Some birds fly south to dodge the snow and avoid winter. But the season never ends for the most passionate skiers and the road to endless winter leads south when the high peaks of Colorado turn green. 6,000 miles south of Aspen, CO, deep in Argentina’s Patagonia mountains lies a magical place that feels like a skier’s dreamland, as if the snow never melts! Baguales Mountain Reserve might just be the skier’s Shangri-La and, no surprise, Team Aztech had to sample the goods.
Located in the southernmost section of Argentina’s oldest national park, Nahuel Huapi, just over one hour from the sprawling ski-city of Bariloche. The reserve offers nearly 25,000 acres of pristine backcountry touring and snowcat skiing terrain in mystical Patagonia. Getting to Baguales is an adventure in itself, involving four-wheel drive river crossings, ATVs, and ultimately snowcats.
The adventures, based out of La Mesada, the main Baguales lodge for overnight guests, begin at 5,400 feet above sea level. The centerpiece is the enormous central fireplace that provides heat to the entire lodge that you’ll enjoy during breakfasts and well-earned dinners. The lodge is perfectly appointed with every creature comfort one could imagine and the architecture of the lodge thrusts into the beauty of the surrounding peaks.
Our days consisted of epic ski tours into the high mountains, led by our UIAGM/IFMGA certified guides. Skinning up and skiing down slows down the day’s pace in a unique and wonderful way and leaves you both hungry for more skiing and equally hungry for a typical Argentinian meal of local meats, fish and vegetables and a healthy dose of vino tinto. Either accessed by snowcat or skinning, Baguales offers loads of south facing slopes that were chalk full of pristine pockets of snow – spines, chutes, and open faces in every direction.
