Ski in Chile - advice from an insider

[gscruggs]

The snow gods have answered for septiembre! Still looking for folks to go to Chillán with me around 9/11-9/17 -- PM or reply.

[alfajores]

In loose relation to this, my Subaru died and my new car can't accept my old ski rack with all of it's glorious stickers. Would anyone collect some more south america resort stickers for me to mail back for the new rocket box when you have a chance? I will pay you for your efforts.

[Casey E]

Snowing and raining in Chillan, wind coming and going, strong up high. Upper lifts haven´t opened for a few days. Hoping for snow tonight and lifts opening tomorrow!

Got a nice thermal bath in:



And then caught the new Marker Kingpin touring binding hot off the presses:



Happy campers Lou, Scooter and Stein showing the gear off.

[Casey E]

Chillan got some new snow, 20cm of wet stuff at the base of Don Otto, but high winds kept the lifts closed:



Ski patrol informed us "randonee is not permitted within the ski area", with threats of the police being called in (we weren't the only desperate ones), so we had to go down to the end of Las Tres Marias, and ski up that, along with the snowmobile tours. Warm and wet until we got out of the trees, then we got wind blasted until we gave up:



Then got a few turns in so we could say we "had a day":



Forecast appears to be more of the same for several days, sorry to say.

[hoarhey]

Snowing and raining in Chillan, wind coming and going, strong up high. Upper lifts haven´t opened for a few days. Hoping for snow tonight and lifts opening tomorrow!

Got a nice thermal bath in:



And then caught the new Marker Kingpin touring binding hot off the presses:



Happy campers Lou, Scooter and Stein showing the gear off.

Nice pics. Do you mean Stian? as in stian hagen? It looks like him.

[moridinbg]

Wind and rain and snow all in the same time in Corralco. Nothing good in the forecast before a supposed bigger storm in the weekend

[Casey E]

Nice pics. Do you mean Stian? as in stian hagen? It looks like him.

Yer right, Stian Hagen.

[Casey E]

Got two days in Corralco, mix of wind, snow, rain and some clear moments. Great snow and coverage, just a bit wet at the bottom, with variable visibility. Stayed at the Suizandina, great ambience and breakfasts! Our thanks go out to Gregory of the Chil-in hostal in Las Trancas for his shipping gear over to Lonquimay.

The top of the Cumbre t-bar, where the lift shack is burried, and the liftees have to do with a half-igloo:

Oops, can't upload photos, the option seems blocked, but will do so asap. Cheers to all who are in the Pucon-Chillan stretch of Chile, where conditions will be quite good once the wind and rain die down....

[moridinbg]

What about the wind? There is new snow almost as low as Malalcahuello. We are going up tomorrow.

Got 60cm+ yesterday under Antuco volcan, but no visibility and high winds:

[Casey E]

What about the wind? There is new snow almost as low as Malalcahuello. We are going up tomorrow.

Got 60cm+ yesterday under Antuco volcan, but no visibility and high winds:

Also windy, gusting to 70k, but we rode the 2 surface lifts. Snowline is at treeline in general.

[Casey E]

This is the way to start your day, some inspiring marching music to brave the elements of looming temporal!

The top of the Cumbre t-bar, where the lift shack is burried, and the liftees have to do with a half-igloo:

[scotttcb]

hey casey, my trip is finally here. how are things looking at valle nevado? lots of minefields out there still? if so, should i really avoid off-piste skiing?

[Casey E]

hey casey, my trip is finally here. how are things looking at valle nevado? lots of minefields out there still? if so, should i really avoid off-piste skiing?

Things are better in the 3 valleys, at least the groomers sound great, but I am not sure about off-piste, probably pretty iffy. I will be going up to La Parva soon, and will report back, probably friday.

[moridinbg]

Hopes for snow didn't materialise in Corralco. After 4 days of (often heavy) snowing the wind completely blew and packed everything around the ski area. Some light dusting with no winds last night, but it wouldn't change much. Will check the surrounding area in the next few days.

