FWQ South American Championships Finals — Argentina

My breathing was calm, with each breath I allowed myself to let in as much air that I needed. Fresh, crisp air. It was a sunny day, but wrapped in gusts of wind and occasional cloud sneaked around the Cerro Bayo peak… the person responsible for dropping people in on the venue, at the right time listened to the radio. Looked at me and turned around. Without saying anything, he started eating his sandwich. OK. It might be a little longer than, I thought, laying down on the snow. The best part about the back protectors is that you don’t get cold if you’re laying down directly. At the moment, that was the best grounding practice I could think of.

Only a few days earlier, September 10th,’22 we dropped into the 3rd competition of the South American circuit, that started in El Colorado, Chile. I skipped the 2nd contest and spent an extra month in Canada enjoying the summer. Only about a week prior, I flew down to Argentina to continue persuing the dream. I placed 3rd on the 10th of September in Cerro Bayo, which put me in a good overall position for the finale.

El Colorado FWQ Tour 2* Competition in Chile

Cerro Bayo is a very cute resort in Villa La Angostura, only about an hour’s drive from Bariloche, on the other side of the lake. The competition venue that the organizers chose, was a very good option. Large, north-facing face, full of cliffs, smaller rocks, couloirs, chutes, and trees. Everyone, including myself, had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, after finishing the event, we found out we cannot compete on Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, because the owners canceled the competition. That raised a lot of questions and concerns amongst the community, which was quite quickly calmed. The “Buena onda” owners of Cerro Bayo offered to host the event again, only a few days after.

Good? We had a venue – the same venue as before, which means we all knew what we were getting ourselves into.

Bad? 2 days between two very big competitions are simply not enough!

So here I was, only 2 days and one night of full sleep after, about to drop in, with a different line in mind. Until the last second, I wasn’t sure which way I will go. On Saturday, I played it safe, I chose a line hugging a very technical part of the face, dropped in a smaller chute, and rode down a big open cole until the finish gate, where I lost control for a second.

/…30 seconds…. me dijo..

But today, I felt different. I felt better and stronger. More confident. Maybe because this was the finale run, after this we are finished and I already felt very relaxed.

“3,2,1… Rider dropping.”

I pressed play on my favorite song I always listed when I’m competing, and dropped in. It was well after 12 pm at that point, thank god. The snow has softened a bit and it was fun. I stirred towards the techy section of the face, into a steep couloir. A few turns, a small cliff at the bottom, and zoooooom out. I tried riding fast towards the finish, playing around with some trees, smaller jumps in between, and boom. I was through the gate. I’m DONE. What a relief.

Enjoying the sun, music, asado, hanging out with good friends… the rest was easy. When you finish a series of competitions, things just get easy, that’s the best way to put it. All the pressure from the last month just vapors into thin air. Into fresh, dry Patagonian air. Ah, I love it here. I came 1st that day. It almost didn’t matter, because I was so happy with my run and the atitude that I finished with, the result almost didn’t matter. And 2nd overall, on the South American circuit. Right behind Isi Assler, and absolute shredder from Chile, that I’m now proud to call my friend.

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These things are never easy, and usually there’s a lot of mental preparation, training, visualization and hours of work behind each contest. I like sharing my experience because it helps me to break down each event and process it, maybe even inspire others to go and compete in their sports. We are lucky with the freeride community being so open and supportive, I’ve always felt accepted, especially here in Argentina and Chile.

Thank you Nadja Mel for all the photos!