Snowboarding Chile

What happens when two top pro snowboarders head out for a southern hemisphere winter trip

I hopped into a pickup truck with a guy named Jorge Chacón. A cold sideways rain was pissing down on Concepción, Chile, but I was pretty sure that meant snow in the mountains. I was wrecked from the long flight and after gathering my pile of bags and camera gear I wandered outside looking for my ride to Chillan. Jorge appeared out of nowhere and slung one of my bags into the back of his truck waiting at the curbside. This guy looked as tired as I felt but he was all smiles and greetings. “Let’s go, bro,” he said. Jorge spoke better English than I do Spanish so he made the introduction quick and painless. Within two seconds of touchdown, I was speeding away toward the mountains, riding shotgun with a local. It was on.

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So, Jorge was my ride from the airport in Concepción down to the Shangri-La Valley for a taste of Southern Hemisphere winter in the Andes. I learned that he was a timber merchant for a big Chilean lumber company called Arauco but spent his weekends shredding down in Termas de Chillan. And that’s just where we were headed in his 4X4 work truck as we sped along the rain-soaked, rolling countryside of Chile’s Bio-Bio region. Even with our language barrier, we shared our stoke for snowboarding and the mountains. Jorge asked me random questions about life in the States as I queried him back about Chile and snowboarding the Andes. He named all the different types of trees that grew along the roadside and filled in some blanks for me about the country’s economy and landscape. Local knowledge is golden on the road; so I’m always trying to absorb it. Jorge drove, I listened. The air grew colder.

For an American rider, traveling to Chile is a summer dream. While so many Yanks wait in lines to hit the jumps at Mount Hood in Oregon or go all the way to Snowpark in New Zealand to stand in even longer lines, Chile is a great escape. The sheer grandeur of the Andes alone, make Chile a sort of mecca for powder pilgrims. The language and culture add the dimension of foreign madness to the experience while the Southern Hemi winter means powder in August. Plus, the absence of crowds in the mountains makes it a peaceful retreat from the multitudes of “others” we’re all trying to leave behind when we go on a shred adventure. Chile is pretty quiet that way; not a lot of hype for such a crazy place. Glaciated volcanic peaks jut up into the horizon for as far as the eye can see. You’ll watch huge condors circle in the sky, riding thermal updrafts; snowboarding in Chile is unforgettable.

Jorge hammered his truck along the bumpy dirt roads outside of a grubby little village called Las Trancas as we headed toward our destination of the Mission Impossible Lodge. The rest of my crew was there already; tasting the local flavors a few days early. At our home base of the MI Lodge, the resort of Termas de Chillan was just up the road while the Shangri-La Valley loomed in the other direction. The terrain here is endless with world-class backcountry options at every degree of the compass.

The MI Lodge is a killer, comfortable accommodation stashed back in the woods near the base of the Termas resort. They are snowboarder-owned and operated and the whole crew is geared toward keeping guests stoked. Après-shred is all about soaking in the steamy, wood-fired hot tubs as legendary Chilean sunsets paint the sky wild shades of orange and red. Mornings are strong coffee, hot breakfast, and wireless weather updates around a cracking fire in the main hall. MI Lodge is doing it right and will surely be one of those “you should’ve been here last year” spots that will be booked solid for next year by the time you read this. Believe it.

We forded some pretty gnarly puddles on the road to the lodge, but Jorge had it in four-wheel, so we charged. After the long solo travel I looked forward to joining up with my crew. Red Bull snowboarders Pat Moore and Danny Davis were the athletes, and a film crew from Teton Gravity Research including Dirk Collins and Sean Aaron were the media locked in for this one. Our only agenda was to explore the zone and document it in photo, digital video, 16mm film and audio. The plan was a few days warm-up on the resort then a few more days of backcountry riding with snowmobiles. We would rely on local hospitality and guides to get us into the goods; and when I walked into the MI Lodge, I knew that this trip to Chile would be epic.

MI Lodge owner Jerome Boulay was over at the bar getting some skier dudes to do weird shots of some sort of liquor, coffee and lemon juice. “MI Shots!” he shouted as he reached over to greet me. We shook hands vigorously and he smiled all sly, “Welcome to Chile!” he said. Collins was in line for a shooter himself and Pat Moore was amping as usual. Upstairs, Sean Aaron was fiddling with his cameras. Looked like the crew was all here except Davis. I walked around scoping the lodge for a minute, when Danny Davis came tumbling in the door behind me. We did another round of greetings and high-fives as Danny’s taxi driver hauled in his baggage. A four hour taxi ride that ended on rutted-out mountain roads...Oh man, what a trip this would be!

