Ski Chile 2016

[Casey E]

It rained high again in the Araucanía, but today the temp dropped and it is snowing around 1,500m. Tomorrow could be a good day, I am heading to V Villarrica.

Due to the rain, Corralco's bottom chair is just for transport to the second chair. The snow softened though!

[Casey E]

Villarrica had a smooth but hard cover from the snowline up, which softened up around 11 down low and 2 midway to the crater. Wind and some too-hard snow kept me from going further, but lots of people made it to the peak, with crampons and piolet.

[Casey E]

The great thing about the south of Chile is, regardless of the snow conditions, it is always bello. Some shots follow from the north side of Villarrica lake where we have land, spring is defintely sprung:



My creek:


My perpetually work-in-progress rancho:


P.S. The fire is warm, the moon is near full, and the volcano is aglow like a merengue with a glazed cherry on top. Wish you were here...

[Casey E]

The season certainly crashed starting in August, the complete opposite of what happened in 2015, when it really just got started in August and continued into October. Here are the closing dates according to Nevasport:

FECHAS DE CIERRE CENTROS DE SKI 2016

Portillo 01 de Octubre Información extra oficial
La Parva closed 19 de Septiembre
El Colorado closed 19 de Septiembre
Valle Nevado 2 de Octubre Información extra oficial
Lagunillas Cerrado
Chapa Verde Cerrado
Nevados de Chillán 4 de Septiembre
Antuco Cerrado
Corralco sin fecha aún
Araucarias 25 de Septiembre Información extra oficial
Pucón 30 de Septiembre Información extra oficial
Antillanca Sin info.
Volcán Osorno Sin info.

But it is not all over yet. Yesterday, Villarrica hosted the "Avalancha en el Volcan" event, a race from the crater to the bottom. The record time is 3:40 minutes. Apparently it went well. https://www.facebook.com/AVALANCHAVOLCAN/

Next up is the Redbull Out of Hell event, this year on the Sollipulli volcano on Sept 23: http://www.redbull.com/cl/es/snow/ev...ll-out-of-hell
Might be a longer walk to the snowline than normal, but the crater area should be OK...

And just to keep everyone stoked, that it can be great in Chile, here is a video from a Laguna del Maule backcountry trip in August. Lots of cool terrain...
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[Casey E]

Hey Casey,
A buddy and I are heading to Santiago on the 4th of Oct and have a car rented. We have about 2 weeks to ski. Looks a little warm and mushy down there now days, unlike a year ago. Any advice? Totally love all the beta and pictures you have posted. Fantastic!!!

Warm and mushy it is. I have spent the last 2 weeks in shorts, and pretty much given up on skiing. My friend Slava, however, was skiing Portillo over the weekend and said it was hard early but once it softened up "Roca Jack was skiing nicely". Could even get to the bottom of Juncalillo:





The volcanoes should be skiable early October though, from Lonquimay south, they had about 50cm at 1,500m when I was there last (Sept 13), and much more up higher. All ski areas are pretty much bare at their base now, and nothing significant is in the forecast. Corralco still has no closing date, and "800 vertical meters of lift served skiing". Antillanca now reports 50cm at 1,500m, and 180cm at 1,700m. Question of altitude, and quality. Crampons help if you get out touring early.

Here are some photos from Villarrica Sept 13, when the Puelche blew down the volcano:

Fixing the funky infrastructure:


Heading up from the upper chair:




Heavy traffic near the "Catedral":


The end is in sight, but a long slog yet:


Good ski down:



Keep in touch in case I have some last minute advice!

[klar]

Coverage at Lonquimay and Lanin on Sep 18th and 21st, respectively.

[P.A.B.C.]

Here's a video my brother and I made while skiing at the end of August and beginning of September. If you've got nothing better to do, give it a watch.



Another one may come soon.

[klar]

Entertaining. The topic of the next episode sounds very promising.

[Casey E]

Just when I was about to do a post mortem for 2016, this pops up today:



The Red Bull Sollipulli event on Oct. 2 was a success, not as much snow as normal, but looks like it was fun in this video:

[P.A.B.C.]

