Volcanic Meca

Arriving at the only bus stop outside of Pucon at 10pm, I made the call to my contact in Valle Nevado who's brother resides in Pucon. He was working at a dope bar/restaurant call Cypress. All I was told is that its by the center of town, and everyone knows it. So I started pulling my Dakine bag which thankfully has good wheels like 8+ blocks where I was greeted by Roco with two pints of good beer and Empanadas all for around 4 dollars.

There was a group of French kids, old friends of Roco, I cruised the town with on this Friday night. At around 2am I was overtaken by hunger and was surprised to find a restaurant still open where I had the best chicken sandwich of my life. I guess that's why they name this place the best tourism infrastructure south of Costa Rica. From the bazillion eateries, bars, hostels, hotels, to every outdoor activity imaginable, this place is a tourist black hole. You can even spin around the central park in a kiddy go cart....if you're small enough. Careful though, the drivers in Chile are crazy, I did see some fender benders. Or maybe its a good idea to walk this area equipped with shin guards.

I spent my first day hung over...blaa, and just strolled the city talking to shop workers and the city folk. I also found my fruit store which I would become a daily loyal customer of. Chilean produce is where it's at! Especially eating it with this view~

The next day being a bit cloudy I decided to hold of on the skiing. I made an Empanada stop, rented a hard tail mtn. Bike, and headed for a 40k loop to another one of the 5 lakes in the region, Caburga. It was a pretty diverse ride. Some single track along the river, to a cool bridge, to a rarely traveled dirt road along the country side, ending at an amazing dead end.

The next days I headed for the volcano Viarrica, small ski area, HUGE HUGE HUGE volcano. My days there consisted of hitch hiking in the back of pickups, hiking as high as not having crampons would allow, skiing some off the best spring snow ever, and taking in the majestic views.

The rest of the time there seemed to easily slip away with hot springs, some intense tennis with Roco, and more city gazing. Before I knew it another week had past and I decided to head back to Santiago. Just in time for a last freak storm of the season that would leave over half a meter of cold stuff in the Cordillera of the central region. Good thing I didn't go to Bariloche~

Special thanks goes out to Roco for letting crash at his house and snapping this shot below.

Nevados de Chillan Round II

So Chillan it was via the train. I rolled in style for a 20 dollar first class train ticket with big seats and a place to plug in.

After getting into Chillan at 11pm I had no plan of what to do...but that's the adventure behind it. I snagged a cab and we went to a hostel with plans of getting back into the same cab in seven hours to make the bus to Las Trancas. The next morning I got the three dollar bus to the best place in Chile. Straight to the best hostel in Trancas, and up to the best ski center in Chile, NO JOKE.

There was a comp going on that week, so for a registration of 80 dollars I got 5 days of skiing and some Chilean barbeque action, although the slopestyle game was not on my mind. I had my eyes set on the summit of Volcan Nevados, a 2000+ vertical peak at about 11,500ft.

At registration I ran in to three Utahers, Julian, Adam, and Jenn.

Us four, Chopo Diaz, Senor Diaz...along with 13 year old shredder Nico explored this amazing mountain from one extreme to the other.

For the next 4 days or so...this was a shred crew. From sunset shooting, to Ziplines (Canopy), to hot springs, to a magestic waterfall, we lived it up.

On our last ski day, Julian, Adam, and myself headed for the sought after summit.

I learned when there are no trees to reference it is hard to gauge how far something is. And damn, these mountains are HUGE! We saw 2 tiny little dots on the side of the last ridge before the face.
Julian said there was now way they could be people cuz that would make that “ridge” enormous. Well they were people, two Irish men moving very slowly.

We made it to the summit and down our lines after taking time for photos in under four hours. The terrain here is endless and even the run back to the resort from our lines was killer.

The next day we headed back to the retro town of Chillan. I made my bus to Pucon thanks to the crew and the car they rented. Which by the way, was a crazy experience of partying with the rental office staff after renting the car. We ended up in a local bar, getting a signed CD of the band, and watching the traditional Quaker dance go down..Wild~

Another late arrival in Pucon in the night with no idea where to go would make for another interesting time for sure...