Spring before winter!

We got a bit tired of waiting for some great snow, so we left Pucon to see if we would be able to find anything good snow further south.

We headed to Osorno where there is a small resort on Volcano of the same name.

The map of the area we had wasn’t quite precise. We ask a bit around and we were eventually directed towards what should be the resort.

I started to doubt as we were going up a small dirt road with a slight cover of snow.

To make a long story short, we eventually figured out once we got at the end of the road that resort wasn’t on the north side of the resort (where we were) but on the south side. To make it there, there was a bit more than 3 hours of driving involve….

                           

The worst part is that there wasn’t even enough snow to go out for some turns. Instead of skiing and check out this small resort, we spend the day hiking around the volcano and enjoying the view.

 

                               

We were both a bit bummed about the non-ski day, but that was certainly quite a great day out.

A bit pissed about that mis-orientation, we left the area without going checking the resort and headed to Antillanca.

That resort certainly showed the signs of a bad snow year so far.  

The cover at the bottom of the slope was really thin. It seems that they were kind of grooming the rocks with the snow!

                                            

We skinned up the resort figuring out we could climb the volcano Casablanca. Which is behind the resort.  As we got close to the top, we found out that it was fairly icy. Actually, the slopes were really shinny and we could barely stand. We gave up the idea of summiting the Casablanca volcano..

                              

From the top of the ski resort Antillanca, we had a terrific view of the surrounding volcanoes. We made one lap down the groom run the view was certainly better than the turns.

                               

                                                                                        

As we kept moving and headed towards Argentina we found out we weren't the only one having problem with the ice!

First stop was in Villa La Angostura to check out Cerro Bayo.

                           

                                                                                  

The bottom of the resort had the worst snow covering: grass!!

We bootpacked up from the bottom until we were able to put the skins on.  We headed towards the freesking area.  We eventually found out that the snow was better up there. 

                             

After a quite miserable start, we both had to agree that it was probably our best day so far! We for the first time some nice cold snow to make turns on!

                          

                                                                               

                                                                                

After that great day of skiing, we heard from Vincent, a friend of mine from Quebec, saying he had quite a good spring skiing day in Chapelco. We made it a no brainer to drive the 3 hours to catch with him.

We caught up with them and drove to Chapelco where we skinned up the resort and went straight to the backcountry.The scenery was certainly quite nice, but the snow was a mix of powder, dead cookies and hard spot.

The north slope had seen much more sun and were quite soft.

As bad as the south side was for skiing, the north side was everything you would expect from spring skiing.

All and all, that was quite a great day of skiing!

So good that we went back for some resort skiing the following day.

Vince and Manu had quite a night out and they woke up just 20 minutes before their checkout. We spend the day out chilling and enjoying the lifts to another great day of skiing!

 

We drove straight to Bariloche.

We were pretty excited to check out Cerro Catedral, the resort next from Bariloche, but we woke up to some cold and cloudy day.

We figured it would be a great day to start with some eggs and wine.

We drove around town, did some laundry and catch up some undone geeking from the past days.

After wandering around for the day, we caught up with Vince and Manu to check the sunset over the lakes surrounding Bariloche.

We got stuck at the Blest, the local microbrewery, that were offering a 50% on the beer from 6PM to 8PM. After our second 2.5liters of beer, we made the plan for the next say to drive south to check out Perito Moreno near El Bolson.

From the maps, it looks like there was a nice backcountry area above the resort.

We got there and found the driest resort we have witnessed so far! There wasn’t even a trace of snow at the bottom! We caught the chairlift to save some hiking above the resort.

We quickly found out the area above the resort is dead flat and certainly doesn’t worth to make it up there if you are looking for turns. We hiked around and made it up for the view, but one shouldn’t go there for the turns.

Actually, I think the town of El Bolson worth more stopping by than the resort. With it small hippy market around the central plaza, it has a much better vibe than Bariloche.

After a homemade sandwich, we kept driving south towards Esquel and its local resort: La Hoya. We drove under a great night full of stars and stopped about 30km before making it to town to chill and drink a bit of wine.

Another bluebird day was waiting for us the following morning.

The good news was the resort had snow all the way at the bottom! This was only the 2^nd resort (after Chapelco), that we found snow all the way down to the base! The snow condition wasn't too promising though!

The resort was actually fairly covered! We even got the word that it this resort was pretty often offering less snow due the high wind.

We hiked a bit around and check out different aspect until we found the nice north facing slope that was getting warmed up by the sun!

We lapped that face almost all day enjoying the nice soft turns in that steady spring snow! I thought I was making a trip in South America to get some more winter, but instead, we were having spring day after spring day!

We didn’t chilled out too much in the parking lot since about 4 hours of driving were waiting for us to get back to Bariloche to catch up with Babiche who just made it to Argentina.

The plans for the coming days are to check out a bit more the skiing potential of Bariloche!

Vamos!

Summer skiing in Chile part 1: Mucho Viento!

It finally happened!

After resisting for multiple years to the urge of my girlfriend to do a ski trip in South America, I finally gave up and catch a plane July 12th with Amelie. After all, last winter wasn’t as great as my previous winters with only 6 weeks of ski trip (compare to the usual 12-15!!)

