You are looking at posts that were written on July 31st, 2007.
Posted on July 31st, 2007 by aaron.
Categories: Recent Posts, Best Lines in South America, From the Guides.
Ski Chile: July 22nd – 26th, 2007: CASA Tours
By M. David Johnson
Another huge Andean storm has pounded Chile. The CASA team had an epic powder day at Ski Arpa on July 22nd with bluebird skies and little wind. Amazing.
July 22nd
Myself, CASA guide Aaron Bilotta, and his friend Matt Klene headed down to Los Andes that evening with the intention of skiing Portillo the following day. Exhausted after a big day at Arpa and a big night out in Santiago, we settled into our hotel room. Crashed out, I heard my phone ring. It was my good friend Hans calling from Termas de Chillan.
“Gomez get down here, it is dumping by the meter and Tuesday (the 24th) is going to be the day!!!”
July 23rd
We woke up the next morning and attempted to drive to Portillo only to be shut down at the bottom of the pass. The carabineros, Chile’s police force, had closed down the pass and told me there was at least a meter and a half of snow up at Portillo.
We decided to b-line it for Chillan. The reports coming from the South were very favorable and Termas de Chillan is our favorite resort in Chile. We stopped in Santiago, got our shiznat together and made the 6 -hour drive south.
While barreling up the road to Las Trancas at 1 in the morning, we could not believe how much snow had fallen as low as it did. The pueblo of Pinto even had snow on its streets and there were banks of snow as low as the pueblo of Recinto. When we rolled into Las Trancas, our base for skiing Termas de Chillan, we were giddy with excitement to see literally meters of snow at our cabanas Los Andes. Everyone we talked to has never seen snow like this before. Dean, who runs Cabanas Los Andes, was in shock with how much snow had fallen. Banks of snow were covering his first floor windows and curling off the roofs. It was quite a site.
July 24th
Pumped up, we got a few hours of rest and chomped down Dean’s southern style all you can eat breakfast. Dean is a real trip. He hails from Alabama, but has spent most of his adult life in South America. He started a business in Paraguay, importing the first soft serve ice cream machines into the country. The ice cream business was very good to Dean and he eventually moved to Chile to start another business. One day while traveling up to Las Trancas he decided there was not enough cabanas, bought property and built 9 cabanas and a main lodge. Dean’s breakfasts are legendary and he strolls around the eating area hounding folks to eat more pancakes and waffles. Needless to say our stomachs were taken care of and we were fueled up to head to the mountain.
It was definitely no joke. 2 meters of snow had blanketed Termas de Chillan’s terrain. We drove up in Grover, our rented ride for the week, past all the guys renting chains, and up to the main parking lot. Most people could only make it to the lower lot and we were in place to have dibs on the goods.
The Don Otto, South America’s oldest and longest chairlift, was being dug out when we arrived so we headed for the triple and then the poma, so we could hit Elephante, a stellar off piste run completely lift accessible. We skied the ramp down to the Elephante ridgeline Canadian style (all at once) singing Michael Franti’s “Oh my God” chorus in harmony.
We had picked our line and wanted to be careful the avalanche conditions were stable before dropping into this line that has a significant terrain trap.
Bilotta was first. He dropped in, made a few cautious turns to check the stability, and then proceeded to rip it through the trees poking out of the snow and into the Elephante gully. Spraying up incredibly dry Andean powder we watched in glee as Bilotta shredded his line. Next was Matt Klene, Bilotta’s longtime friend from New Hampshire and Jackson Hole. I cannot tell you how lucky Matt was to hit a day like this, his first at Termas de Chillan ever. The whole day he was speechless. A long time skier who bailed on the ski bum life to get a “real job” in Boston, Klene was blessed with seeing Termas at its absolute best, 2 meters of fresh, bluebird skies, and very stable snow. He followed Bilotta’s line into Elephante, tearing through the trees and leaving rooster tails of powder in his wake. Travis “Taco” Toelkes was next. The only boarder in the group, Taco, sprayed up some impressive clouds of Andean cold smoke. The three yeeeeeeehawing while I filmed them higher up on the ridgeline. It was so cool to see my friends having so much fun and filled with a contagious sense of pure happiness. I followed, choosing a line further up the ridgeline. The terrain in Elephante has so many variations to pick from and leads into a luge like gulley before exiting into the lower woods and bamboo forest.
