This is a rather epic blog post about both just getting to and then exploring a rather incredible place even more so in the depths of winter;
A quick ski day in Verbier, Switzerland
So after the excitement of waist deep powder in Chamonix two days ago on Sunday we drove over to the freeride mecca of Verbier.
Finally winter is here – Grands Montets, Chamonix
A quick little video edit of the insanely deep powder
An awesome 2013 in just 12 Photos
2013 was great, we packed a lot into 12 months, visiting 16 countries across 4 continents.
It started in
Snowboarding on Volcano Quetrupillan, Chile
I think this was my favourite volcano of the nine we snowboarded in Chile. It is located in a remote part of the Villarrica National Park
Snowboarding The High Andes – The Movie
This is the 3rd and final edit from our splitboard ski touring of South America.
Snowboarding Volcano Villarrica, Chile
Well the weather finally cleared up leaving 20cm of fresh snow behind on a perfect bluebird day to ski tour on split boards up Volcano Villarrica near Pucon, chile. It is without doubt the most popular volcano to climb, it is pretty straightforward, not easy but not as steep as many of the others. We felt pretty sorry for the few large guided groups who were trudging along walking the whole way in crampons. The slow pace up and more notably the long drag down in this fresh snow meant all but the very fittest and quickest had no chance of reaching the top. Do the guides tell them this in advance? A certain smugness was to be had as we skied up past them, but not as smug as the way down!
As seems normal now, we camped up in a random spot, potentially illegally within the national park but just off the access road. The night before a sudden cold snow shower left the lower elevations of the park blanketed in a white dusting, a stunning sunset then illuminated the fresh snow, it was absolutely beautiful. Marion panicked that we would be snowed in by morning, but the van was fine driving up the final slopes to the volcano base.
In the carpark we were surprised by the number of people, up until now we had only shared a volcano with one other group. Here there were at least 50 people. Mostly walking, but a few skiers too. We made progress up under the stationary lifts, following an icy ridge up that required crampons. We then hit the main face which was filled with deep powder and a long skin up to the crater edge. The top got progressively more icy with huge ice boulders blocking the path. The picture below is just as it started getting interesting!
The wind had transformed the snow higher up, but with axes and crampons we climbed onto the crater rim. The view had gone, replaced by whispy cloud and the pluming white sulphuric gases belting into our faces, more than a few minutes in this resulted in light headedness and shortness of breath. As you would agree light headedness is not ideal when on the crater of a active volcano. We traversed upwind of the toxic sulphur, narrowly avoiding a huge melted hole down into the snow, disappearing to goodness knows how deep and probably ending in bubbling magma!
It was then time to start down. The initial section from the crater was intimidating as it fell away steeply and was covered in ice. We progressed with ice axes in hand as per above picture, this was to help arrest us if we fell and started to slide a bit. Because on a volcano f you fall the constant slopes mean you just would keep sliding for 1000m plus! It wasn’t long until we found the softer snow lower down, which let us open up and shred the powder laden consistent slopes for the full 1000m odd of descent. With such slopes it messes with your head as a sense of perception for the scale of the drop below is lost.
Lower down the trees in the distance were still iced in snow as we reached the natural half pipes of the old lava flows. We raced past the walking groups, who as anticipated had sadly all but one failed to summit. The walk back home must have felt longer for them as skiers whistled past them having the run of their lives….sorry! All together a fairly unforgettable experience in perfect conditions (well a better view from the top might be nice!).
Pucon, Chile – Termas Geometricas and the National Parks
While waiting for a clear weather window to climb Volcano Villarrica we explored some of the local sights around Pucon. In summer Pucon must be heaving with hordes of tourists but on a rainy winters day it is pretty deserted. We dodged the rain and found some cake and empanadas. Both overpriced compared to the rest of Chile but hey this is Pucon; tourist tour capital of Chile! One of the sadder trends of traveling is the rise of the backpacker tour. It is fair enough for locals to earn some cash but it is sad that backpackers don’t explore or seek independent adventure and experiences. When I write this blog a 1000 others pop up where they have all written about the exact same tours they have done in the Pucon area. Visiting in winter is one way to see the area differently, but a bit less planning and a bit more adventure goes a long way to experience novel and more worthwhile experiences. We hiked in Villarrica National Park, Huerquehue National Park and Villarrica National Reserve. In the wet weather the glorious depth of green set against the darken sky made for an unique experience. We first visited Huerquehue, we arrived quite late and after a chat with the CONAF ranger we camped next to the entrance arch. He let use use the office facilities, as we sheltered from wind and rain. The trees were bending over double under the strongest gusts, a branch 6 feet above the van was whipping the roof all night, we were convinced a tree would fall near the van! Luckily it didn’t and the next day we cooked breakfast and set off on a hike to the lakes in the park. The large Tinquilco Lake is one of several lakes in the park which we passed on the “Tres Lagos” (Lago Chico, Lago Toro and Laguna Verde) hike. After the recent rain the waterfalls were thunderous, the force of the wind from the falling water was snapping branches off trees! We struggled to cross bridges that had become submerged in water, like the one below.
The Tres Lagos themselves were nicely set surrounded by monkey puzzles trees and dramatic mountains. On the drive out the next day we came across a few goats on the road!
We camped on the access road to Termas Geometrica a truly inspired hot spring. It has been designed to engage the beauty of the vivid and luscious green canyon while taking influence from Japaneses Onsen. The result is 19 hot pools fed by numerous hot streams above a fast flowing river that cuts down the centre. THe angular red board walks add a touch of Japan.The picture below shows the atmospheric rain falling and steam rising in the dramatic green canyon.
This is one of the 19 hot pools that we enjoyed to ourselves. On a wet day like this we had nothing better to do so took full advantage of the empty pools. We spent the whole day hopping between different temperature pools, including the brutally cold waterfall.
I particularly liked the Chilean road signs some made no sense, this one indicated the slope was steeper than a steep hill. We only saw these signs on sketchy gravel roads!
I am not sure if it is because they are in the southern hemisphere but the spiders seemed to go a bit crazy postmodernist in their web design!
The was a great spot on the access road to Villarrica nationa park. We asked the ranger where to camp and he told us to speak to the house opposite so we did. The old chap appeared and showed as a spot including a picnic table where we could stay, he dusted down an old outhouse we could use as a toilet and then brought us some dry wood to start a fire. He also showed me the tinderbox properties of the Coihue tree leaves, even when soaking wet straight off the tree these leaves burn like dry paper. Ideal for starting a fire not so ideal at quickly burning national parks down….
His dogs kept us company all night by the van and next to the fire.