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OK, well hi, this is my first TR, also my first expedition splitboarding so that makes sense.

This TR includes Volcano Lonquimay, Tolhuaca, Villarica, Antillanca and Osorno which are just a few of the hundreds of volcanoes in Southern Chile.

Me and my brand new Prior Spearhead arrived in Chile in late August looking forward to some great powder and some awesome treks.

-photo- the smile of my maiden voyage, 2 foot of fresh powder above La Parva, and the lifts were closed from the storm!

My first week I spent in Portillo acclimatising (the lodge sits at around 2800m), getting used to the board and tuning my Voile setup. I was looking for some partners to head out skinning but didn’t have any luck up north. Seeing as I knew nothing about skinning, and precious little about mountaineering in general (apart from the fact that I like it!) I decided to join up with a ski touring expedition from England run by Phil Smith from Snoworks and local operators Amity tours. I ended up travelling in a lot more style then I’m used to, (and eating more too!) but it was a good decision as I learnt a lot about skinning, skiing and safety from Phil and our guide, Guido, plus it was a great crew to travel with.

We started off at a Volcano called Lonquimay, 2865m, situated in a nature reserve of Araucaria (Monkey Puzzle) forests near the city of Temuco. First day was blowing 60kph winds and pretty much a snow storm, so we stayed under the tree line in the Araucaria forests, skinned and hour and a half up a ridge near the lodge and skied some great powder down through an amazing prehistoric forest. The Spearhead loved the powder and the trees, floating up so easy in the deep snow, even on the flats and at slow speeds. Only downside I would say is that all the extra nose moves the centre of gravity and makes the tip slower to rise when kick turning the second leg through in deep steep powder. Amazing run though, very happy with my new toy!
That evening we went down to some volcanic thermal pools about 20 minutes away, best way to relax, hot baths and drinking the Chilean distilled spirit, Pisco sours.

-photo- brand placement


-photo- a view of the ridge and the line we took, taken the day after

The weather had cleared the next day, so we trekked up the South East ridge of the Lonquimay volcano, the snow was light and deep after snowing for 4 days straight. Quite a nice easy skin up (4.5 hours) under beautiful sunny skies, however the clouds came in about 2/3 of the way up and couldn’t enjoy the view from the top. We came down a big bowl just south of our route up in white out conditions. Real pity as the powder was perfect and it would have been nice to be able to let it rip.


Araucaria trees, they grow at the rate of 2mm per year so these granddaddies are around 600 years old!

Lonquimay volcano - the ridgeline on the right was our way up, the bowl to its left was the route down


That evening we drove another hour to a hotel near our next destination, Volcano Tolhuaca. It was snowing quite heavily even at the low elevation that we were, but the forecast was clear for the next day, perfect!

The access to Tolhuaca is not the easiest, especially not after fresh snowfall and on dodgy Chilean dirt roads. It was also the first time that Tolhuaca was on the agenda for Amity tours as the scheduled stop, V Llaima, had blown its top about 2 months earlier and was a national disaster zone. We ended up starting skinning on a cattle track well below the tree line and a long way from the route up. Skins got quite wet and dirty as there was a lot of bush bashing going on with fairly sparse snow cover (just from the night before) and 2 hours later, when we reached the colder snow the skins really started to stick, still a long way from the route up. A couple of the crew dropped off but three of us pushed on, however the GPS co-ordinates that Guido had been given were not very accurate, the cattle track disappeared in the forest and we realised that we were exactly 1 bamboo infested valley, 3 rivers and 1 waterfall away from the ridge we needed to be on.

Guido the Swiss mountain guide- stream crossing number 1

Llaima volcano in the distance - erupted in June08

3 hours later after a lot of bush bashing, falling through a bamboo pillow and generally putting the split setup through every possible test, we gave up the attempt and Tolhuaca remained an unattained vision of bowls of virginal powder. Another 2 hours and we made it back to the car with a 3 hour drive to our next destination, Pucon


Tolhuaca - the unnattained

little bit of extra weight to carry

Volcan Villarica (2837m) is next to Pucon and has a ski area at the base of the volcano. It’s a beautiful symmetrical cone, a strata volcano, and is an active volcano with regular, steady eruptions and a constant cloud of gas and steam coming out of the cauldron. Unfortunately, although it was clear, the wind was blowing a gale that day so we were unable to attempt the climb.

Villarica losing its powder

The next day we started up with blue skies and a bit less wind. We took 2 lifts up to nearly the top of the ski area (in Chile they never have all the lifts functioning, especially the ones that go where you want to ski.) and started skinning up the mountain’s north (sun facing) side. I had my ski crampons in riser mode but was still sliding around a lot as the surface was a really wind affected ice slab at the lower altitudes. I changed the crampons to fixed mode however the slider pins kept working their way out of the touring bracket with the rotation, which was both dangerous and time consuming to fix. I ended up using boot crampons and carrying my board the rest of the way up the mountain, falling a long way behind the group. Any suggestions or advice for this problem? I tried a filing a groove on the pin where the clip holds it and tightening the clip with pliers which worked for the subsequent tours, but a split pin would be ideal to hold it in securely.



