September 15, 2007 La Hoya, Argentina

The ski area is located near Esquel which is about 300km south of Bariloche.  The 14km gravel road to the ski area is in excellent shape. This would be our final day of skiing in Argentina. In 2005, we skied here on a sunny spring day but today it was overcast and the cloud layer was at mid mountain. There were about 6” of new snow and we kept hoping the cloud layer would rise. We purchased a half day senior ticket for $15 just in case the weather didn’t cooperate.  Since 2005, they added a fixed grip quad from the base area to mid mountain. We finally rode a T-bar and poma up into the cloud layer and were treated with powder in a white room.  We finally returned to visibility at mid mountain.  What a bummer.  The tree line extends to mid mountain so skiing in a storm or cloudy day is not practical. The upper terrain has numerous bowls and chutes and the place is so far south that only locals ski there.  We were there on a Saturday and there may have been 30 vehicles in the parking lot. After cycling around  mid mountain we decided to leave.  As we drove back towards Esquel, we encountered a small group of guanacos.  They were very close to the area we saw them in 2005.  We think La Hoya is worth a visit.  It is not crowded, has plenty of lift capacity and some challenging terrain and cheap lift tickets. I have attached a few photos from 2005 when the visibility was much better.

Photo 1 La Hoya base area in 2005
Photo 2 La Hoya upper bowls in 2005
Photo 3 Guanaco along road to La Hoya