Ski Chile: Pirigallo Fingers; Termas de Chillan

Posted on December 10th, 2007 by gomez.
Categories: Best Lines in South America.

South American Classic: Pirigallo Fingers, Termas de Chillan

Arriving at Termas de Chillan’s upper parking lot, tunnel vision sets in and one is immediately directed to the Pirigallo Fingers. In full display above the cafeteria, the ‘fingers’ beg to be tattooed with tracks. After a fresh Andean storm while riding the Don Otto chairlift one cannot avoid gazing at the chutes thinking; “those need to be tagged” and for first-timers “how do I get there”. Of course many think we are out of our minds, but I am willing to accept that criticism, those of you who “know” want to go.
In my snow junky delusional mind I usually feel the necessity to be the first party to put my mark on them. They are just too aesthetically tempting to not put your turn hieroglyphic on them first. Getting to the Fingers means passing by an abundance of enticing lines and requires a long traverse of Pirigallo Valley’s north face, which is certainly friendlier on skis. On intense sun filled days timing is critical when crossing this north face while other days lapping this terrain is the agenda.
After passing a series of granite spires riders reach the upper west face bench and are presented with 10 distinct fingers with steady 40+ degree pitches and complete with knuckles and other topographically pleasing variables. Time to put on a show for all those kicking back on the deck at Termas’ day lodge, drinking an Escudo and salivating on a beef shish kabob.
Envisioning standing on the backside of the hands just above the knuckles where the fingers roll over, one has an epic view of Pirigallo Valley’s wicked south face, the dense green Las Trancas valley, and the fumarole spewing, exposed mustard yellow and burnt orange stone shoulder separating Pirigallo from Valle Hermoso. The ‘pinky’ chutes offer the mellowest lines with no threat of sending yourself into a jagged rock, steam-venting fumerole. The index finger and thumb chutes offer the most invigorating descents but could become ugly if one took a non-stopping tumble into the fumaroles below. My finger fetish is strong and choosing which digit I want to ski usually absorbs my attention throughout the entire approach. Each phalange chute has its distinctive features, including aspect, steepness, terrain variety, snow quality, and length and I cannot definitively say my favorite. Once through the fingers, the right hand flips over giving riders a bonus 500 vertical foot palm while the left hand dips into a gulley.
Finger riders’ shouts of joy echo from the mountain and reach the sun deck before their faces glowing with adrenalin- laced smiles arrive. Admiring your work from the sun deck many a times is only for a brief moment as getting back to the Don Otto for another lap is the mission. For the next 22 minutes you have plenty of time to relive your run and deliberate which finger will ensue. And other times it is time to après and revel in your glory while basking in the Andean sun, Escudo or Cristal in hand.

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SKi Chile: Aguas Calientes/ Valle Hermoso

Posted on December 10th, 2007 by gomez.
Categories: Best Lines in South America.

