South America Recap: Nevados de Chillan and Las Leñas
I spent two months skiing in South America this summer, and it was fun! My trip took me to Nevados de Chillan for two weeks, Las Leñas for a month, and the Cordon del Plata for a week. I’ve been coming down here for nine years now, which makes me feel kind of old, but also very fortunate.
The majority of these photos were taken by Moritz Morlok. Thanks Boyscout!
Snowbrains
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Santiago. At least it’s surrounded by great mountains.
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Santiago at sunset.
I arrived in Santiago in the middle of August. Typically I head straight to Las Leñas, but things were looking a bit dry and warm there, so I decided to go south to Nevados de Chillan instead. I’ve been hearing good things about Nevados in recent years, and it seems to be the new snowiest place in the Andes, so I figured it was high time I checked it out.
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Hitching from Las Trancas to Nevados.
We arrived to high pressure and a mediocre base, with a storm in the forecast. We spent a couple days touring around and skiing volcanoes, which was neat.
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Volcan Nevados de Chillan and the Pyramid.
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Nevados de Chillan is a nice little place. It has plenty of medium angle volcanoey terrain, with a few surprises hidden here and there. And it does seem to get more consistent snowfall than just about anywhere else in the Andes.
After a couple days of touring, our storm arrived, so we skied powder.
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Jerry Hance approves.
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Hotel Nevados below.
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That looks interesting.
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The Fingers.
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One of the better runs we had in Chillan.
It stayed sunny for awhile, so we explored some different terrain and some hot springs.
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New friends and new mountains.
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This was probably the coolest zone we found around Nevados de Chillan. Pretty steep and long, but it ends in an epic terrain trap.
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Aguas Calientes.
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More hitching.
As the next low pressure system arrived, we decided it was time to move on. Nevados was fun, but I couldn’t stop thinking about home:
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There’s no place like home.