Kameron

Yeah, the araucarias are pretty stiff and very spiky (even the trunks are covered with the "leaves" when young). If you ever get a chance to fondle a young one, you'll be sure not to ski into it.

Trip: Araucanía, Bio-Bio, Ñuble (Chile) - Lonquimay, Llaima, Antuco, Nevados de Chillán, et al Trip Date: 10/01/2019 Trip Report: I enjoyed two great weeks of skiing in Central-South Chile with Joe recently. We left Seattle on the evening of 9/29, skied our first turns on the afternoon of 10/1, last turns on 10/10, and I started my travel odyssey the next day, arriving back home on the 13th. This is the usual prime volcano season, but, as in the PNW, storms can come through at any time. The mountains received a strong and unusually cold storm right before we got there, so rather than skiing the corn we thought we would, we had to make do with dry powder. Luckily the weather was stable enough to get in a number of good summits. As we headed North, following the better weather, the snowpack changed into more typical spring conditions. Big highlights were skiing in the Araucaría (monkey puzzle tree) forests, the quality of the snow, some excellent food finds, and spending time with Chilenos. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Lonquimay & Corralco ski area Lift-served pow at 5 pm Pow off the top of Lonquimay 4000 ft later Llaima Big graupel from thunderstorms the afternoon before Llaima's impressive summit crater with Lanín (left) and Rukapillán (right) Thousands of feet of moderately steep pow Tolhuaca (which we did not ski) Pucón vibes Antuco Freezing rain crust, Laguna del Laja, and peaks E Views of Sierra Velluda (right, near), volcanoes Callaqui, Lonquimay, Llaima, and Tolhuaca (left to right in distance) Great chalk transitioning into corn The road to Antuco Nevados de Chillán Antuco in the distance, "mountaineering" snow Alpenglow & ash coming from the Chillán Nuevo, Nevados left and Viejo right. View from Onai Thanks, Chopo & Fran! For those of you interested in making a trip like this happen, the detailed beta is pretty easy to come by. If you are perhaps interested in a guided trip, Joe will be offering one next year through Pro Guiding Service with similar dates. The focus will be on keeping it budget friendly and focused on good skiing. Some other little plugs: Coni at Masajes Pucón did an excellent job helping my tight muscles on our down day, highly recommend if you're in Pucón Onai hostel, run by Chopo Díaz, who is one of the most decorated freeriders in Chile, is an awesome place to stay in Las Trancas, near Chillán Gear Notes: Standard + ski lifts at Corralco Approach Notes: Aeromexico -> Santiago, Sky Airlines -> Temuco, rental Subaru XC

That's WICKED fast!

Going to Chile in 1.5 weeks for volcano shredz, will report back

I've had a number of climbing shoe resoles done at Dave Page's, since I live in the neighborhood. I don't expect a resoled shoe to necessarily be "like new", so haven't minded when they fall apart after extensive use. I also had them do my mountaineering boots and that has held up great.

Did the hedonist forget his food? Looks like a cool area and maybe more enjoyable than the majority of your climbs, although of course I suspect a sandbagging.

Fun hike. Would be a good solo @Alisse

Wild, that looks like some full-on scrambling

Sounds pleasant and civilized

That's really cool. Seems like not many folks go up the Stormy Monday direction. It looks like Stormy Monday was in pretty damn good ski condition when you were there, too!

Great report, thanks! The N ridge is always a slog and can lead you into some terrible rock, for sure. Now that I've been up there 3 times, I know that with a bit of poking around you can find an easy way. I guess it's just the easiest option up the N side. Jason Hummell likes to do it in tennis shoes and apparently has done it once in sandals. Actually, looking at your photo, it looks like you dropped onto the snow above the big tuna-shaped snowfield. On my first adventure/misadventure on that side, we ascended that snowfield as a possible "shortcut" and ended up climbing one pitch of low 5th class rock (solid) to the choss piles above. I know now that staying near the crest is better.

If they work for your friend in TLT6s they should work in 7s. I find the Intuition liners too warm for use in spring and summer Cascade conditions. You'll probably need the low volume ones unless you have a lot of boot space. For more stiffness, go with the wrap style rather than tongue, but you will sacrifice some touring range of motion. Another option would be the Palua brand, which I think is what Dynafit uses by default. Skimo.co sells a number of options.

Thanks, I guess a lot of brands probably do this. Won't worry about it

I just got a pair of the Camp 390 aluminum crampons for ski mountaineering. They fit okay but the front bails are too wide, so I'm getting some movement. Probably not enough for them to pop off but I'd prefer a tighter fit. I'm considering putting some other bails and wondering if it's okay to mix and match steel bails in there. My guess is they might wear on the aluminum over time. Should I care? Does any brand make a narrow aluminum bail that I can swap in? Thanks

Turf Testament was looking pretty fat, at least in the bottom, when I skied down there on Friday morning!

Pick out the needles and bits with tweezers! Painfully slow but I'm guessing your glue is fine. Good motivation not to let that happen to your skins again. Sounds like you should post a TR of your adventure.

More tracks than I’ve ever seen. Get some!

Old Snowy or access to the Snoqualmie Haute Route can be done that way. I have no personal experience of those routes.

The gully is the bottom of the colloquially named "No Fog Bowl." Beware of skiers dropping down from above. I know people occasionally will ski down "Not Quite a Plum" and where your arrow says "To BBR". Fun stuff! Thanks for the info, I've been wondering about the climbing up there.

This question has been asked on the ski forums before, so maybe search there. Talk to Lars and Silas at CAST bindings.

Nah I think you're doing it exactly right.

Lots of unrepeated ski routes out there for the bold and cold!

It's fun skiing in that area, and the rock climbing looks excellent, too!

This gets me stoked!