We arrived in Bariloche to the worst weather forecast I had ever encountered there. Wind and rain every day and forever. We had to bite the bullet and drive. Far. To the North.
In Las Leñas the winds were still howling, threatening to lift the corrugated iron off our bunk house, but at least the sky was blue. Fortified by Dave and Nico’s ‘Roadkill Stew’ with an accompaniment of baked potatoes, roasted vegetables and Malbec we skied the lunar landscape of late season LL. Boy was it windy.
Other than on Llaima we had dodgy weather throughout, but we were persistent. Villarica took three attempts:
1 – blown off by the wind
2 – scared off by a terrifying and unexpected electrical storm
3 – success. Rapido up. Rapido down.
Back in Bariloche at the end the Lake was a metre higher than when we arrived as it had rained non-stop.
We went out for dinner and later that evening, by 10pm, the couples had gone off to bed. We gentlemen were wisely walking home for an early night when…… ‘Hold on. What’s that I hear?’……Hotel California being played live in the After 7 bar. Hmmm. We hesitate for a femtosecond then push the door.
The guitarist was a little guy with a computer accompanied by a female singer. She was great but took side stage to the ski tourers as soon as the guitarist knew we liked what he liked. Off we went, he with the chords and us with the words. Marvellous. We had Queen, Guns n Roses, Gary Moore, Joe Satriani and to cap it all Pink Floyd with a superb rendition of Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here. Our guitarist was joined by a friend who was brilliant on his acoustic for the latter. The delightful Inès ran the bar and made sure we never went thirsty. Five hours later, 3am and we finally made it home. So much for early nights!