Classic Termas de Chillan Day Tour: Aguas Calientes & Valle Hermoso

Although my legs fall asleep, my back aches, and I get fidgety, riding the Don Otto, South America’s longest and oldest chairlift, accesses one of Chile’s finest day tours. This rickety two-seater that Dopplemeyer made Termas de Chillan take their name off is equipped with individual safety bars and lethargically ascends riders 2200 vertical feet at 100 feet per minute. The ride gives you ample time to apply the sunscreen, eat the breakfast you wrapped in a napkin, and do all the necessary tuning adjustments. In fact the slowness of the Don Otto is a blessing in disguise for us powder sluts as its sloth-like speed results in less skier/snowboarder traffic during the course of the day. But for this epic Andean tour 1 ride is enough and crossing tracks is never an issue.
Directly in front of the off-ramp a backcountry gate leads out to a multitude of off piste adventures. Here is the spot to skin up, split the board, or strap the gear to your pack. Head up alongside the entertaining Pirigallo cornice until you reach a bench below Volcan Viejo, the southern most of 3 gigantic volcanoes rising above Termas de Chillan’s moonscape. After a short ramp down and another short climb one can take a variety of pitches on the west face of the Pirigallo gully before reaching the base of the Pirigallo/Aquas Calientes ridgeline. Backcountry fans can extend their tour with a 2-3 hour climb up Volcan Viejo and drop its south face into Aguas Calientes. Regardless a steep skin or direct boot pack awaits tourers in order to gain the rolling and triangulated crest of Aquas Calientes’ southern exposure.
Options now abound. One can do quick 45-minute yo-yos on this face, or continue further to the peak where Pirigallo, Aguas Calientes and Valle Hermoso all join and descend all sorts of goodness along Aguas Calientes’ east facing wall. Another alluring alternative is to descend all the way to the river and soak in hot springs, although this adds a lengthy retreat back to the Aguas Calientes/Pirigallo ridgeline. At the base of this ridgeline one can bail and ride out the Pirigallo gulley or retrace the skin track or boot pack already set in and up to the peak where the 3 valleys meet. A 360 degree vista presents the perfectly conical Antuco Volcano to the South, the expanse of Termas de Chillan’s and Shangri-la’s lava flows spread out to the North, the volcanoes: Nevado, Nuevo, and Viejo dominate the East, while the Pacific Ocean’s horizon curves around the globe to the West.
Valle Hermoso’s terrain spans an enormous horseshoe offering southern, western and northern exposures and a mosaic of topographical features. From the summit it is a 2800 vertical foot playground to the hot pools. From snaking, steep couloirs to wide-open bowls, noses, and gullies, Hermoso is a backcountry paradise providing challenges for all levels.
From the hot pools, an obvious landmark down valley and the easiest exit back to the ski center, climb out of the valley to a ridge just below a huge steam vent and the source of Termas’ famous hot water. The last pitch gets late sun before heading into a forest of bamboo and coigue trees. The tour ends just above the water slide and riders must cross the bridge and jump the fence to wind up in the upper parking lot.
Freshies in Valle Hermoso

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Ski Chile: Volcan Nevado de Chillan

Posted on December 10th, 2007 by gomez.
Categories: Best Lines in South America.