Termas De Chillan is a huge resort with steaming volcanic emissions spouting high up into the sky right off the face. The base sits at just under 5000ft. elevation while the resort summit is at nearly 9000. The upper alpine of the resort boundary is all accessible by hiking and the views and steeps are world-class. Surrounded by sawed-off volcanic peaks and the craggy, red Andean rock, the scenery is really breathtaking. The broad, steep face under the Don Otto lift is like something out of the Swiss Alps while the mellow groomers that snake down to the valley floor feel like Whistler. This resort also features the longest run in all of South America, called Las Tres Marias, which twists and turns for over 8 miles. The name translates to Chillan thermals; and that is what attracts most tourists to the region. There are hot springs and nine thermal pools in the vicinity, with some accessible right off the slope. Local guides will bring many parties for a soothing dip in the hot rivers before taking a last run down. Chile has its charms, for sure. We found it odd that snowboarders were charged slightly higher prices than the skiers for lift tickets at Termas but no one really asked why. We were too busy riding.

Pat Moore and Danny Davis are both young, hungry American pro riders most widely recognized for their abilities in competition. Both kids have spent the last few winters breaking into the ranks of professional snowboarding. Moore was raised on the east coast and attended the prestigious Waterville Valley Snowboard Academy. He climbed the junior rankings before he was out of high school and took his game out to Utah last year. His debut year on the pro scene, Moore was honored as Rookie of the Year by TransWorld Snowboarding. Davis is from the Midwest and spent the 2005 season vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic halfpipe team. He narrowly missed the chance to represent his country in Torino, but lost no ground in his quest for halfpipe glory last season. You could say these boys are rookie pros, but both are on a mission to push themselves and in turn snowboarding, to the next level. Moore spent his winter in Whistler waiting for the clouds to break while filming his segment for Forum Snowboards’ film, That. Davis was on a world tour of halfpipe contests, knocking out back-to-back 10s and earning podium spots from Europe to Vermont in both halfpipe and slopestyle disciplines. And down in Chile, we were pretty far removed from their comfort zones. I knew that watching these two adjust to the foreign backcountry terrain was guaranteed to be entertaining. When it comes to “getting the shot” out in the backcountry, the obstacles are innumerable. Watching them huck would be a sweet show. But, knowing that both Pat and Danny are such hard workers and incredible athletes, odds were pretty good they’d kill it. Especially if the snow was on our side.

The boys dorked around on the resort one day, riding the mellow groomers and sun-baked old Spring snow off-piste. We hiked off resort boundaries and hunted from some jump zones, little cliffs, and windlips; anything really. There were rollers with pockets of powder that went on for days down into the valley. Anyone who’s ever hammered down the front of Mount Baker or ridden the steeps of St. Anton in the Arlberg would pop major wood for a shot at Termas’ Don Otto face on a pow day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it this time. Pat and Danny got their legs warmed up by clowning around on the hill for a day, but we needed to get a little deeper to find some real snow.

We took the logical step. The next day we linked up with local Chilean pro rider Christian Wehrhahn who runs a snowmobile rental and guide operation called Dos Tiempos. A wise man once said, “Do not go shy into the land of plenty.” And what I think he meant was, if you want to get to the good shit in Shangri-La Valley, you need this dude Christian to show you what’s up. Our whole crew rode up over the backside of Termas resort out into the endless expanses of the Andes alpine. We were on brand-new Ski-Doo sleds; no worries, only open aspects in every direction. Again, local knowledge equals access to the goods.

Pat and Danny went to work. They hiked and rouped and jumped and slashed. With Christian leading the charge we rode ridges and crossed over saddles scoping different spots. They were everywhere. The cameramen set up the angles at every stop, of course. We pulled up into a dreamy zone called El Sueño and the boys went nuts. Mini-Alaska lines loomed above us as we hiked up for angles; the riders looked for drop zones and a general “holy shit!” vibe stoked our entire crew. These two kids from the east’s icy flatlands charged the Chilean powder faces without hesitation. At another spot, when the sun dipped behind clouds, we could warm our chilly feet on the exposed outcroppings of warm, active volcanic rock nearby. Where else can one find foot warmers in the backcountry? Cornice drops and bands of rocky cliffs were there for the taking. Countless mountain peaks crowded the horizon to the north and east. For five days in a row, we followed the arc of the September sun through the valley on our snowmobiles.

We spent a half a day shoveling and block-building a giant booter, only to find a deadly snow-covered boulder in the middle of the landing zone. We moved on without complaint and dug up another one. Our guide Christian was amazed that we’d bother building a jump when so many natural drops surrounded us but, he was also more than happy to take a few flights off the lip of our bulky booter. Condors wheeled in the sky above us, floating on the wind as milky skies moved in and out. We battled sucker-holes with cameras ready and eventually brought back some shots. The boys were elated to fling themselves amid steaming volcanoes. They even landed a few tricks! We rode home against the fading light, cold and tired. That crazy, numb stoke crept over us, the way it always does after long days in the mountains; we were drifting into the mode of the out-of-town local. And when this happens, the end is usually near. That end came more quickly than any of us would have liked; and before long we were splitting off to Santiago and beyond. Our mission to Chile went down clean; no injuries, no BS, and the riders put some footage in the can, as they say. Hindsight is always 20/20, but we seriously should’ve stayed down there for another week. Remember I said that when you plan your trip Chile.

- Joel Muzzey

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