[C_Free]

gcscruggs and I went up to Valle Nevado on Sunday. Beautiful day to be out there and enjoy the views. We skiied around the area for the morning and went touring up the ridge past the Valle del Inca chair towards Ploma. Skiied a shot off the ridge; good wind buffed snow. Coverage was ok, some hidden rocks but overall you could find a good route down It was getting warm towards the end of the day though, so I don't know how the snow is now.

[Casey E]

Skied La Parva today. Sunny but cool, and the runs didn´t soften up. Good hard pack cruising on the groomers, almost no rocks, off-piste is variable windpack and skied crud. Cerro La Parva bowl looked as good as it has all year. Basically, off-piste is solid, wysiwyg, and rocks are fairly evident.

The sky was a protagonist, here lovely clouds above Falso Parva, Cerro La Parva (middle), and El Franciscano:



Few souls ventured onto the slopes today, even the racers were mostly absent, apparently they moved on to greener or whiter pastures (like to Corralco) when things got ugly mid-August. They are getting lazy with grooming here as the season winds down, and we just had the ubiquitous canine companions to liven things up:

[gscruggs]

Hanging out at Chill-in Hostel (Casey: Gregory sends abrazos) and waiting for C_Free to get here on his late bus from Santiago. Met some folks who have been in the backcountry and it's still hard above lift line despite the warming temps. Possible corn conditions on lift serviced areas of Chillán. We're planning a night out with los ratitos at the Refugio Garganta del Diablo. Anyone else coming through Chillán, by all means look us up.

[Casey E]

Skied Colorado yesterday, and I must say they had more runs open than La Parva. Whereas some lower runs in La Parva were closed (like Alpha or La Hoya), and Fabres chair was closed (either from lack of people or the 40 meter slush and dirt stretch of the return to Las Vegas), Colorado had all lifts and almost all runs open (Farellones and Enlace are snowless).

The north, east and west facing slopes got soft, while the south ones stayed hard. Great skiing. Looking south from Los Pioneros to the Cono Este:



Looking north to the Cerro La Parva bowl from Pioneros, fairly good coverage looks like gcscruggs and C Free tracks down the middle there:



My girl cruising the spring snow on Cono Este:
[IMG]https://www.tetongravity.com/images/ci-images/35843/photo_2_(3)__forum.jpg[/IMG

Snowing very lightly right now in La Parva, with dense fog. Tomorrow could be a pow day!

[C_Free]

Heading down to Pucon for a few days, looking to arrive on Wednesday. If anyone wants to meet up and do some touring PM me!

[Casey E]

Once again, the snowfall surpassed snow-forecast, with about 30cm falling first wet then light and dry with no wind.

Bluebird day in the 3 Valleys on sunday:


With room for everyone:



Even if La Parva has now rented out most of the runs to racers in the morning, and shut down Fabres chair ("due to a condor accident" ?!?), they couldn't mismanage the powder. No crowds, probably because many avoid these hassles in La Parva.

[FrankenKnee]

I am so JEALOUS. Here in the Northern Hemishpere, in Southern California crying.

[worldbski]

anyone know when Termas is closing down for the season?

[Casey E]

Nevados de Chillan website says "last week of the season", special rates until Sept 28. 50% of lifts open today, Don Otto closed... Don´t know how much you can believe of this, if they have the 3 meter base they say they have, they should stay open until mid-October. They used to....

[Casey E]

Confirmed, Nevados closes Sept 28, bad management strikes again. Corralco goes to Oct 13, probably Las Araucarias and Villarrica too. Forecast looks good for the area with cool weather and more snow: 65 cm for Corralco in the next 3 days (at the base!). Valle Nevado will probably hang in there until October. La Parva closes this weekend (28).

[alto]

Not sure its "bad" management. Es lo que es. Been a rough several years for most (all?) ski hills on both sides of the Andes, this year in particular. Crazy climate trends, used to be a sure thing that the dieciocho was still ski time, now all my friends seem to go to the
beach.