Pyramid off Nevado ChillanBEST LINES IN SOUTH AMERICA: NEVADO CHILLAN

One of 3 volcanoes rising above the lifts of Termas de Chillan, Nevado Chillan is the furthest north and the most massive. With a glaciated West face and rolling snow dunes leading to its approach, Nevado Chillan provides many unique descents.
At 3900 meters (12800ft) and 360 degrees of opportunity, it is hard to keep from ogling at its presence, especially its’ southern exposure “moon dish”, while riding Termas de Chillan’s upper lifts. From the Las Trancas valley the iron-like Pyramid face beckons persistently to off piste enthusiasts.
The first time I skied Nevado was in 2003 with 4 friends from Montana. My buddy Wolf’s fritschi broke an hour into the approach, yet he refused to turn back and later be tortured listening to our snow tales. So with 1 skied strapped to his backpack he labored on, shifting between bootpacking and skinning on 1 ski. At the time we did not know the most efficient approach and continuously gained and lost elevation while navigating the rolling snow dunes of lava flow. We reached the volcano’s summit and were greeted with a ferocious wind as we stared into the elongated Argentine Andes. The upper snowfield was wind hammered with strastugi, and amazingly Wolf, ski on back looking like a bow-hunter, descended through the cardboardesque ripples without issue. Our goal was the “moon dish” and as we gathered at the drop-in, a 48-degree slope, with a curling, corniced lined ridge, alpen glow illuminated Volcan Nuevo to the south in a dense violet. Mars was already glowing in the Andean night sky and an immense moon made its rise. Team Montana; Alex ‘Obi-Juan’ Jacobi, ‘Sweet’ James Guild, Ryan ‘Cornice Boy’ Kapes, Wolf (newly nicknamed Lane Meyer-see “Better Off Dead”) Von Lindenau, and myself ‘Gomez’one by one entered the perfectly concave face. The 335meter (1100ft), wind groomed and styrofoamy-dished slope offered us all the opportunity to tag our individual signatures on its wall. We all watched in admiration as ‘Lane Meyer’ proceeded to rip it. Headlamps on we toured back to the resort as the vast South American sky, freckled in stars, filled our world. We got fresh corduroy turns all the way to the parking lot, passing the groomers making their final rounds. This has always been one of most memorable ski descents and as I continued to return to Chillan memories and strong vibes of the ‘Lane Meyer day’ would embrace me.
I waited 4 seasons for another Nevado Chillan descent. Either I was guiding and could not take the time to earn this descent or as in 2006 when I witnessed one of the largest crowns I’d ever seen and justified it would be irrationally sketchy, Nevado Chillan stood there waiting, constantly enticing me to return and explore it more. Not only that but after 6 seasons riding at Termas de Chillan I’d always drooled over the Pyramid Face, just north of Nevado’s glacier and crevassed covered West face.
September 23rd, 2007- I just finished my last CASA Tour 2 days prior and decided to hang around Termas de Chillan with my snowbuddy, Kim Ross. Kim was celebrating her 95th consecutive month on skis and spent the last 2 weeks on our Endless Winter Tour. We tore it up pretty hard the night before, drinking 45-degree piscolas at our friend Hans’ bar, Olivas. My ride up the 22 -minute Don Otto lift was pretty rough, I need not go into the details, but am glad there were no skiers under my chair. Then up the Fresco t-bar to the highest lift accessed point on the mountain. My friend Phil lined me up with a more efficient approach. His main directive, “don’t gain any elevation and curl around the backside of the snow covered lava flows, then you can make the ‘moon face’ in 2 1/2 hours.” Granted Phil is Canadian and runs an avalanche center there so 2 1/2 hours, especially after a night of pisco, is to be interpreted differently. However somehow I seemed to get possessed and skinned with an intent focus.
I reached the steepest part of the wave-like ‘moonface’ ridgeline in the prescribed time and switched over to my crampons. I checked on Kim’s progress and kick-stepped the remaining 150 or so meters to my desired entrance. As I was de-skinning and making my descent preparations, a Scotsman and Frenchman came out of nowhere to join me. They had been kite-skiing on the lower lava flows and ascended by weaving in and out of the western glaciated face. Crazy Chamonioxites! Happy to have eyes on my back, I dropped off the cornice and onto the steep flank. The top turns were chalky and turned into more wind-buffed powder before changing into rippled wind waves, typical of Andean big mountain conditions, variable. My ski compadres followed, ripping tele turns down the skier’s left curl of the bowl.
Skins back on we pursued Kim who was making her way up the ridge. We all were keen to reach Nevado’s summit and descend the pyramid face. Crampons now on, we spread out on the final snowfield, the same strastrugi encrusted slope Wolf miraculously managed to ride through. Our extended gigantic shadows projected themselves on the afternoon sun’s glistening whiteness. This time the wind was not blowing us off the mountain and we had time to revel in the wild Andean expanse.
We decided our best entrance to the pyramid would be to curl around the northwest flanks of the Nevado. We skied the upper pitch above the glacier and traversed around this face. Talk about opportunity, the northwest exposure of Nevado is huge and has a ridiculous amount of potential lines, however, it is a long way to anywhere once on its lower flows. We continued to contour the volcano until reaching the entrance of the ‘pyramid’s’ colossal fall line and about 50 meters from its triangular peak. Ready to make turns and knowing we had close to 2000 meters (6200 feet) of vertical below we plunged in, taking the first 1000 meters (3000feet) non-stop. With a fantastically consistent angle ‘the pyramid’ is a skigasm.
The lava flows of the Shangri-La valley oozed out in front of us and after this steep anvilesque descent we still had 1000 meters of lava tongues filled with half pipes to ride in the waning deep blue light. In all my years coming to Termas, I’d never exited through Shangri-la and was blown away with the terrain possibilities. We finally reached tree line and skied alongside massive cliffs vegetated with dense stands of coique trees. Waterfalls poured down its sides and inspirations of other backcountry adventures filled our thoughts. We dodged through the forest and made our way to the valley road, touring through summer cabin retreats until we reached the MI Lodge and cold beer, 1885 vertical meters from the Nevado summit.

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“The Needles” La Hoya, Argentina

Posted on December 10th, 2007 by gomez.
Categories: Best Lines in South America.

