Not as much snow as opening day last year here in Chamonix, but still plenty of pillows to ski. We had a fun day made much better by the 15cm of fresh that fell the night before. As all opening days should be we rode hard all day and left the Grands Montet feeling battered, bruised and muscles aching. It seems our summer/winter ski touring in South America is not the same as a winter lapping pow on chair lifts here in Chamonix!
This is a Go Pro edit of us in Chile; hiking, splitboarding and snowboarding 9 Volcanoes across the country. We had every condition possible; sunshine and periods of endless rain, we had deep powder and scary windswept ice, winds that rocked the van and snapped trees and calm perfect days. Somevolcanoes had 40+ degree, super steep, 2000m of uninterrupted conical slopes, some were cruisey, but all had spectacular scenery.
The Volcanoes were as follows; Volcano Antuco, Volcano Chillan, Volcano, Lonquimay, Volcan Casablanca, Volano Villarica, Volcano Quetrupillan, Volano Calbuaco, Volano Lanin and Volcano Llaima. If anyone wants more info check out my blog posts or let me know. It seems there is a lack of info on skiing volcanoes in Chile so I am happy to answer any questions.
A weekend spent skiing or snowboarding in the high resort of Cervinia, Italy on 16/17th November provided some great early season powder. The views of the Matterhorn in Cervinia are super cool too, the Italian face is not its most spectacular aspect but still great to see. After an initial trip on the Saturday the snow was so good that after a drink that evening in Chamonix it was decided to return on the Sunday. At 90mins from Chamonix, through the tunnel, it’s not a bad journey. The weekend was not a bad start to the season, two days riding in mid November can’t be sniffed at! You have to love Italian skiing, cheap great coffee and awesome food on the hill.
The weekend of the 22nd November it was a trip to Courchevel to take advantage of the free ski preview weekend. Huge queues meant only 4 runs, but 40cm of powder in the obvious couloirs under Saulire lift made it well worth the effort. On the 23rd we attempted our first ski tour back in Chamonix valley at the appropriately named Le Tour. The wind had transformed the snow sadly and it was battering us in the face. Combined with a steep icy skin track and low visibility higher up it was good to stretch the legs but not the best day ever on the snow!!
The first installment of my South America snowboarding edit is now on You Tube. This is part 1 of 3 that will make up the whole movie at about 15 minutes in total, so take a look at the movie below.
This episode is centered on Patagonia and the national parks – Mt Fitzroy, Torres del Paine and the area around Bariloche. It was a dry year so we ended up hiking more than snowboarding in the deep south, but the views are inspiring. Also it has been selected to enter an Epic TV competition, so please view it and vote if you like it at the following;
http://www.epicthule.com/videos/video/snowboarding-adventures-in-patagonia/
So after 3 months my flight home to Europe is tomorrow. It has been insanely good;
I have climbed and ridden volcanoes, splitboarded the high andes in the shadow of 7000m peaks, boarded deep powder in patagonia, sat out endless rain, ridden deep snow through forests of monkey puzzle trees, experienced crazy gales and storms, seen countless condors soaring, sat in hot springs surrounded by untracked powder, hiked for days among some of the wildest and majestic scenery the world has to offer, eaten a lot of pasta, travelled 1000s of kilometers by car, bus,van, boat and airplane.
I now have to sit and sort out 32gb of pictures and videos…..watch this space, I hope to start updating the blog next week
So after we left the Island of Chiloe we headed further south, on the mainland into Northern Patagonia. The weather was dire, no snow just rain up to the top of the Volcanoes.
At 2865m volcano Lonquimay in Chile is a decent height volcano to ski or snowboard. It is considered an easier climb in the summer, but it certainly felt a fairly good achievement on a split board in winter via the steeper route we took. It last erupted in 1990 starting on Christmas day 1988, I tried to block out this farily recent eruption and the associated fatalities that resulted, as we plodded up it’s steady steep slopes. The huge lava flows and associated craters from that Christmas in 1990 were visibly behind us slowly getting smaller as we climbed.
The ascent ridge is exposed near the top and pretty steep so it is not all straightforward. However the approach is stunning, from Temuco you drive through National Park Malalcahuello with >monkey puzzle tree forests on a jet black road of volcanic gravel. As the snow starts the trees are silhouetted against the imposing volcano rising up above the few ski lifts. The ski resort is called the Corralco-Lonquimay resort, it is pretty flat but the location is probably the most unique you will ever ski so who cares about it being 100% cruisey blues! 
We quickly skinned above the lifts and started on the volcano slopes. We passed an old lift base before finding the ascent ridge clearly visible to left in above picture. This is much wider and generally better than it looks however the wind had picked up and was making progress hard. The ski group ahead of use bottled it and skied back down, we progressed, but it involved crawling along. 
