Los Nevados De Chíllán

A severe late-season storm over the weekend had deposited as much as a foot of fresh powder over Volcán Chíllán's double summit, but now it was Thursday and the winter sun to the north had had three clear days to beat down on the south facing slopes.

Utah skiers love fresh powder and we wondered what would be left for us. Of course, in the Southern Hemisphere, south facing slopes are protected from the sun in the same way north-facing slopes are protected in the Northern Hemisphere. Three days after a storm in Utah there wouldn't be much untracked left for sincere powder hounds like us, but we needn't have worried. In Chile, the slopes aren't as congested as they are at home, especially during the week. And until the sun begins to soften the overnight frost, most skiers like us stick to the groomed corduroy, so there really hadn't been that many people exploring the vast slopes above treeline.

After a big breakfast, each day started on the modern detachable quad chairlift that took us from in front of our hotel up to the main day lodge and the ski school at the upper thermal springs.

Henry and Caco would immediately go their own way, looking for rollers, ridges and terrain features to video each other jumping over. Caco rode his snowboard while Henry skied his twintips and they both tried to catch big air.

This is Joni at the lodge where we would get our lunch of grilled beef brochettes with spicy fresh salsas, french bread and cold beer.

Above the plaza, three old and slow double chairs and three tired old poma lifts serve the top of the mountain.

Sunscreen was essential under the clear blue skies.

We passed active steam vents on the volcano slopes across from the chairlift. Volcán Chíllán is one of Chile's most active volcanos, with the newer of the two summits created between 1906 and 1937. For a pyrotechnical review follow this link.

We pass over a few glades of trees on the way up, but most of the skiing is above treeline.

At the top of the lift you can see the two summits of Volcán Chíllán (3122m). The one the left is Viejo and the one on the right is Nuevo. Snow doesn't stick very long on Nuevo whose black cone is warmed by thermal activity.

Here's Joni making some nice turns in the leftovers from the last storm.

And this is Susan. We just followed the sun through the day and found plenty to ski as each aspect was revealed to us.

Here we are posing in front of the resort map.

(Click the image to see a bigger version.)

This is the view from the top looking south to Cerro Negro(2285m), on the right, with the Volcán Antuco in the distance on the left.

Volcán Antuco (2985m)

Saturday afternoon we headed with our guests down to Pucón. Along the way we stopped for a look at the Malleco Viaduct crossing the gorge of the Rio Malleco. This bridge effectively united northern and southern Chile for much of the early twentieth century. Constructed in 1890, it was for a time the highest of its kind in the world and is mentioned in the Pablo Neruda poem, Trains*. The bridge was declared a Chilean National Monument in 1990.

(*see our post of August 21)