Entertaining. The topic of the next episode sounds very promising.

Episode 2

[klar]

Episode 2

nice. did you meet Lukas and Flo in refugio Viento Blanco? (the two possibly odd seeming austrians)

[P.A.B.C.]

nice. did you meet Lukas and Flo in refugio Viento Blanco? (the two possibly odd seeming austrians)

We did! Flo was probably the first person to ski the chute (Canaleta Austriaca) featured in the video and a bunch of the other lines around there. The possibilities in Las Cuevas are endless and they took advantage of it better than we did.

Nevertheless, I think I accidentally brought his camera charger home with me...

[klar]

We did! Flo was probably the first person to ski the chute (Canaleta Austriaca) featured in the video and a bunch of the other lines around there. The possibilities in Las Cuevas are endless and they took advantage of it better than we did.

Nevertheless, I think I accidentally brought his camera charger home with me...

Haha, I'm skeptical whether he was actually the first in that chute but he was definitely the first serious skier to stay in that place and hugely impressed the guy there. Firsts on some of his and Lukas' other lines are more likely imo. I heard from Lukas that some Americans took the camera charger. he's pretty sure it was accidental, figures you seemed too disorganized to steal it on purpose

Las Cuevas is great when they have snow, yes. Seemed like less this year than last but still way more than the 5 years before that...

[Casey E]

Good videos "Pablo and Juan"! Making the best of a crummy spring. Now the snow is back to the central zone, maybe too little too late, but if you know where there was a base left from before (pure southern exposures above 3,100m I figure), you might get some pow without hitting rocks now. Valle Nevado today:



A bit more is forecast to fall today and tomorrow, with Wednesday being sunnier and cool.

[Casey E]

As it turns out, that last snowfall provided a window for some last turns. Slava made it up to Colorado on Oct 20, and got some shaky turns in on the cono este, exactly 6 months after getting his first turns in April. Here are his "saca pica" shots:

April -


October -


They say he looks older in the second one....

And we finally got together for an outing in the Valle Las Arenas, where we only had to walk about 300m from the car to put the skis on, crossing the creek at around 2,600m. So on October 22, we had some great turns on the south facing apron of the Cerro Arenas (4,400m), where quite a few people were enjoying the spring snow. We were told it was pretty bad skiing (old dirty hard snow) until this last snowfall (around 30cm). The base was still good though, and what was going to fall, had already fallen. Slava did several depth probes, and consistently found more than his 2.5m probe, in part to taking them on or near slide paths.

The approach


Looking south east, with the new road which skirts the nefasto Alto Maipo construction site and the now-off limits "choribouldering" area, at the bottom right


Smooth going on the way down







A closer look at the left canaleta, where there was still powder snow from the cliff shadows, with five skiers in it


The clouds rolled in in the afternoon, here was the view from our car where we enjoyed a couple of beers watching the show, there are several nice routes through the rocks in the foreground of the western edge of Cerro Arenas where a lengthy hanging valley provides access to the knot of 4,000-5,400m mountains just north of Cerro Arenas


Volcan San Jose looked like it had nice cover above 2,800m



A sure sign of spring for the observant

[Casey E]

I just realized that this thread had no "ubiquitous canine companion" photos, so as a parting shot, here is a patriotic chap I spotted ferrying some canine friends around in Recoleta, Santiago:

[m28ae6]

Hi guys , wondering if anyone had info in what it's like to do a winter season in chile. I'll be going with my gf and we are both advance riders, this would be our 4th season so have been looking at nevados de chillian for deep snow. Also the three valleys but it seems you can't buy a season pass which included a them all?

Any info would be great

Thanks guys

[406]

Wow, lots of good info in this thread. I haven't parsed it all and am trying to pick a week to visit. I won a contest and have a week at Valle Nevado. I know it is impossible to predict, but what would be your (or others) suggestion? I would be fine not getting any powder(but ok if it happened), goal would be spring conditions and relatively more stable conditions, but not hot/melted out. I had been thinking Sept 8-15, but looks like last year that would have been too late. Thanks!