EXPLOSION: Skiing in Termas is one eruption after another
CLICK HERE FOR THE MASSIVE GALLERY
This region is explosively entertaining. In one day at Termas de Chillan, Lynsey Dyer and Jess McMillan launched front flips off a cornice, photographer Gabe Rogel shot the best backcountry skiing of his life and we almost blew up our rental house.
We’re in Chile’s volcanic region about 6 hours south of Santiago, but little did we know it was almost us that would cause an eruption.
CLICK HERE FOR THE MASSIVE GALLERY BY GABE ROGEL
“Get the fuck out of here!” Rogel yelled. The life-size propane tank at our rental just blew in McMillan’s face. Rogel pushed Dyer out the door. I, who picked up pink eye somewhere in dirty Santiago, panicked and ran into a wall. Eric Seymour and Pete Leitton jumped out the windows. McMillan, the first one out, witnessed the whole thing and said it looked like a “clown evacuation.”
But it was a legitimate panic; 10 candles were burning inside. “This place is going to blow,” Seymour said as we all watched from the road about 100 yards away. “At least we’re alive,” Leitton said. But everyone’s gear was still in the house and in the van parked nearby: passports, money, computers and ski and photo equipment. The irony was as thick as the misty fog surrounding the valley. It was Dia de Independencia, Chile’s biggest annual party to celebrate its split from Spain in 1810. We, a bunch of gringos, nearly created the biggest fireworks display in the region’s history.
It all started when we cruised south to Termas de Chillan from Valle Nevado. We had heard of this place, a valley steaming with hot springs and volcanic peaks that surround the humble resort with the most archaic chair we’ve ever seen – rusty, slow and fitted with personal wood foot rests. But at the same time, Termas Chillan Ski & Spa Resort has a number of ritzy hotels at its base for ski-in-ski-out access.
For four days during the holiday, it’s a Chilean circus with people and patriotic flair everywhere, traffic jams and endless lines. Lodging? Forgetaboutit. Every place was booked in Termas. We ignored the frenzy and went skiing. It hadn’t snowed for a few days, but there was plenty of powder on wind-loaded north facing slopes. The ski area doesn’t have epic steeps, but it does have numerous cornices – gigantic heaps of snow that acted as our playfield. While dropping practice 15-footers into powder, we ran into a posse of local boys. “What are you doing on our cornice?” dread-locked Chilean Sebastian Oyarzun asked. He and friends Jose Aliaga and Chino Villegas were the raddest skiers on the hill and we quickly became friends. They said the snow lasts on the hill for days because tourists mostly ski the groomers and on the weekdays, the resort is skierless. That afternoon, Oyarzun tells us his buddy owns a place in town that we could rent. We arrive after dark to a house with no electricity. The price drops to $15,000 pesos a night (like $2 U.S. a person, the best deal yet on our trip). Never mind that there is neither heat nor hot water. We’re ski bumming this trip after all, so we take it and host a little party with boxed Gato Nego wine and Pisco to celebrate. No problema; the owner said electricity would be on the next day.