With smiles ear to ear we got back on the chairlift with plans to hike over to Pirigallo before the Don Otto was dug out. Once we got to the top though plans had changed. Bilotta and Klene could not get the Elephante cliffs off their minds and it was a let’s get it done now scenario. The two wanted to send it big and could not spend any more time thinking about it. So we headed back to the Elephante ridgeline and each of us scoped out our respective lines and airs. For a desk jockey, Klene has not missed a beat on his skis. Bilotta and Klene hucked themselves off 30 foot precipices. Let us just say this stokage made Klene’s trip. I had asked him earlier if he was keen on big air, his response was very hesitant, but the bomb holes spoke for themselves and these guys went huge.
Getting that out of their systems we were free to go lap the Pirigallo Valley. The Don Otto was still being worked on but the chairs were moving. We made the short hike/traverse from the upper double lift to the top of the Don Otto and then the 5-minute hike up to drop into Pirigallo.
Again we were the first group to drop into Pirigallo. Klene and Bilotta choose to launch the massive cornice, while Travis and I choose a sweet chute to enter the Valley. We reconvened for the middle pitch, took some video, and proceeded to one of my favorite lines in the valley, a steep, Southern exposure face with about 1000 feet of vertical. The four of us all had an epic, totally untouched run in front of us. I dived in first and put my signature on the face, made my way to the northern facing part of the valley and watched as each of them picked their own lines and left their mark on this slope. Michael Franti’s “Oh my, Oh my God” became our mantra for the day and we admired our lines before exiting the valley and heading directly to the Don Otto, which was now loading skiers.
The 22-minute, archaic Don Otto is one of South America’s legendary lifts. Dopplemeyer made Termas de Chillan take its name off the lift. However for us powder seekers it is perfect. Not only do you get a bit of a rest, the slowness of the lift deters many other riders and the accessibility to the backcountry from this lift is equivalent to heli skiing. We made our way back to the enormous cornice about a 5-minute jaunt from the top of the lift station. This cornice is a classic air and you can go as big as you want off it. Taco found out just how big you could go and sent it huge off the cornice, much to his surprise. Both Bilotta and Taco launched themselves a solid 30 feet off this feature. Taco ostriched himself a bit and you could hear him exclaiming, “oh shit!!!” while in mid air. Again, the stoke was felt by all and we continued on to the next pitch in the valley. We worked on the south face before crossing the gulley and milking more turns on the North West face. Nothing but freshies!!!!
On the chair ride up, I got a call from my friend’s younger sister who is relatively new to snowboarding but wanted to follow her sister into the Pirigallo. Unfortunately she got stuck on a small patch of ice and became terrified. So our crew went to her rescue, helped her off the small patch of ice and led her down through the valley. We encountered Alejandro, a Termas de Chillan patroller, who with Mike Taylor and Aaron Bilotta saved a gentleman from an avalanche in bounds a few years earlier. The skier they saved was a Canadian who happened to be worth millions of dollars. In gratitude this Canadian brought 3 patrollers from Termas de Chillan as well as 2 CASA guides to Whistler for an all expense paid vacation. When the Chillan patrollers showed up without any ski gear, the man outfitted them with all their equipment. It goes to show, although the Andean snow pack is generally more stable than the snow we ride in the Northern Rockies, it does have the potential to slide and riders must respect the conditions and the hazards of massive avalanches.
As we rode the Don Otto up for our final run, the clouds rolled in and completely socked in the Pirigallo Valley. Just like that the mountain was enveloped in a thick cloud layer. This can be the other danger of riding in the Andes. Because 98% of the terrain is above tree line, when the clouds roll in like this there is absolutely no definition and a serious sense of vertigo is created. We choose to head north toward Tres Marias, where the clouds were not as thick. The Fresco t-bar was running. The Fresco brings skiers and snowboarders to the highest lift accessed point on the mountain and is the prime access for ascending the volcanic peaks Nevados de Chillan, Volcan Nuevo, and Volcan Viejo. It also offers the highest and best access to Tres Marias, one of the longest runs in South America. Skiing in Tres Marias’ terrain is what I would imagine skiing on the moon would be like. The lunaresque features of Tres Marias make for otherworldly skiing opportunities. Although not super steep, the terrain has endless knobs to get on top of and ski down from. We kept fairly close to the bamboo markers due to the poor visibility. It is fairly easy to get really confused in this terrain and if you are unfortunate you can drop into a number of holes with no other option than having to walk out of them.
