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Thread: Ski Chile 2019
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06-24-2019, 03:12 PM #76
Snowing hard now in La Parva, the magic carpet is almost buried!
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06-24-2019, 05:39 PM #77
Day 2
Loaded with an email authorizing our entry to the Laguna de la Invernada by Enel, the Italian energy behemoth with a hydro facility there (Central Cipreses), we drove past the entrance and stopped in at the Puesto de Control y Reten de Carabineros de Chile at La Mina. When the weather is bravo or they are working on one stretch or the other (large rockslides) of the Paso Pehuenche road, sometimes they close it at this point.
We showed the gentlemen in the office there the email, and he smiled and pulled out a two page “registration of expedition”, into which my creativity flourished, and with our RUTs registered, disclaimers signed off on, and a cell phone number to call upon our safe return, we backtracked to the Enel gate.
There, we were received with open arms by a man who already knew our names, took our expedition papers, and gave us a key and about the worst photocopied map I have ever seen. After crossing the Maule on perhaps the last bridge going up, we just assumed we would stay left through the maze of roads, to get up high on that side of the valley. At the beginning there are orderly, wide streets with neat stone and wood homes, with no people visible, that felt strangely out of place. The dirt road in was in wonderfully good shape, no traffic at all.
After 11km, of which the last 3 were on top of a large partially weathered lava flow, or “escorial”, we got to the trailhead, about 1km before the Laguna down below, and 1,300m altitude
The “trail head” later in the day, no signage whatsoever. Our destination was the volcanic cone of snow in the middle, known as “Hornitos”, the source of the escorial. The snowline was what looked like a 30 min hike through ciprés trees and crumbling volcanic rock outcrops. Turned out more convoluted than we thought, and we took an hour winding our way on a nice trail of volcanic sand with scuffs of grass and patches of snow.
On the way, we had great views of the Volcán/Cerro Azul or Quizapú (3,800m). This has seen a major eruption in each of the last 2 centuries. The 1846 one from a subsidiary cone on the north side produced 9 sq km of escorial. The 1932 one was heard in Buenos Aires, and blanketed the area to the north and mainly east, with 9 cubic km of white ash/sand such that even now in summer, there is a volcanic sweep 40km long where everything is white. The day was darkened in Santiago.
We dumped our sneakers and geared up thinking the snow would be wet and tricky between the scrub. It quickly got deep enough on the south sides of the gullies going up above treeline. From this point, it is clear there are two routes around the largest Hornitos cone. One goes south up a gully with the cone on the north side and a rock face on the other, which is where the trail winds in summer. The other is to go straight up and between the two cones over to the small laguna on the other side. Either cone could be skied up to, and more in the valley beyond. We chose the middle.
With the grass and scrub visible on most of the first 200m of skinning, it was clear the base was not more than 50cm, and moist. Fortunately, this area is mostly small pebbles or sand, so that turned out to be enough.
The end of the Laguna de la Invernada and the Quizapú Escorial.
The drone guy gets going
Slava on the southeast face of the big Hornitos crater (2,000m)
The snow here was better than we expected, and the light worse
Slava negotiates a route out to the escorial
and then negotiates our official salida sin novedad
Not bad for a June weekend.
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06-24-2019, 08:20 PM #78
Portillo continues to get clobbered
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06-24-2019, 11:55 PM #79
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06-25-2019, 07:23 AM #80
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06-25-2019, 09:07 AM #81
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06-25-2019, 10:46 AM #82
Thanks for the sweet TR Casey E!
27° 18°
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06-25-2019, 04:22 PM #83
Just to add to the awesomeness of the last spot we went, here is a google maps photo of the Hornitos Volcano, looking down the lava flow
Our route is in red. Interesting that the parasite crater of Hornitos was a relatively small deal, but managed to block two valleys and create two lakes. More interesting still is the valley to the left of the Hornitos, which ends at the edge of the volcanic wasteland that winds towards the Descabezado Grande.
I got these off of wikiexplora. The view from Hornitos up the valley, where lots of lines lure
The view from Cerro Risco, with the end cirque of the Hornitos valley in the foreground and V Descabezado and Quizapu.
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06-26-2019, 07:08 AM #84
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06-27-2019, 12:16 PM #85
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06-27-2019, 01:14 PM #86
Nice 180° drone shot of the Corralco midstation, I suppose yesterday
https://www.mountain-forecast.com/pe...forecasts/2715
Appears the road still gets to the second chair, not for long I think.
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06-27-2019, 04:55 PM #87
What to expect from this weekends storm
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06-28-2019, 08:57 AM #88
La Parva says Saturday 29 opening, bunny runs only.
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06-28-2019, 11:24 AM #89
Corralco says
"Adivinen que día es hoy...
¡HOY ES DIA DE POWDER! ❄️
Han caido más de 140cm de nieve, en las últimas 24 horas y estamos preparados para tu visita ¡Nos vemos en Corralco!
Image may contain: one or more people, snow, child, outdoor and nature"
Chillan opens officially tomorrow and is getting nuked
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06-29-2019, 03:34 PM #90
Picked up around 40cm in Portillo. Sin viento, which is good. We could definitely use more, but their huge investment in a brand new snowmaking system is paying dividends.
First guests were supposed to arrive today, but the road has been closed all day.
I’m unable to post pics, but will work on that, as my updates aren’t nearly as interesting without them.
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
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06-29-2019, 09:19 PM #91
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06-30-2019, 03:01 PM #92Registered User
- Join Date
- May 2019
- Posts
- 2
Chile ski
Hey Casey,
Long time follower of your posts and a big fan of what you are doing here. My wife and I are on a year long trip, driving from Seattle to Patagonia and are currently in the Mendoza area. We are getting ready to have our ski stuff shipped to Santiago and we're wondering if you'd be available to meet up in the next couple of weeks so we could pick your brain on all things Chile (beers on us of course)?
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07-01-2019, 06:26 AM #93Registered User
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Posts
- 362
I assume you plan on doing a decent amount of skiing, thus making shipping your gear down a good decision.
I am curious though if you have looked into rentals in SA? Are there good quality demo skis available? I am planning on skiing Valle Nevado in early sept but we will likely only get 3 or 4 days on the slopes. I don't think I want to lug my skis all the way down there for that. Any input or advice from anyone who's made the trip would be greatly appreciated.
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07-01-2019, 09:12 AM #94
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07-01-2019, 06:23 PM #95
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07-01-2019, 06:31 PM #96
No, but it is enjoying a bit of a folksy revival. Being Pehuenche territory, it is more oriented to locals going for a day in the snow, although I think a growing number of people are skinning out of there, or riding sleds. The road in is plowed from Lonquimay, but not from Malalcahuello.
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07-02-2019, 06:27 AM #97
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07-02-2019, 06:34 AM #98
Any of you avalanche experts have an opinion on this crack reported at the top of Santa Teresa in El Colorado?
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07-02-2019, 08:45 AM #99
^^^burly!!! Is that all the new snow at el colorado? I would shit my pants if I was up there and that happened
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07-02-2019, 12:43 PM #100
Dated info, 4 yrs ago, defer to Casey , but was less than impressed with the few rental shops we saw in Santiago, though the “sports mall” had a ton of new stuff from the big manufacturers. One of my buddies decided to buy rather than rent. However, once at VN, seemed like a decent rental stock, nothing from the smaller independent makers
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