The Needles: La Hoya, Argentina

August 24th, 2007:
Observing the weather from the Plaza Hotel in Esquel it appeared it was going to be a nasty day. After experiencing the mountain in a full fury of wind and snow the day before, today looked as if the mountain would be shut down. Thick clouds blanketed the valley and strong, gusty Patagonian winds swirled dust and paper in the streets. Although I am not one to shy away from weather, skiing by brail in milk jug conditions is a not my idea of a good time. Fortunately my guests Jim Cherry, Michael Mack, and Fernando Pereria were just the group of folks who wanted to go have a ‘look’ regardless of the ongoing unpleasantness in town.
We packed the van with a carefree, ‘hope it works out’ attitude and headed up the 13 clicks to La Hoya. Soon after climbing the steep switchbacks, we broke out of the clouds and realized we were about to be treated to a bluebird day. The wind was not whipping the flags at the base area much and yesterdays storm deposited a fresh covering of miniature-sized lottery balls of dry Andean powder. La Hoya receives some of the lightest and driest powder in all the Andes and with the right wind grooming can deposit copious amounts of snow in its protected couloirs.
Giggling with anticipated excitement the 4 of us rode the lift together scouting the conditions in the ‘needles’ chutes, the area I particularly wanted to guide them to. Getting to spend time with a guy like Jim Cherry is inspirational and exemplifies why skiing/snowboarding is a lifetime sport. Jim is 77 and owned a pair of skis for 72 years. His drive to keep it going is infectious and we all marvel in his ability to charge. Last year with skis on his back he ascended the 4 hours to Chile’s Volcan Villarica and preceded to carve up the 3000 vertical feet below. Jim may be exceptional but he shows us skiing is a sport enjoyed at different levels for a lifetime.
Michael and Fernando are pretty impressive themselves. Both in great shape and full of ski energy, they embody the saying that today’s 50 year olds are like the last generations’ 40 year olds, in fact I would put these two up against many of my 30 year old friends. Like Jim, their spirit for being on the mountain is contagious.
Sitting on the chair together with approximately a combined 222 years on this planet we acted in delight as if we had 22 by what was unraveling before our goggled eyes. Town was still shrouded over in a thick grayness and La Hoya was carpeted in fresh powder, beneath azul skies, and nearly empty.
The ride to the top of La Hoya involves 3 lifts and a short sidestep to its extended bowl ridgeline. From this traverse there are options galore. We had one mission in mind and that involved our group getting first tracks down the ‘needle’ couloirs. So we cruised along the ridgeline and eventually contoured into the ‘needles’ entrance. Due to their southerly aspect and general protection from blasting winds, the ‘needles’ collects, holds and preserves snow exceptionally. In combination with this vital aspect location the ‘needles’ are aesthetically gorgeous. With piercing jagged shark’s teeth poking out the snow and a continuous 37 to 42 degree pitch stretching a good 800 meters below, the ‘needles’ are stunning to the eye. With 3 main couloirs and a plethora of other nooks and cranies to poke into the terrain options are incredibly engaging.
I dropped in to make a ski cut and position myself to capture the guys on video. Without hesitation Jim followed and steadily made his turns down the steepest part of the line. Michael Mack dove in next and took the line all the way down. Skiing with Michael over the last couple of years it was awesome to see him so fluid and taking his fall line in one continuous gulp. Fernando then leap frogged with Jim, both making solid turns throughout the chute and around the piercing rocks.
Stoked watching these guys lay down fresh tracks and feeling the vibe, I decided to poke into a narrow corridor with a nice straight line. Screaming with speed out of the hallway and hollering in full-blown excitement, I came into the open pitch making gigantic rooster tails in my wake. We gathered at the base of the ‘needles’ looking up to admire our doings. Filled with a wild energy and an age irrelevant feeling of stokage there was no uncertainty on where our next run would be. We still had more fresh ‘needles’ to attack. With big shit eating grins we rallied to the base lift, rode up laughing, our minds’ video players replaying our lines and envisioning which needle to get after next.
Our second helpings were just as pleasurable. We skied the skiers’ left side of the ‘needles’ and were gifted with virgin tracks as latecomers riding the base lift watched with jealousy. Forever this day will be a gift I shared with Jim, Michael, and Fernando. One of those days that brings you together in a shared experience and provides a lifetime memory.

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