We arrived at the bottom of the Tata lift and caught the 5 o’clock closing lift. Filled with tons of buena onda (good vibes) and sonrisas grandisimas, we took one last run through the bamboo forest. Both Bilotta and myself have had many powder days at Chillan but today was something really special. For Klene and Taco, they were introduced to a mountain that is like no other on a day like today. We piled into Grover, made our way back to Las Trancas and Dean’s cabanas and proceeded to celebrate like kings. Our conversation did not stray from how amazing our day was and we imbibed in the dirty water, Jack Daniels, and cans of Escudo, one of Chile’s most popular cervezas. We continued to celebrate through the night, visiting our good friend Hans’ restaurant Oliva’s to thank him for the heads up and share our incredible day with him.
Even though we had a big night and a huge day of skiing we were up early the next morning, cured the hangover with Dean’s breakfast and coffee, loaded up Grover and barreled up the mountain road. Our mission today was to tag the Pirigallo Fingers. To my knowledge the fingers had yet to be skied this season and they were screaming out to us to put our mark on them. The Pirigallo Fingers or los dedos de Pirigallo are the most prominent feature on the mountain. The fingers rise above the main day lodge but are accessed by a significant traverse across the north face of the Pirigallo Valley. We rode up the Don Otto, put in a longer boot pack up past the Pirigallo cornice we had hucked the day before and toward the west face of the Pirigallo Valley. We skied a nice pitch into the valley before beginning our traverse. The consistency of the snow on the west face was excellent. Because these Andean dumps have a more maritime snow characteristic the snow tends to be bouncier and one does not submerge into it as much as one does in the Northern Rockies. We then put a track across the north face of Pirigallo. Because the sun was extremely strong today it was very important we crossed this slope early in the day, otherwise the potential of a serious wet slide is ever present. As it was the north face was already seeing roller balls piling up on its terrain. Remember we are in the Southern Hemisphere so the exposure to the sun is opposite than the northern hemisphere and the north facing slopes are the ones which receive the most solar radiation.
Los Dedos de Pirigallo is a west-facing slope with 8-9 couloirs to choose from. We each choose our own line and spread out on the tips of the fingers. I dropped into my favorite finger first, a half pipe like couloirs that pops you out just above a large femoral, a giant heat vent. Termas is famous for its sulfuric fumaroles and the fingers are the main source for these heat vents. All I can say is incredible!!!!! The snow was choice and I raced ahead of the sluff I was creating and into the palm of the fingers. Cranked with adrenalin my shouts of happiness echoed throughout the valley. I then positioned myself in a safe zone and directed the other riders into their respective lines so I could video them. One at a time they proceeded to tag the face with large arching turns, riding the banks of the couloir’s walls and into the palm-like slope below. Unfreakin Believable!!! We arrived at the day lodge to many admirers and our shit eating grins could not be wiped off our faces.
Next task was more untracked lines in Elephante. However once we got to the bottom, the crowds from the Chilean holiday clogged up the lift line so I felt it was time to break from the group and head out to one of my favorite off piste destinations at Termas, a combination of Aquas Calientes and Valle Hermoso. To reach these areas it is about a 45-minute skin to Aguas Calientes and an hour skin to the Valle Hermoso summit. Again I am pretty sure no tracks had been put in either of these valleys this season, then again there were probably no more than 25 tracks put in Aguas Calientes during the entire 2006 season. These areas would be tore up if they were located at a North American resort, not here though where off piste skiing is still relatively uncommon.
I climbed up to the shark’s fin on the Aguas Calientes-Pirigallo ridgeline. This prominent feature is all rock on its north face and looks very steep from a distance. However its south face into Aguas Calientes is a perfect snow covered ramp providing and excellent entrance into Aguas Calientes. Although not a very long pitch, about 800 vertical, this line into this valley preserves snow very well and the skin out and back up to the ridge only takes a half hour. I center punched my line, laying down a sole track into the valley that I admired with great pride.