We left the toasting warm Montreal to leave for Santiago.

                               

As the plane was taking off, I still wasn’t able to feel the urge of skiing.

                                

The trip went flawlessly and we arrived as plan in the morning. After catching the city bus, the subway and a cab, we were finally at the Wicked Camper headquarter to get the van we’ve rented for the next month.

                                               

We were pretty stoked to get the key of our Chilean home!!

Since winter is the low season to rent a van, the price and availability were better than in summer. And what is really great is that the van come fully equiped with cookware, cooking stove, foldable table, chairs, pillows and chains!

Pablo, who is running the Santiago office, and Tono are both quite a cool guy and were really taking the time to show us the van and explained us basic safety and travelling tips.

                              

Since the precipitations were pretty sparse  we hitted the road to go south towards Pucon.

                                                   

The road 5 (PanAmerican Highway) is really great to travel fast. With perfect asphalt, separate double lanes everywhere, it is certainly the best way to make some distance fast. The drawback are the tolls who cost almost as much as the gas! The scenery from the road are not the most intereting since even if you can always see the Andes in the distance, you never gets really close to them.

                           

We finally got to Pucon late after a day and a half of driving.

When we eventually woke up to get our first turns, we got to a station with absolutely no snow on the ground!

                           

We learned that there is usually snow in the parking lot, but it is a bit early in the season to have some.

                           

Since a bad news usually never come alone, we learned the lifts were close due to the high wind.  We made the quick skin up to the top of the chairlift. Once we got there, we could barely stand due to the wind. We chilled a bit waited for the weather to eased up a bit, but it never did…

                            

Our first summer turns were on some spring snow with poor visibility!

                           

It seems the Chillean are a bit used to have the lift close since a lot of them were out hiking to get some turns in. The fact that it was their winter holiday brought many of them to the mountain.!

                            

Most of them didn’t really cared about the lack of snow or poor visibility, but were simply enjoying the joy of playing in the snow!

                            

Since the conditions weren’t quite convincing, we decided to go check out the nearby (as it appears on the map…) station of Las Araucarias. After 3 hours of driving and crossing a closed bridge with the van, we got to the parking lot that had a bit of snow in it!

                           

We were pretty stoked to wake up and check the conditions the following morning since the sky was all blue!

 

After a better look at the mountain, we realized that it was quite shinny! Signs that a recent rain episode now frozen solid….

We took a ride up to go check out different aspect and peek the possibility to hike on the Volcano Llaima.

                            

The view certainly compensate for the shitty skiing conditions we were having! I don’t think I’ve ever skin on such hard surface for that long! We eventually stop our ascension since the wind was making it almost impossible to hike any higher.

                            

After a lunch enjoying the view of the volcano, we thought we might try the sunny side to check if the snow has soften up from the sun.

And it did!!!

                            

The turns were pretty smooth and it was great to have some decent turns just at the foot of a pretty stunning volcano!

As we made our way back to the resort, we found some nice spring conditions. The trees around the resort are also pretty cool! Those araucarias trees seem to have been taken straight from Jurassic Park! It was kind of making turns under pre-historic palm trees!

                                            

With high wind on the forecast and more rain, we decided to drive back to Pucon where there is more options for various activities than Las Araucarias (where the only non-skiing activity is drinking…!)

The forecast was right on!

It was fairly chilly and pissing rain.

We figured we could tourist a bit around Pucon to spend some time than headed to the termas for a soak. The town of Pucon is quite a busy touristic town. There is multiple adventure outfitter for almost every activity one can think of! That makes it a bit too much of a tourist oriented place to my taste....

Fortunately, there are some small things like the electrified trees that remind you that it is not still Banff!!!

                           

Termas Los Pozones are apparently a favorite amongst Chilean. So there we went! It is a pretty cool set up just next to a nice class 3+ rapid! We took the afternoon to soak up in the warm water as the rain was pissing on us.

When the weather eventually cleared up by the end of the day, the top of the nearby mountain where slightly white. There was probably hope to have some decent snow higher up!

                          

We went back to Pucon-Villarica ski resort for a second try and…. It was still pure ice. The snow from the previous day hasn’t been able to stick to the hard surface that was already present.

We put the crampons to climb a bit higher since the skins were simply useless. After some time wandering around and waiting, the snow eventually soften up a bit and we were able to have again some decent turns on some certain aspect. That could have certainly been better but we were certainly quite lucky to have the sun to melt up a bit the surface.

                           

The next morning, we woke up to some cooler temp and a much more overcast sky. We figured that the snow wouldn’t soften up this time and that it didn’t worth making up to the hill to check it out.

With all the rain from the previous day, we figured it would be a much better day to get in the water!

                           

We went to an outfitter and I rented a kayak as Amélie embark on a rafting trip! It was a nice float trip on the Baja Liucura!

We eventually catch up with Tree, a friend of our, who was in Chile to guide for Casa Tour. After a great dinner and some wine bottle poping, we experience the late night shift of the Chilean bar… With nothing much interesting in the forecast, we figured it was the best time to check it out! We eventually crawled out of the van fairly late this morning.

                          

It looks like we’re most likely to hit the road to see if there is anything better around Chile.

Hope we get better snow in the coming days....because there is none on the forecast!! 

evans