Home > Trip Reports > Oct 7, 2012, Valle del Yeso, Chile. Spring pow.

Oct 7, 2012, Valle del Yeso, Chile. Spring pow.

10/7/12
South America
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Posted by tabski on 10/8/12 5:52am
Thought I'd put the skis away for good for this Chilean winter, but I was wrong. A late season storm rolled through the central Andes, bringing heavy precipitation to Santiago and loads of snow in the cordillera. This was perhaps the biggest storm all winter, and it came well into this region's spring.

Two friends and I packed up, and after an hour of sleep left Santiago around 430am, and headed up Cajon de Maipo. Shortly the road forks to take you towards the lake and hydroelectric installation at Embalse el Yeso and beyond and after 2+ hours on bumpy gravel roads we came to the road's end, where we fortuitously were able to skin up and ski from the car.

We were looking for Cerro Cuerno Seco, but with no map and an extremely low cloud deck we just improvised, heading towards Termas del Plomo, a long, flat valley with promising summits on all sides. We picked one with a series of beautiful south-facing couloirs and headed for it, on what we later found out was Cerro Gastón. Through a combination of flat light, large scale of the area, and deep trailbreaking our conversation went from "Let's tick off a couple of those lines, they're sick!" to "Shit, I wonder if we're ever gonna make it up this thing!" We waded up ever-deepening snow to the top of the 800m+ line, arriving on top in snow flurries and wispy cloud.

We dropped in to a very good descent with about 60cm of maritime-style snow and just enough visibility. A long push out the flat valley had us back at the car after about 8 hours on the go. The road seemed interminable, and we rotated drivers as the other two attempted to sleep, though the treacherous road made rest a battle of trying to balance your head just right, before having it bounce off the window or dashboard.

I'm in Santiago, and my flight back to Seattle is in three hours. See you soon, Cascadians.

We skied the main line looker's left, which is technically the canalón sur of Cerro Gastón.


Long, deep climb.



Sick. Hopefully you bring all that snow up here.

Now I remember,  some of that would be very nice about now, thanks for the report.

Great farewell gift from the southern snow goddess, hope she sends you home with pow for us, too.

A maritime dump for ending the SA season. You are bring the season.  ;)

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oct-7-2012-valle-del-yeso-chile-spring-pow
tabski
2012-10-08 12:52:36