And the faithful are rewarded!

For weeks now Dave and I have been struggling against whatever mother nature threw at us. Wind, rain, sleet, no visibility, terrible skiing, all sorts of challenges. Occasional good turns but a lot of suffering. Well today all that dedication has payed off.

Leaving the house I felt the rain hitting my hat, and saw the clouds obscuring the sky, I turned to Tracey and said “Probable just do the minimum and see you in a few hours” but then when Dave and I drove into the parking lot we were given a view of the Volcano, not all of it but the lower slopes. It seemed promising. But soon enough we were back in the clouds and believing that we were going to be skiing the same line as yesterday.

Eventually we broke above the clouds and could not believe what we were seeing. Untouched snow lying everywhere, not windblasted not wrecked but beautiful stellar snowflakes. Up and up till we were way above the clouds.

A few days ago I mentioned to Dave that I had imagined staying in Pucon and being able to tour the Volcano shred some pow for 5000 ft and then repeat for a wicked 10 000 foot day. Laughing at the time at my naive optimism I did not believe that today would come. We summitted by 1 pm and then shredded a 4500 foot run and toured back up to the top well almost since the fumarole was huge and moving around quickly. Not something you want to get caught in, its not toxic but it does burn the eyes and the lungs. Anyways 9500 ft of climbing and 8500 feet of powder skiing. Yeehaw.

Thanks to Troy Marino for his donation. It all helps my cause, his probable filled the gas tank for this weeks adventures.

Powder in Pucon

If you had told me three days ago, as I battled the wind, that I would be skiing powder today , I would not have believed you. But weather changes things, which is the beauty of the mountains. So today I toured up through 30cm of freshies.

Pretty wicked except that there is no terrain worth skiing at or below tree line, so I headed up the Volcano. Up a ridge that was once a ski lift and now sits, unused. Which is great since at times the lift towers are the only reference around, and some times you can barely see them.  Yesterday we, Dave and I, could see nothing but the towers but today there were moments of almost clarity. Clear enough that we could skin up the safety of the ridge and ski down the deep, soft and lovely snow in the gully. The creamiest snow I have skied in Chile, so smooth and nice. Ahhhhhhh it reminded me of the reason I love to ski powder. Smooth and effortless.

Villarrica Volcano finally.

Villarica Volcanoe sits above the town of Pucon, and unlike the other volcanoes I have climbed down here this one is active. A fumarole smokes out of its top and sometimes lava can be seen in its crater and at night.  It also has the classic shape of a volcano, sitting alone and far above everything around it.

Which is super aesthetic but makes it prone to winds, more prone than the mountains around Las Trancas!  The first two days Dave and I battled our way up a couple of thousand feet, we were able to skin a thousand feet and then we had to crampon as high as we could. The second day the wind was so strong that we crouched and crawled up to an old lift shack that provided enough shelter to switch back to our skis and ski home.

Yesterday the winds were finally calm and we decided to go for round 3.  It was such a contrast to the days before, calm and beautiful, and nice enough to stop and look around and enjoy where we were. We were able to skin 2500ft and then it was crampon time. The upper half was wind blasted and rain crusted, to such a degree that we had to crampon up 20 degree slopes. On the way up I looked around to eye up the best pitches for descent, it would be a case of linking up sastrugi patches, amongst the frozen chicken heads.  Finally we crested the crater..

I was pretty excited to finally crest a true volcano and maybe see some lava. I have never seen any lava and it is on my bucket list, I hoped desperately to see it today.  So I approached as close as I could. I had to be careful because Tracey had a dream the night before that I had fallen into the crater. So I moved cautiously and looked in..

Dave stayed back and took these pictures, since when the wind changed the smoke could engulf us and was not easy on the lungs or the eyes.  I peered into the crater and…………. saw nothing but smoke…  But what was so neat was that it was as if it was breathing,  the smoke would  blow up and then slow down, and then wooof it would blow out again. In/out, in/out  Gaia breathing. Super cool.

Then it was time to ski down….. top 5 descents of my life.  Top 5 worst descents off a mountain. Frozen chicken heads, huge wind sastrugis, hard ass skiing. It would vibrate you to the point where we had to stop. then vibrate again.  It was lucky that it was 2pm so some of it had softened due to the sun.

We met a guided party part way down and I recognized that one of their clients was not going to make it so I suggested I take him down. Turns  out he was from England, and lived in the tiny hamlet of Chagford, which is within miles of Tracey’s Mom’s house and he had in fact met them. Small world. The rest of his party continued up, we watched them and hours later as they disappeared into the clouds. The sun was gone and I cannot imagine how bad their descent was. It was terrible for us and we are skilled sufferers, and we had the advantage of sun and a better line. By 5.30 they were still in the clouds and we wondered about them…

While all this was going on Dave and I were doing laps on the lower slopes that had warmed up and provided some fun skiing. I pulled in a 12000 foot day which felt great. Much needed.