Argentina: Better than Gold

From Spencer Francey's Better than Gold

… There were six of us, and we'd come to snowboard in South America but had driven past all of the major resorts and all of the hype attached to them. The landscape was open, without a person or building in sight. The white Andes lined the horizon of the Argentine pampas (fields). At night, only a few vehicles passed us as we pushed toward our destination. Where we were going is pure Patagonia, the real Patagonia. We arrived in the cover of night to the modest town, nothing like the typical mountain towns just to the north with their discos and gondolas. There is one thing besides the massive mountains, powder and mystique of the far south that makes this place alluring to certain people. Gold lies under the peaks. …