RIGHT “After 50-plus hours of travel Grant Giller wasted no time and started setting up this spot as soon as we arrived in Ushuaia. Frontside 50-50 right outside the front door of the apartment we were staying in.”—Kevin Nolan Situated below the 54th parallel south, Ushuaia claims to be the world’s south-ernmost city (although nearby Puerto Williams, Chile, population 2,874, is fac-tually further south). Ushuaia is the last stop before Antarctica, and the de-facto launching point for expeditions heading to Earth’s southernmost and least-populated continent. One glimpse of the surround-ing mountains was enough to convince me that all the hectic travel was worth it, and at the same time I wondered how I had never heard of this place before. The steep, crag-gy, glaciated Martial Mountains towered 4,300 feet above the ocean. It was as though someone had figured out how to merge the Canadian Rockies with Alaska. A short cab ride from the airport dropped us off, fitting-ly, on Patagonia Street, where a tall, smiling mid-30s Argentinian waited for us. Grant had met Alfonso Lavado at Bariloche’s Cerro Catedral back in 2016 during during an International Ski and Snowboard Federation slopestyle event. Having traveled all the way to Argentina solo and without a plan, Grant had fig-ured that entering a contest would be a good way to meet some local snowboard-ers. I’m not sure if winning the contest was part of his plan, but regardless, it worked. Alfonso was at the contest coaching a group of local kids through their first real competition and approached Grant after so the kids could meet the winner and take some photos with him. For the du-ration of a slow two-seater chairlift ride, Alfonso told Grant about where he was from. His tales of snow in the city, street spots and plentiful access to backcountry zones were more than enough to put Ush-uaia on Grant’s radar. Seven years later he had finally made it there, and thankfully invited me along for the journey. Alfonso might be the most interesting outdoors-man in Argentina. Split-boarder, climber, photog-rapher, enduro mountain biker, pilot, former ATV racer, aspiring mountain guide—he does it all. He even lists acting on his re-sume, having starred in a music video for Don Omar, a Puerto Ri-can Reggaeton star, during a stint living in the Dominican Republic. His great grandparents immigrated to Ushuaia from Spain in 1911 and his family is one of 50 that have lived there for more than 100 years. Suffice to say he was a good guy to know in this port town of nearly 80,000 folks. One glimpse of e surro ding mo tains was ough to convince me at all e hectic travel was wor it... USHUAIA 061
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.2: Page 61