We finally traversed around the cone and started from the other side, it was steeper but no wind. The snow was perfect for boot packing steps up the 35 degree slope. It was exhausting work but finally we crested the icy crater rim. Collapsed in a heap we admired the view, volcanic cones dotted across the horizon and the plains down to the Pacific Ocean in the west. 
Crater Navidad, and associated lave flows were clearly visible down the slope as per the picture below. The sheer scale of the lava flows and mounds of lava show the scale of the last eruption. Navidad being named after the christmas eruption on 25th December 1988. The landscape really is unique and spectacular. It may look close but it was a long way down, over 1000m of 30 to 35 degree slopes.
The views across to the other local volcanoes such as Llaima, Villarica and Lanin to the south. All future targets to ski tour!
The ski down was steep but the snow had softened and made a fun ride, with the vastness of the descent it felt you would be down in no time but the steep slope just keeps on going. We cut over to the resort lower down and straight lined the entire resort to carry momentum to the car park. We sat and admired the sun go down after a great day on the volcano. It hadn’t erupted which was a bonus too!
Volcano Antuco at 2979m was an impressive sight for our next Ski Tour, located in the Laguna del Laja national park in Chile. The access road was as usual a long gravel drive in of about 65km. A few narrow exposed sections but generally the road was fine to drive. At the base is a small ski resort with a couple of drag lifts along the flatter flanks. It seemed to be only open on weekends when we were there.
We arrived on a Saturday night fairly late. We parked up in the camper van just before the park entrance. A strange experience in the pitch black with no idea of our surroundings, the van was rocking violently from some pretty extreme wind, a stream ran past us into what looked like a large lake. The ground was black with old volcanic rock.
A few trucks sped past, one stopped and about 5 guys jumped out, we saw their faces lit up by cigarettes as they sheltered from the wind, for a moment we were afraid of what they were up to. They soon piled back in and sped off into the darkness.
Next day the wind was still battering us. An ascent of the volcano was off. It was way too windy. We explored the park and its setup hiking trails. These were actually pretty stunning. A few information boards told us that a German Botanist, Eduard Poeppig passed through and sheltered from the locals and the last eruption in 1854. There were huge Coihue trees and big waterfalls.
The road and national park was relatively busy, despite the wind, locals were driving to the small resort and using the drag lifts to ski the gentle slopes.
The next morning the wind had died down and we drove to the resort and soon started skinning up the slopes. It was totally empty not a soul in sight, tumbleweed rolling through the 4 or 5 buildings that marked the resort, in the light wind. We quickly reached the top of the ski lifts. The next section was surprisingly steep, after a few kick turns it was crampons and ice axes out until we reached the defined ridge on the lookers left. The ridge was much mellower. We followed this up to the summit, it got steeper, harder and more exposed but with crampons and axes we were OK. We took shelter from the wind just below the summit cone. The view down to the lake was amazing it was perfectly clear to spot the lava flow curling down the volcano flank and damming the river to create the huge lake after the 1854 eruption.
We then started back down, sadly for us the wind had destroyed the snow. We traversed to the front face away from the ridge we had climbed up, however it was a treacherous ride down, crust and ice on 40 degree slopes for almost 1800m of vertical height, we were scared for each turn. The lower section had softened and let us open up to the base.
A stunning volcano in a stunning setting, a ski touring must.
Chillan ski resort is about 4 hours south of Santiago. Set in on the slopes of two dominating volcanoes it has some great freeride terrain. We were fortunate to visit on two occasions about 5 weeks apart and both times it had about 15cm of fresh powder. The first visit we skinned from the resort base to the summit of Volcan Chillan about 1700m of vertical height gain. We were given a fair bit of abuse from ski patrol for skinning up on edge of the piste. This annoyed me so we ignored them.
The skin track up is easy but route finding in the various combs of old lava flows can be confusing. We had a blue bird powder day which gave us spectacular views and amzing snow to ski down. We climbed the bare rock of the ‘new’ cone. It is clear of snow due to the heat in the rock which is warm to the touch.
The next day we bought lift passes and rode some of the fun terrain from the slow rickety chair lift. Lots of wide half pipe shaped valleys and plenty of cornice drops to jump. There was also a few sneaky tree runs which were super fun. In Chile the snowline is generally above the trees so this was about the only time we skied in trees. There are also subtle reminders that this is a volcanoe, with the smell of sulphur and hot steam rising at random spots. Skiing amoung steam vents and parrots is a little unusual!
The next day we used the lifts and then traversed over to the neighbouring valley, called Aguas Caliente. As the name translate it has various hot water streams converging in steaming deep snow canyons. We hiked up to the highest point to get a run down into the valley through deep untouched powder. It really was the most sunning snowboard I have experienced, as we reached the vally bottom we picked some snow bridges to get to a spot in the stream were we stopped, stripped and jumped into hot water for a soak. Getting out and clothed again was harder. There was also a 400m vertical climb to get out the valley and back down to the resort. We were tired by the end and got little stuck above a waterfall on the way back to resort, all good fun!