The summit was amazing, about a 5 hour trek, a huge crater with clouds of sulphurous gas billowing out, however we weren’t having much luck with the clouds as soon as we arrived on the top they raced in leaving us in a white out. The board down was pretty treacherous as the wind the day before had stripped the mountain of snow. We had to walk down a 40 degree ice slope, and then traverse heel side through knee high wind structures of packed powder for a big part of the mountain. Once we got to the melt level it got better as there was some nice corn for the rest of the ride down. Conditions weren’t the best for riding (or skinning) but definitely a good trek and some great views from the top of a highly active volcano.


the Villarica caldera- active volcano, no lava today but a lot of steam

Next stop after Villarica was Huilo Huilo, a national park which combined two split volcanoes, Mocho and Choshuenko. I had managed to get a severe case of sunstroke (thanks to excessive energy gels and a frozen camelback, live and learn…) and missed out on these two volcanoes. It took the crew two attempts, and on the second day 3 people made the summit of Choshuenko (50m ice climb over a large cornice is the only access). The park also is amazing, quirky arquitecture and strong conservation focus, very unique and well worth a visit.

Baobab hotel at Huilo Huilo

Next stop was V Antillanca, another 4 hour drive south. Antillanca also has a ski resort at the bottom and has some great lift accessed terrain. Most of the mountain is above the lifts though and there are so many places to go. Looks like a great place for kite boarding as you could get into the endless bowls and valleys behind the ski area and go for miles! The Antillanca Volcano is quite an easy skin, around 4 hours, along a ridge starting near the top draglift from the resort. The weather was starting to go our way, no wind and blue skies all the way to the top. Amazing views of the surrounding volcanoes and the large snow filled crater of the volcano. A typical day to forget your camera, however I’ll soon be getting some photos from the rest of the group so I’ll make sure to post them, probably a lot better than mine as well!

The ride down was amazing, perfect conditions, big bowls of medium packed powder, untracked, like everywhere else we had been. We skied down, then had another short skin to get back to the original valley, followed by another ski back to the van, the snow at higher altitudes was amazing but once back in the ski area it was wet, heavy and sticky to the point of being unrideable. The stuff up the top, and the view however… Awesome!

Next destination was Volcano Osorno (2652m), another 4 hour drive south. Osorno was the last stop of the tour, situated near Puerto Mont in the south of Chile. There was supposed to be a break in the weather on Thursday and as it was the most technical climb we went to have a look on the Wednesday. STEEP! Had a quick skin to keep the legs warm (2 hours) and a great ride down in perfect powder.


Volcano Osorno


Thursday morning bright and early we were at the mountain, perfect conditions, blue skies and no wind. However the rangers would not let us up as the volcano had been declared unsafe in the summer and no one had been up since then to declare it open. Luckily Amity tours had the right connections and the Chilean head of parks said we could climb at our own risk and not be arrested on the return… thankyou. However the whole process had eaten into our morning and we only got started at 10:30. Luckily the initial journey was facilitated by the world’s only Volkswagon cat-track which took us up to the top of the lift system (which coincidently was not working for the winter).



Great snow, perfect weather! Makes it all worthwhile… There was nice skinning up the ridges and then once on the steep the terrain turned to slightly wind affected dunes and ice. The last 400m vert on the mountain is wind ice structures and glacial seracs with a huge ice cornice on the last 15 metres. We left the skis and my splitboard and started up with crampons and ice axes. Guido found a small snow pass/couloir to get through the cornice and we roped up for the climb up.


Phil Smith - Snoworks UK


Bruce getting around the cornice

View from the top was amazing, looking north you could see all the way to Vocano Villrica and then name all the other volcanoes that we had climbed, plus loads more for future expeditions. The Volcano was also surrounded by huge lakes and looking west you could see all the way to the mountain in front of the Argentinian ski town, Bariloche.


Capoeira snap- for blogging my other passion, Brasilian martial arts

The ski down was incredible! Perfect powder, nice gradient, long untouched bowls and ridges! We left the summit at 4:30 and started skiing at 5pm so it was starting to get cold and the sun was setting. Further down near the bottom the freeze/ thaw cycle had firmed the snow into a perfectly smooth ice crust and it was a bit sketchy, but still good fun. All in all it was the best trek of the trip, both in terms of views and skiing.

sunset snap - Phil

me and Guido (amity tours) at the bottom of Osorno - feeling good!

Big ups to Phil and Guido for my initiation in skinning, crampons and getting up a mountain. Was an incredible 2 weeks and now I feel comfortable with my gear in a variety of conditions. Getting started at anything can be hit and miss and it was good to be with an experienced crew. I’m more confident now to hook up with other tourers and splitboarders knowing that I won’t be a hindrance, so here’s to many more hikes to come!

PS. As I get a few more photos from the other guys in the group I’ll post a few more on this thread. Hope I didn’t write too much for you, just pretty stoked with the whole experience!

Damn this lookes like an epic TR...thanks. Cant wait to get home and enjoy it.

Nice stoke Heck of a first TR.

Nice TR!

That VW snow cats kicks ass!

Here's a few more shots that I grabbed off Phil, a couple of shots boarding and a nice shot of the route up to Choshuenko, I was having a sickie that day but it looks like a great trek!


Choshuenko, the guys climbed up the tip of the peak in the middle of the shot.


on top of Casablanca volcano, great ride down.


skinning up Osorno


coming down Osorno


boarding Osorno

Super sweet TR Toz! Way to come in with a bang.

Looks like you scored some sweet conditions! The Prior Spearhead is a sweet ride huh.

Thanks for sharing and happy splitting!

Very nice.

Nice TR!

Wonder if that VW is aircooled?

epic 1st TR. so stoked for you that you are getting some good riding in! thanks for taking the time to post the pix to keep all us snow starved splitters in the northern hemi from going insane.

very nice TR.

Id love to get to Chile someday

Hell of a start Toz! Great TR & thanks for putting it up here!

Sick!