Skins on I made my way back to the ridgeline, past the sharks fin and onto the Valle Hermoso summit. I was standing on the summit at 4:20 in the afternoon, the sun lighting up the west face of Valle Hermoso and the 2800 feet of vertical I was about to ski. With stunning views of the perfectly conical Volcan Antuco to the south, the entire terrain of Termas de Chillan spread out to the north, Chillan’s 3 volcanoes to the east, and the Pacific coastal horizon to the west I was in my element. I took my time appreciating my surroundings and the feelings of returning to one of my favorite places on the planet.
Although it is against backcountry protocol to ski alone, there are sometimes when I really savor solitude like this and the opportunity to lay a sole track in an incredibly vast valley. The feeling of being so small compared to your surroundings yet feeling so big in spirit is sensational. Riding down in the waning sun, thousands of feet of powder at my disposal fills my soul with an incredible energy I cannot quite explain with words. I guess I can best express it with one of my signature howls, YEEEEEEEEEEEHAW!!!!!!
I climbed the few minutes out of Valle Hermoso to the main source of the fumaroles and skied my last pitch of the day, a beautiful slope above the hot spring pools and waterslide. Once down through the bamboo forest, over a rickety bridge and an easy hop over a fence I am back in the upper parking lot. Que Bueno!!!!! I skied down to the lower parking lot to meet up with Bilotta and Klene, who had just arrived from spending the afternoon lapping new lines in Elephante. Once again, exhausted, filled with the kind of soul only a powder day can deliver, we talked about our afternoons.
Back at Dean’s we cooked ourselves up a hamburger feast, drank a few Escudos and some Carmenere, Chile’s distinct wine that comes from a grape only found in Chile, and crashed out early.
July 26th.
Today our mission was to be more of a touring day. Again using the Don Otto for our initial access we got an early start and headed back out to the Pirigallo Valley. Today was a bit more overcast than the prior 2 and windier. This left the north face of Pirigallo with a sun baked wind crust. No worries because all the other aspects were skiing excellently and I had a line in mind I wanted to show Bilotta, Klene and Travis. We would head out to the west face of Pirigallo, ski the same short pitch from the day before and then head back up into the valley to set a high traverse on the north face of Pirigallo. The skinning across the face was a bit more challenging today but we did not encounter any treacherous ice patches. We climbed to the proper summit of the Pirigallo Fingers, but instead of dropping into the North or West slopes, we went into Valle Hermoso’s south face. After a couple of glorious pow turns we banked hard right and I led my friends to one of my favorite couloirs, a very aesthetic, snaking line, with large rock walls forming a beautiful hallway to ski. These couloirs really preserve snow well from the sun and wind and almost nobody goes to ski it. Again I got the privilege to drop in first being the one to show these guys a new line and once again I was treated to 1800 vertical feet of virgin yeahyo. We proceeded to shred the couloir and headed down to exit Valle Hermoso back to the parking lot and up the Don Otto.
22 minutes later we gained 2700 vertical feet and were out of bounds again. This time we continued further to Aguas Calientes. About 45 minutes later Bilotta and Travis were standing on top of the Shark’s fin, while I was ready to capture their turns on video lower down the ridge, in position to ski a line I had scoped the day before. More pow turns for us all and we put our skins on climbed out of valley Aguas Calientes back to the ridgeline and dropped it again. I mean how could you not, it was just begging to be tagged again and we were all happy to oblige, so we yo-yoed Aguas Calientes. We skinned up again and made our way to the summit of Valle Hermoso. Bilotta, Klene, and Travis headed for the line I skied the day before while I choose a variation further to the north. Again the afternoon Andean sun beamed on this west-facing slope. On the middle pitch, Klene must have made 60 turns in soft sun baked powder. We all left our distinct signatures on this amazing slope, relishing every moment, and admiring our work at the bottom of the valley. We just had 3 of the most perfect days a skier could imagine at any resort. I think it is going to be hard for Klene to concentrate on his work once he returns to Boston knowing the kinds of ski opportunities the Andes present. I cannot believe how fortunate he was to absolutely nail his visit with a 2-meter dump and bluebird skies. For me, the opportunity to return to these beautiful valleys and be treated with conditions like these is precious. I cannot describe in words how fortunate I feel to have experiences like these and to make my living doing so. The Andes have given me a passion that is deep in my soul and the opportunity to share it with a group of rippers like Bilotta, Klene and Travis is phenomenal.