Heading North

Tuesday dawned bright and clear in Pucón just as we began our trip north with Joni and Martin Plaehn to experience skiing in the mountains near Santiago. Here is Martin posing next to the Pucón city sign on the road out of town. The words,"Hasta Pronto", translate to "See You Soon".

Looking back from the "Bienvenidos" side of the sign, the Plaehn's finally got to see the Volcán Villarica dominating the skyline.

We got to Temuco for our Santiago flight on LAN Airlines in plenty of time to check all of our bags and skis. We were several bags over the limit, of course.

On the approach to Santiago, I got this shot of Cerro Aconcagua (6962 m), the highest mountain in both the Western Hemisphere and in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also one of the Seven Summits that all the famous mountaineers try to climb since Snowbird's Dick Bass first climbed all seven in 1985.

This aerial photo of the El Colorado and La Parva ski areas shows the rugged terrain in the Andes east of Santiago. Click on the photo and you can see the area more clearly. The narrow road from Santiago climbs the steep slope in the foreground to a T-junction on the main plateau. We counted sixty-five switchbacks up to the plateau. To the left is the ski village of Los Farrelones. To the right is the road to Valle Nevado, which requires climbing another twenty-five or thirty switchbacks and lies behind the central massif in the valleys that are out of view. On weekends, the road is one-way up in the morning and one-way out in the afternoon. Fortunately, we arrived on a sunny weekday, so the road wasn't snowpacked or very busy.

Here is the view near Valle Nevado looking down the last few switchbacks to that plateau.

Here is a view looking up the final switchbacks to the hotels at Valle Nevado. We could feel the altitude at 2861 m (9387 feet). It was a long day of travel and we looked forward to drinking a complimentary Pisco Sour, eating a good dinner and collapsing into a comfy bed.