Lonquimay Summit Day

As promised, Sunday dawned clear but still windy. We rode the lifts up the little bump of the ski area and climbed the 3300 feet from there to the summit. The ski down was on surprisingly nice wind pack, no signs of wind slabs on the steep slopes from the summit. Great day, made a new friend, Chilean snowboarder Chris. Our plan had been to head to Antuco next but we heard from Chris there was a lack of snow on the lower slopes of the Volcano and with all the wind and more snow in the forecast, we decided to head for my Chilean home away from home, Las Trancas and the Nevados de Chillan (formerly Termas de Chillan) ski resort.

Beautiful AM, clear and cold, goal in sight.

The road to the resort still wasn't fully cleared so we got a ride up in this little "snowcat"

Fernando on the way up, amazing scenery!

Cramponing up the summit ridge

Summit self portrait. Llaimas is just in the left of the pic. It's been erupting on and off the last year and half or so. 2 years ago we took a crazy snow cat ride ~2/3rds of the way up Llaimas. Climbing it will have to be a goal for another year.

Fernando and Chris make the summit.