7 Volcanoes Blog 2008 Page 1

AUG 28 - CHILE 7 VOLCANOES
Phil Smith , Snoworks Instructor

We are nearly off. Tomorrow 7pm depart from Heathrow. Four of us are flying out. Bruce, Steve, Seren and myself. We meet Brian in Santiago and then on to Temuco to pick up Tom our Aussie snowboarder and meet our Chilean team of Guido and Cristian. 8 of us in total to climb and ski 7 Chilean Volcanoes over the next two weeks. It's a tall order. One volcano every two days! We start in Lonquimay which is on one of my favourite destinations of all time. A quick visit tomorrow morning before the flight to Martin Jefferies from suppleworx for a last minute stretch, massage and manipulation. Martin is my 'God' when it comes to sorting out injuries. If any of you have long term injuries check him out at suppleworx.com. He is a genius.

The snow has been falling big time. 1 meter this past week. Sunday and Monday are clear for our first two days then in comes the snow again for Tuesday. So perfect timing. Hopefully a warm up day on Sunday hitting the fresh snow and then go for the summit on Monday.

You can follow our progress on Facebook and post any comments.

AUG 30 – CHILE 7 VOLCANOES ADVENTURE – CORRALCO, LONQUIMAY
Phil Smith, Snoworks Instructor

We are here. Arrived this evening around 8 pm at Corralco Lodge, Lonquimay. 2 flights via Canada to Santiago followed by an internal flight to Temuco.

View from Corralco Lodge of Lonquimay. This place feels like Heaven!

Corralco is an amazing place. This is my 6th year coming here on the trot. Corralco is a Lodge at the bottom of Lonquimay Volcano. We have the lodge and the whole mountain to ourselves as always. We arrived in the dark with the wind howling. It’s winter here in force at the moment. The forecast is for strong winds tomorrow then gradually dying down over the next couple of days with more snow coming in.

The itinerary is to spend the first day warming up and acclimatising however it looks like the only clear day we may get will be tomorrow so it could be in at the deep end and straight to the top of Lonquimay Volcano on the first day. We will see what the morning brings.

Powder skiing from the Lonquimay chairlift. Chile Argentina 2008. Our group and the mountain to themselves.

Everyone is off for early nights and get all the equipment ready for tomorrow.

AUG 31 – CHILE 7 VOLCANOES ADVENTURE – CORRALCO, LONQUIMAY
Phil Smith, Snoworks Instructor

Wow, the Patagonian weather as hit us big time. Gale force winds, blizzards and freezing temperatures. We were able to get the snowcat to take us as high up Lonquimay as possible so we could get some training in. No chance of getting to the summit today. One of the smaller lifts managed to open so were able to get our ski legs. Back to the lodge for lunch, dry off, then we skinned up to a nearby peak. Early evening we sampled the hot springs and relaxed hoping for a break in the weather tomorrow.

SEP 1 – CHILE 7 VOLCANOES ADVENTURE – CORRALCO, LONQUIMAY
Phil Smith, Snoworks Instructor

Howling winds all night. It sounded like the roof of the lodge was going to get blown away. Woke up to gale force winds and torrential rain. The local schools in the area have had to close and there is reported flooding in many places. Access roads to Lanin have been blocked by landslides. We did not even attempt to head out in the morning. When the weather comes in it can be pretty serious out there on the volcano. So more training in preparation but this time inside. Guido our guide set some ropes up in the lodge so the team could practise all their rope work which will be needed later on in the trip for Choshuenco and Osorno. I did a technical chat in preparation for when we finally get up Lonquimay. So more of the Snoworks Twisting Pushing Edging, what skill where and what speed. Ski design, width and sidecut radius etc etc etc. In the afternoon the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow. All the ski lifts were shut but keen as we are we donned the skins and headed out of the lodge into the blizzard. We decided to skin up through the araucarias trees to maintain some visibility and headed as high as we could to a nearby ridge. I thought it would just be a warm up but Guido our guide does not do warm ups so up we went through the forest until we could go no higher. Skins off and we headed back down through the forest in some great powder and back across to the lodge.

in amongst the Auracarias trees getting some shelter and fresh powder. Photo Tom Foss.

