Cerro Castillo Region Ski Trip

Overview

Getting There: Go south on Carretera Austral Number 7 from Coyhaique 50 or 60 km. Not sure how to describe where we stopped, there is no parking lot we just pulled over and got dropped off. If you have GPS our coordinates were (-46.063048 S, -72.013063 W) around 1060 meters in elevation. There are lots of cool mountains to Ski here, you could have fun anywhere in this area, but you will probably need to get dropped off because there is no where to park.

Number of Days:3

Objective: Skiing, hopefully pow.

The Crew: Our Instructors, Nick and Ben, and the Guide School 3 team Jordan, Brett, Sean, Kine, and me (Gabe)

Day 1

Distance to camp: 1.5 km
Elevation change: +350 meters
Time: 2 or 3 hours


The weather was beautiful. From there was a drainage to the North West. We went to where the drainage gets narrow (50 meters from the road) and started skinning North up the Southern Aspect. There were a lot of tight trees. It didn't take long to get above tree line. At this point in time we were all on the same slope so we spaced out and limited our switchbacks.

We got to the ridge and set up camp. The View was awesome. Brett and Jordan were in one tent. Sean, Kine, and I shared a tent. Nick and Ben shared the last tent. After dinner and sunset we realised that the clear sky, full moon, and start night provided for great night skiing. We put our skis on and skinned up past camp 20 minutes to a mini summit. Skiing down was mellow with 12 cm of creamy pow. Ben skied first, I went 2nd. Jordan went third and took a small fall resulting in losing his ski, literally. He has Silveretta 500 bindings which do not have breaks and he did have the leash attached so when it came off his foot it slid off into oblivion. We were not planning on skiing below camp. The ski could have gone 200 vertical meters down to the tree line. Jordan was frustrated to say the least. Nick and Ben went to look for it and we went back to camp.

Nick and Ben came back to camp with out the ski. They said we would all go look for it in the morning. Jordan was pissed. Kina and Ben skinned back up to get some cool night pictures of camp.

Day 2

After Breakfast Nick and Ben went over the plan for the day.
Ben said to the grop, "Jordan, looking for you ski is a lost cause, so were not going to waste everyones time. Were going to start with some bacon drills. Then we are going to go up the ridge as far as we can and ski something over there (pointing North West). Its going to be a blast, were all going to have so much fun, except for Jordan because he only has one ski. Jordan your just going to have to stay in camp today, maybe you can have some hot chocolate for us when we come back."

Jordan was taking it rather hard and I didn't blame him, Ben was really rubbing it in his face. It felt like he was trying to make Jordan feel shitty. We started the becon drill and Jordan went first. We were pretty new to becon drills and Jordan was having some trouble. When he finally pinpointed the beacon he dug up his lost ski! Nick and Ben were intact trying to rub it in Jordan's face. They found it the night before and buried it with a bacon. Ha ha, that was well played.

We all (including Jordan) started up the ridge. Brett and Sean brought snow shoes because they are brand new to skiing. The ridge got really steep so Ben put in a little rope for a handrail. The exposure was fun. About 15 minutes after the rope, the weather picked up. The wind came in strong really strong. Nick and Ben decided that it was time to go home. Ben, Kine, and I skied about 150 vertical meters down the North East side of the ridge. The snow was awesome and we escaped the wind at the lower elevation. We skined a long traverse back to the ridge. The others followed the ridge back to camp.