Jay Richards

I think I mentioned it earlier but my Dad is in Argentina this summer and this is the week he is skiing in Ushuaia. He sent a message yesterday and it was pretty interesting so I thought I would post it below. I could go for knocking out a few clicks. Red Wing this weekend though. Super fun course and feeling pretty good after VT. Did fast lap last night on Loppet course and hit some year high heart rates so that was interesting. Well see how things fly on Sunday. Went to Twin Valley tonight to see Jonell's grandma and the nursing home was having a picnic. I was planning on riding back so I was just going to say hello, wave the flag and get rolling. But Jens totally konked out after a busy day helping Dad on the bobcat and what not and Andrii from the Ukraine. I didn't want to leave Jonell with crabbyapple so I indulged in a burger, beans, tato salad, chips and fruit salad. Yeah, ready to roll. Jonell's dad was there and mentioned something about watching the car races in Ada. Hmm, I was on the fence. Jonell said just ride (I love my wife) so I rolled out a burping catching the gusty north wind for 40 miles of wind tempo. Not before I scared SR half to death. Earlier I was hanging on the side of the pickup taking it all in and Jake tried to sneak up on me and scare me but I caught him. So 5 minutes later I'm hearing some noise again in the street, thinking it is Jake and I wait, pretending I don't hear anything and I turn around real quick and yell "kid" and its a white hair. Damn, I'm getting old.



"Made it down to Ushuaia safe and sound, a long trip that was delayed leaving and then finally here as one stop on the way and that was longer than normal, and no one could get off the plane. Overcast here and took a cab into town to the hostal, only $3 for the trip. Nice place right in the center of town and warm and a shower and nice bathroom. Just a block or so to downtown. Had a good meal of fish and some king crab and excellent. A group of Norwegians here on a large Danish fishing boat and talked to them a long time. They ski some and they were totally shocked that I knew so much about Norway. They leave today after being here almost three months in the area fishing for a US company and then sending the fish all over the world. The money in fishing when the catches are good are hard to believe they say. They did a little downhill skiing when in port. It takes 28 days to sail back to Denmark and then they have three months off and then back here again. The one guy takes off a month and half in the Fall to go hunting back in Norway.

Well on Wed I took the shuttle to the one nordic area and conditons were perfect, the snow couldn´t have been nicer. The tracks that had been set were pretty well shot as just two traditional skiers and maybe 6 skaters, two from the French national team. But the trail was fine and I skied close to 20 K´s and was wiped out. Had some lunch of Patagonia lamb and talked to one of the owners whose brother was a former Argentina biatholon champ and this lady had spent a winter at Canmore in 1992. They asked for a brochure of Maplelag and I gave them one, and then they said no charge for my meals and gave me my money back which I had already paid.

Waited for the shuttle to go back with a large group from Brazil and as pretty sweated up, I started to get chilled. The area mainly gets it revenue from 4 dog sled teams and 9 snowmobiles all Polaris. No rev from nordic other than ski rental. And most of the tourists seem to be from Brazil and France. The wealthy Argentine might go more to Bariloche or Los Lenas near Mendoza. So for most people here with all the gear, a dog sled or a 10 minute snowmobile ride is their winter vacation highlight. The one downhill area is about 2 more K´s up the road and hope to go to that tomorrow. But the skiing was great and of course after taking about three pictures, it says my battery is dead so not many pictures I am afraid. And this town does not seem to have wireless so at the local internet cafe and will wait to get back to BA to try and send a picture.

Last night it really started to snow and woke up this morning and snowing heavy, maybe 6 inches or more of new and toward the mountains, it was really coming down. Went down to the shuttle area and they said they could not see and no one was going. And as they drive here with no chains and the roads are snow packed and icy, I was in no hurry to go out and try them. So the town today is very full with lots of people walking around just shopping and looking. I had a burger for lunch, the special house burger and it was just fair. I will stick to the seafood which is great. No plows out at all and the little cars just run and gun to make the hills as the town most hilly. It is a lot like Seward, Alaska in many ways as the ocean is all open, no fishing now as all is closed, and as this is the main jumping off spot for the Antarctic, all the boats are tied up. It is also a little like a frontier town, very poor in many ways and very poor construction on so many buildings. It could be like a town from the Soviet Far East on the ocean. And then it some ways it is like Whitefish or a town out west, all snow covered so a most interesting mix. Dinner is so late like 10 PM that is hard to get up so early, but then no light so it doesn´t make much difference. And yesterday when the sun is below the mountains by 4, it starts to cool off bigtime. So all and all most interesting. Tomorrow looks better for weather, and hope they will be out and grooming.

About it from here. Kind of hard to believe it is so winter. Much more so than last year and the comments are all that the winter is so much more server than it was in 2006. Just the fact that BA had the first snow since 1918 kind of makes a statement about that."