SEP 2 – CHILE 7 VOLCANOES ADVENTURE – CORRALCO, LONQUIMAY
Phil Smith, Snoworks Instructor

Yes, clear skies. Well almost, we could see the base of the volcano and almost to the summit. Cloud was lingering over the summit but all signs were looking good. The snowcat took us as far as it could and we headed up from there. There are a few routes you can take to get to the summit. You can skin to the south facing ridge and then skis off and crampons on and head directly to the summit along the ridge. Or you can skin around to the south east face and skin all the way to the top. We chose the later. The slope begins fairly gentle and gradually increases to about 30degrees. As we progressed up it begun to snow heavier and heavier. Not good for the summit but the powder was the best I had seen on Lonquimay. Four hours and we were at the summit with snow coming down and visibility of about 20 metres. So no view but amazing conditions. We could not take the normal south face due to the visibility so we headed back down the same way we had come up and lower down cut around to the south face. It was the best powder I had ever skied on Lonquimay – wow. The visibility was never more then 20 meters so it felt as though you were in an endless tunnel of powder that went from the summit of Lonquimay all the way back to the lodge. An amazing descent.

The start of our assent of Lonquimay. Us the mountains and nobody!

On the top of Lonquimay. Clear skies the whole way up then the snow arrived. Powder from the top! From left. Tom, Steve, Seren,, Bruce, Brian. Behind Guido, photo Phil.

SEP 3 – CHILE 7 VOLCANOES ADVENTURE – TOLHUACA
Phil Smith, Snoworks Instructor

Last night we had a discussion on the new destination Tolhuaca. I thought it would be best to head back up to lonquimay as we knew the conditions and the snow was so good. So I suggested we go for the summit again with a different rout back down. The group liked the idea of heading off to another volcano. I was not so sure. I new we could only access to a certain height so we would begin way down in the national park. We would have to skin from there and Guido guessed that the ascent would take between 5 to 7 hours. That’s long.

So with clear blue skies and perfect conditions we headed off to Tolhuaca. As we drove through the national park the scenery was spectacular. Alejandro took us as far as he could. The volcano is certainly impressive. We were standing in the National park looking at Tolhuaca in the distance. We could also see the summit of Lonquimay which looked spectacular.

Tolhuaca - A bridge too far!

Tolhuaca looked a long way. We begun our journey. It had snowed low down overnight so we were skinning up a track on a few inches of snow. The track was a combination of snow and volcanic rock with the occasional stream! We were in a hurry so it was skin up, across, over, through literally everything. Guido new it was going to be a mission to get to the top so he was off, stay with him or your dropped. I took up the tail end. The group soon begun to split. I was with Brian and Cristian at the tail end. We skinned through everything for about 2.5 hours. Then we begun to climb. As the temperature dropped we were un for a very unpleasant surprise. Our skins were soaked from crossing the many streams and the snow begun to freeze to the bottom. Soon the snow was piling up on the soles of our skis making every step forwards unbelievably difficult. I caught up two others Seren and Bruce and made a decision that we would abort the attempt on Tolhuaca. The summit was still a huge distance away.

Steve Lees following in Guido's footsteps. It was an interesting climb!

Guido, Steve and Tom were a fair distance ahead. They had to stop and dry their skins in the sun and then renew their attempt on the summit. Knowing Guido he would do everything possible to make it.

We headed back to the drop of point which was pretty interesting. We headed back the way we cam only this time the new snow low down had now melted. So it was skis off and walk. Oh dear. But the stunning scenery made up for it.

We got back to the pick up point to find that Guido had also abandoned his attempt and was coming back down a different rout. 2 hours later they arrived back. Not the powder descent we had in mind at the start of the day but an experience never the less. We would have to come back another time for Tolhuaca.

7 Volcanoes 2008 Blog Continued
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