Chasing Winter on the Chilean Volcanoes
At the end of August, Alex and I headed to South America to chase winter in the depths of the US summer and had a blast skiing a couple Chile volcanoes in spring-like conditions. However, this was not our Plan A. (I really need to start keeping track of how often my Plan As fall through because I feel like I write this sentence nearly every other post!) Our Plan A was a hut-to-hut backcountry ski trip outside of Bariloche, specifically this trip from Powder Quest: https://powderquest.com/trips/patagonia-hut-to-hut/. We booked the trip at the end of 2024 and kept our fingers crossed for good conditions. Unfortunately, the region experienced its worst snowpack since 1996. The winter was dry and warm and there was little to no snow at the Frey and Jakob huts. About a week before our trip, Powder Quest emailed us and said they were looking into moving our trip so we could experience better snow. In just a week, they and our guide, Maxi, completely overhauled our trip and rearranged our entire itinerary. Instead of being a pretty straightforward trip into the backcountry, we would embark on a road trip through Chile, using Malalcahuello and Pucón as basecamps as we attempted to ski volcanoes. It was an impressive feat to pull off and I’m so glad that we booked this trip through a guiding company because I do not know what we would have done if I had planned this trip on my own. I suppose we would have been stuck lapping the one chair that was open at the Cerro Catedral resort!
Part 1: malalcahuello
We started the trip with an eight hour drive from Bariloche to our first base camp: the beautiful Posada del Rio lodge in Malalcahuello, where we would spend three days and three nights. The lodge itself was stunning, an idyllic oasis tucked away in a lush forest right on the outskirts of town, complete with a wood-burning hot tub that overlooks a creek. I couldn’t have imagined a more tranquil lodge if I tried.
While staying in Malalcahuello, we climbed two volcanoes and skied superb storm laps on a snowy day. Our first day there, after three full days of travel from Seattle by plane and car, we had our biggest day of the trip. We climbed and skied Llaima, a 10,253’ peak requiring a ~6,100’ ascent to reach the summit. It was a pretty big climb on tired legs, but that day was forecasted to be the most favorable of the entire trip, and you don’t sit out a favorable forecast like that. It ended up being my favorite day of the trip. The tour reminded me of spring skiing the volcanoes in the PNW, in fact, I kept thinking of the area as the PSW—Pacific Southwest—in my head. Chile is also located on the ring of fire, the Andes get battered by storms rolling of the Pacific, and the area is peppered with towering stratovolcanoes. The tour was made even more special by the fact that we encountered no other groups the entire day. We opted for the less-traveled north route which gave us access to a steep, wide, and endlessly fun run. It was quite the way to start off the trip.
The second day of our trip was a storm day, so we headed to the Corralco ski resort and got in about 4,000’ of storm laps outside the resort. When we started the tour in the snow and blasting wind I thought it might be a short day, but we stayed out for four laps. The snow ended up being much better than I expected!
Before moving on from Malalcahuello, we spent the morning of the third day skiing Lonquimay. The volcano towers above the Corralco ski resort. Ski tourers can actually use the lifts to make it about 3/4 of the way up the volcano, but since our trip was backcountry based, we started at the bottom and climbed all the way to the top. Clouds were forecasted to sweep in midday, but as we ascended it looked like the clouds were arriving early, so our guide hustled us up the mountain. I’m not sure I’ve ever climbed a mountain on skis so quickly. We ended up climbing over 4,000’ in just 2 hours and 45 minutes, but we needed every spare minute we could manage because by the time we summited, the clouds had settled into the valleys and only the summits of the tallest mountains were visible. The conditions made for a wildly scenic summit, but also a couple thousand feet of tough skiing in a whiteout. Still, it felt like a huge success.
Part 2: Pucón
The second half of the trip was spent in Pucón, a scenic tourist destination that sits in the shadow of Villarrica, another snowcapped stratovolcano. Villarrica was our main goal on this leg of the trip, but unfortunately the forecast did not cooperate. What once had looked like a promising weather window at the beginning of our trip had shut by the time we arrived in Pucón. We spent our first day in the area exploring the city and soaking in the Los Pozones hot springs. The clouds above us angry and roiling. I was grateful to be enjoying the city and hot springs instead of toiling on the slopes of the volcano.
We hoped that our second day in Pucón would allow for a successful summit so we woke early and headed to the base of the mountain. The forecast still looked mighty stormy, but it was our one chance at Villarrica. As we wound our way toward the Villarrica Ski Resort (this climb also starts at the base of a ski resort), the lower slopes of the volcano were exposed and sunny. I felt cautiously optimistic about the day, but the optimism was short-lived as the moment we started climbing, the clouds encroached. After about 30 minutes, we found ourselves in a total whiteout. We continued to climb, and took a break at ~6,700’, in the shelter of an old ski lift building that was never completed. It looked more like the remains of beached ship than a ski building, but I was happy to be out of the wind. After an extended break in the shelter, Maxi said he didn’t think the clouds would break enough for us to summit. Especially since above the shelter there were far fewer rocks and navigating would become exceedingly difficult, not to mention trying to ski down in a whiteout. We weren’t ready for our last ski day to end so quickly, so we skied laps on the lower slopes all day. The visibility wasn’t great, but it gave us an opportunity to work on navigating and skiing in poor visibility and variable conditions, and dialing in our storm layering system.
After about 5,000’ of storm laps we skied to the bottom, exhausted, wet, but thoroughly happy with the day.
We ended up skiing on four days of the trip, compared to the planned six days. On the surface that realization felt a tad disappointing, but when I added up all the vert we were able to ski (nearly 20,000’) we likely skied the same amount we would have skied over six days on the trip we initially booked. On this version of the trip our ski days were just bigger! It was so fun to ski spring corn and storm snow at the end of August and early September. It may have been a poor snow year in Argentina and Chile, but thanks to Powder Quest’s quick acting and Maxi’s skills, we were still able to make the most of the trip and I left totally satisfied with the experience. August and September turns: check!
