Lanin was a big one: 8,300 feet of gain, almost 8 hours of ascent time, and over 5.5 miles to the summit.
If we’re thinking about skiing comparisons in the lower 48, I would say it’s accurate to compare it to Mount Shasta. With over 8k of vertical gain, it’s a big enough effort that some opt to do it overnight, while others can make the push in one long day. It isn’t super-steep or overly technical, but it isn’t easy terrain either. And with so much vertical relief, you can plan on a broad range of snow conditions– rock-hard sastrugi and cauliflower snow at the summit, often with high winds, and overheated spring snow down at the base.
If you have nice weather and your timing works out, you might find the middle of the descent offers the best skiing. That’s just the reality of descents with big vertical drops.
After our day on Llaima, some bad weather moved through the area, and we had a forced rest day in Pucón, which turned out to be a good thing. We visited an amazing hot springs in Chile —the Termal Botánicos—which we highly recommend if you are looking for something relaxing to do in the area.
The next morning, we were up early, driving out of Pucon, reaching the trailhead near the Argentinian border in the dark. We parked at a locked gate, got all of our gear loaded on our backpacks, and started walking up the dry trail.
As the sky lightened, we could see the hulking mass of Lanin in front of us. We followed a pretty good trail through the valley, and as the terrain steepened, the route started up a ridge, with sustained climbing for quite a while.
We could see some snow to the west that might have been skinnable, but our route was pretty efficient, so we opted to continue hiking on dry ground with our skis on our backs. We passed a flat perch with several tents of climbers who opted to overnight. They had already departed for the summit and were ahead of us. About 1000 vertical feet higher, we reached another plateau where we were finally on continuous snow.
At this point, we were several hours in, and we took a break to put on our ski boots, skins, and skis. And sunblock, too —it was very dry and sunny out. We started skinning up the big snowfield above us and settled into the big effort.
As we got higher, we merged with a route that ascended the northeast side of the mountain from Argentina. There were several other groups, including a few large rope teams of eight climbers and two guides. As our routes merged, there were several dozen of us all ascending the most straightforward, snowy route.
Nearer the summit, maybe 800-1000 feet below the crater rim, the snow was firm and the pitch steepened, so we switched to crampons and ice axes. At this point, some 6-7 hours in and 7000 vertical feet up, the change of gears was welcome. We followed a good bootpack up, meandering through some prominent snow features and steeper sections. We came up on several other groups going up or down, and had some pleasant conversations. Most everyone seemed to be Chilean or Argentinian and were curious about us. But everyone was happy for the beautiful day, calm(ish) winds, and that we were all near the summit and pulling off the objective. Many smiles and thumbs-up were shared.
The three of us had the summit all to ourselves. We sheltered in a calm spot, ate some food, and acknowledged how great it was to be able to pull this off in a one-day push. We have travelled and skied mountains all around the world, and we agreed that Lanin was an amazing mountain, made even more memorable by the huge effort it took to get up there.
We got in our skis and started retracing our route back down. The snow up top was lousy, as we were accustomed to at this point. As we got down further, the snow was a bit softer, and the three of us could link some good turns, cruising down past all the others who were downclimbing. Of the 30-40 other climbers up there, only two others were on skis.
We took our time descending, taking photos, and peeling off layers as we got warmer. When we neared our transition point, where we had put on our skis and boots earlier in the day, we opted to head west and follow the longer snow line down to the valley. It would add 2000 vertical feet of skiing, which otherwise would have had to be covered on foot.
When we reached the end of the snow, we switched back to hiking mode and followed a faint route back to the dry trail we started on. Eventually, we were back at the car, about 12 hours after we started. Lanin was skied from the summit in one day. We were psyched.
We raced back to Pucon. There wasn’t much time to spare. We had to unpack to dry things out, get dinner and a beer (or two), and get to bed. Tomorrow morning, we planned to head to Volcán Villarrica, the local classic.
Use the links below to see the trip reports from our other Chilean volcano ski adventures!
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