On our next visit to the area we were again greeted by fresh overnight powder and rode the resort lifts staying in the campervan parked up in the carpark.
Rio los Cipreses and Altos del Lircay are two of my favourite parks we visited. Both are located in middle Chile and both a bit off the radar, so much so that they were effectively closed when we arrived. Luckily having the Wicked Campervan meant we could drive miles up the backroads and visit them both.
Rio los Cipreses is named unsurprisingly after the mountain Cypress trees that grow there. We arrived at about 7pm pulling up to the locked park gates. The area was surrounded by high fences and secure gates. We had driven in the dark along a wild feeling dirt road darting from small village to hamlet. We crossed large rivers and avoided many stray dogs. All in all the area felt rather uninviting. We decided the only option was to pull in close to the park gate and wait for morning. After we started cooking dinner, at the back of the camper van a chap wanders over from a nearby house, mainly to check us out, also he was surrounded by numerous cats, odd. The scary part was when he told us the area was dodgy “many people with guns, not safe,” erm we have no choice but to park the camper here, he agreed to keep an eye on us. It was going to be long night! Then as if by magic the giant park gates opened, we half expected dinosaurs to escape, but no a middle aged lady in a Honda Civic emerged, we started the van and drove in through the open gates, we had breached the park, another 6km along narrow steep dirt roads and we found the main and only open camp spot.
We awoke to the beautiful birdsong, warm sunshine and prospect of cold showers. We hiked the length of the park admiring cacti, beautiful vistas of snow capped peaks, deep narrow water carved gorges, huge cliff top waterfalls spilling into the air and the enormity of a concrete hydro electric canal . We saw no Cypress trees though!
The campsite came complete with a stray dog. We named him Smokey the campsite dog due to his bear like appearance, he was very lonely and very fluffly. He took a liking to us, sleeping by the van and chasing after us when we left. We felt bad leaving him there, have a look at the pictures to see him looking sad!
Altos del Lircay was a similar situation, the park gates were locked but this time it was 11am, a park warden approached us to inform us the road was closed due to snow. The campsite was inaccessible but this being super friendly CONAF they allowed us to camp up by the visitor centre, with water and toilets left open. The snow depth was about 2m on the giant basalt plateau we wanted to hike. A quick change to ski touring and the next day we climbed up to the deep snow with mind blowing views of the wild never ending snowy Andes. Our only companions on the trip were criss crossing cougar prints in the snow. We reached Lago de Altos and then rode down a sweet couloir back to the snowlin. Boards on back we started the long hike back out to the gate. As fortune had it a CONAF 4×4 was pulling up we hitched a ride in the back as it slid along the rough snowy track. Sketchy but it saved a good 6km hike out!
This park is totally off the radar for ski touring but it shouldn’t be. It has endless possibilities, just look at some of the pictures, remember that this is a bad snow year too!
Snowboarding the three valleys means; El Colorado, la Parva and vallee Nevado.
Each has their own character, El Colorado has good all round terrain, La Parva family orientated and Vallee Nevado short steep slope. The best terrain was down to the Vallee Nevado access road where the Freeride world tour recently used the Santa Theresa face. We parked the El Colorado camper van in the car park for the entire time we were there, cold but effective.
After we crossed into Chile we entered the stunning Lauca National Park. We hitched across the borders no mans land then walked into the park along the quiet road. After about 10km we reached the park guards on the side of lake Chunguara. The view across the lake to the volcanoes was spectacular despite the high altitude taking its toll on us we found the hike wonderful.
We called into the park wardens hut by the lake where there was also a refuge to stay the night. A nice spot to stay but Parinacota village sounded more appealing.
With the altitude we were tired out so hitched a ride. After about 10 minutes we got picked up by huge white lorry. He was carrying Quinoa from near LaPaz to Arica on the coast for export to satisfy the growing western demand. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere but the Garmin etrex30 GPS I had showed a short cut to Parinacota village. I gave the friendly driver some cash and jumped out of the high cab.
We arrived in the village and the place was empty, tumble weed rolling through the streets and an old man asleep at a small drink stall. We found the park office and refugio but it was locked up. We sat for a while waiting, then visited the old man for some water. It appeared the refuge was permenantly closed despite the park truck outside. Another truck had pulled up and the man was chatting to the other old man. I asked where we could stay and it appeared nowhere was the answer. We hitched a ride out with the other chap who was in a new pickup truck down the valley to the bigger town of Putre. He went way too fast and nearly killed us but was super friendly. Putre was a nice little town on the edge of Lauca National Park with a stunning restaurant serving Alpaca loin, which I enjoyed I lot!