Hola amigos!
With the lead up to summer ski season down south and my preparation for (hopefully) what will be a month in Nevados de Chillan in August, I thought I'd start the trip report now so I can add important updates which may be of interest to people planning a trip down there this season.
This will be my second visit to Nevados and I'm really looking forward to it. Epic followers may remember the TR I wrote last season during what the locals (well my friend Francisco at least) were calling the worst season in 20 years. I still had a great time (my timing was good as I did get to experience the peak of the snow conditions at least) despite the sub-par conditions and the volcano getting a bit angry just before I was due to head out there. Thankfully none of that put a dampener on things; Nevados has a ton of great inbounds terrain which had ample cover and there is a lot of sidecountry terrain that few of the locals seem interested in. Despite the poor conditions, I got to ski plenty of untouched snow. It was a good time. Anyway, that's the background from last summer, let's push forward to what's happening this season.....
There has been a big change at the resort; the new fixed grip triple is up and running in the Tres Marias area. Last season, we got to see the new towers that they had installed for a brand new chair that they are putting up in the Tres Marias area. The cable, top and bottom stations and chairs are all in and the chair (to my knowledge) should be operational this summer. I'm not sure how I feel about this new chair. I don't think it will change things much for this season, I think the real big change will come for next season when they are supposedly putting in a new t-bar going all the way up into the TM area and this could nearly double the size of the ski area. Currently there is a ton of low angle off-piste out there, so having a t-bar will obviously change the nature of the skiing in that area, but the hopefully there will still be plenty of sidecountry that you can push further out to. That's not an issue for this summer as the chair only accesses the bottom of that zone. So, should be game on as per usual.
(the new Tres Marias chair is on the new trail map - it's the long lift that heads way out skiers left to the Refugio).
Hopefully this season, with more snow and a less angry volcano, we should be able to access all the way to the top of the peaks and enjoy so truly long off-piste runs. I can't wait for that. Last season we got a taste for that, now I hope to sample it for myself. I'm also looking forward to hopefully skiing more in the trees down lower, by all accounts, there's some great stuff down low in "Little Japan" (as Francisco calls it) that I want to spend more time in. Francisco is my partner in Chile and owns the accommodation in Las Trancas, where I stay.....
So far, there's been a few storms come through. Francisco says there is a lot of snow up high which is a good sign. He's calling for a good season (it would be hard for it to be any worse than last season). A decent storm is forecast for tomorrow (Sunday 4th June) with heavy snow and 35cm's of snow. We'll see how that goes. Here's a couple of photo's from a week ago that Francisco sent me -
Looking downhill towards the top station of the new chairlift. It currently only accesses the lower part of the Tres Marias area and will have a bigger impact when the t-bar goes in next summer. Then we'll see a massive ski area. If that goes in, you'll be hearing a lot more about Nevados de Chillan!
Two of the volcanic peaks (assuming they are the Volcan Nuevo - left and Viejo - right) with a decent amount of snow. You can clearly see what is under the snow, plenty of (extremely sharp, sorry Meier Skis.....) volcanic rock so you need decent coverage to ski this. Nevados does have the highest snowfall in South America at over 10m a year.
The Refugio "Garganta del Diablo" will be easily accessible from the chairlift. No word on if it will become a restaurant or anything like that.
This could be interesting...... there are some sweet trees lower down. Again, not sure exactly where this photo was taken, but the lower section of the new chair does pass through a cliffed area that is currently listed as closed, whether or not this zone will open up which could be sweet as there as some nice looking tree lines in there, remains to be seen.
Hopefully I will have some more photos after the storm tomorrow. It's snowing now apparently. Fingers crossed!
- Matt
With the lead up to summer ski season down south and my preparation for (hopefully) what will be a month in Nevados de Chillan in August, I thought I'd start the trip report now so I can add important updates which may be of interest to people planning a trip down there this season.
This will be my second visit to Nevados and I'm really looking forward to it. Epic followers may remember the TR I wrote last season during what the locals (well my friend Francisco at least) were calling the worst season in 20 years. I still had a great time (my timing was good as I did get to experience the peak of the snow conditions at least) despite the sub-par conditions and the volcano getting a bit angry just before I was due to head out there. Thankfully none of that put a dampener on things; Nevados has a ton of great inbounds terrain which had ample cover and there is a lot of sidecountry terrain that few of the locals seem interested in. Despite the poor conditions, I got to ski plenty of untouched snow. It was a good time. Anyway, that's the background from last summer, let's push forward to what's happening this season.....
There has been a big change at the resort; the new fixed grip triple is up and running in the Tres Marias area. Last season, we got to see the new towers that they had installed for a brand new chair that they are putting up in the Tres Marias area. The cable, top and bottom stations and chairs are all in and the chair (to my knowledge) should be operational this summer. I'm not sure how I feel about this new chair. I don't think it will change things much for this season, I think the real big change will come for next season when they are supposedly putting in a new t-bar going all the way up into the TM area and this could nearly double the size of the ski area. Currently there is a ton of low angle off-piste out there, so having a t-bar will obviously change the nature of the skiing in that area, but the hopefully there will still be plenty of sidecountry that you can push further out to. That's not an issue for this summer as the chair only accesses the bottom of that zone. So, should be game on as per usual.
(the new Tres Marias chair is on the new trail map - it's the long lift that heads way out skiers left to the Refugio).
Hopefully this season, with more snow and a less angry volcano, we should be able to access all the way to the top of the peaks and enjoy so truly long off-piste runs. I can't wait for that. Last season we got a taste for that, now I hope to sample it for myself. I'm also looking forward to hopefully skiing more in the trees down lower, by all accounts, there's some great stuff down low in "Little Japan" (as Francisco calls it) that I want to spend more time in. Francisco is my partner in Chile and owns the accommodation in Las Trancas, where I stay.....
So far, there's been a few storms come through. Francisco says there is a lot of snow up high which is a good sign. He's calling for a good season (it would be hard for it to be any worse than last season). A decent storm is forecast for tomorrow (Sunday 4th June) with heavy snow and 35cm's of snow. We'll see how that goes. Here's a couple of photo's from a week ago that Francisco sent me -
Looking downhill towards the top station of the new chairlift. It currently only accesses the lower part of the Tres Marias area and will have a bigger impact when the t-bar goes in next summer. Then we'll see a massive ski area. If that goes in, you'll be hearing a lot more about Nevados de Chillan!
Two of the volcanic peaks (assuming they are the Volcan Nuevo - left and Viejo - right) with a decent amount of snow. You can clearly see what is under the snow, plenty of (extremely sharp, sorry Meier Skis.....) volcanic rock so you need decent coverage to ski this. Nevados does have the highest snowfall in South America at over 10m a year.
The Refugio "Garganta del Diablo" will be easily accessible from the chairlift. No word on if it will become a restaurant or anything like that.
This could be interesting...... there are some sweet trees lower down. Again, not sure exactly where this photo was taken, but the lower section of the new chair does pass through a cliffed area that is currently listed as closed, whether or not this zone will open up which could be sweet as there as some nice looking tree lines in there, remains to be seen.
Hopefully I will have some more photos after the storm tomorrow. It's snowing now apparently. Fingers crossed!
- Matt