Corralco, Chile – August 31st – September 5th, 2017

South of Nevados de Chillan is Corralco, a ski area situated on a massive volcano – it would be our home for the next week and consequently the last week of our year-long adventure. On the drive we stocked up on groceries (primarily peanut butter) at the Jumbo grocery story, which is a mega store which could be described as the child of papa Wal-Mart (but higher quality) and mama Ikea (without all the furniture, but with the awesome cafeteria). Once in Corralco, we settled into our “chalet”, which was really just a cabin, relaxed, and did some research for the rest of the evening.

We took our time in the next morning since it was a storm day. If you are a skier you know how crazy that sounds: the snow is falling, fresh pow ready for the taking, and we are taking our time… only in Chile. On a Chilean snow day you can count on the resort being closed, which was exactly right. To be fair, it was also very windy. Regardless, that morning was our first glimpse of the area, and wow was it beautiful. Surrounded by unique trees in the parking area, the view up to the vast bald (treeless) cone-like volcano was spectacular. After discovering that none of the side roads were ripe for exploring thanks to mother nature, we went back into town and found ourselves at Termas Manzanar hot springs where we soaked for a couple hours.

After an unsuccessful day of skiing (or not skiing) on our first full day, the rest of our time at Corralco was exceptional. From the top of the resort, the views were seemingly endless with scattered volcanic peaks as far as you could see. We spent the next two days skiing the resort. Our first day in-bounds there was a freeride competition which was entertaining to watch, but made the lift lines a little long. Andy didn’t help matters by falling on the T-bar a few times – apparently T-bars are hard for slow-boarders booohooo. On the 2^nd day, we decided to summit Longuimay volcano. From the top of the resort we boot packed up to quickly find ourselves in a pretty precarious situation on an icy ridge with a long slide to both sides. I chickened out because I am a complete wuss when it comes to traction (boohoo) and Andy and Matt continued up. The boot pack was a slog (so I hear), taking about 2 hours to reach the summit. I definitely wish I would have had crampons with me because I am sure the view from the top was unreal… not to mention the REALLY long epic run down to the base of the resort.

Hot springs, cabin fever, and Corralco. 

 That evening back at the cabin, we learned the sad news that Andy’s family dog, Cocoa (a fun-loving brown lab that always found a way to make everyone laugh) would be put down the next morning. After saying his goodbye’s over the phone, we turned in early, all a little somber. The next day, about the same time as Cocoa was being put to sleep, we had a visitor at the cabin door -  an old black lab! She came straight up to Andy and wanted pets and belly rubs. It is as if she knew that her presence was exactly what he needed.

Cabin dogs and skiing.

We toured about 3-hours up the SE face of Lonquimay on our last ski day in Chile. It felt good to stretch our legs and breathe in the perfect blue-bird day after an emotional night and morning. We topped out at about 8000 ft. and had a nice long run down to the bottom on mostly champagne powder. No better way to end the trip!

That night we started making our way back to Santiago. We splurged for the night at a super cool dome yurt-cabin combo. Except for having to scrap together all the USD and CLP we had left to pay for the dome since apparently, they didn’t take credit cards (oops), the trip back to the US was uneventful.

Party lap on our last day of skiing in Chile and the cabin-yurt on the way back to Santiago. 

It was bittersweet to be heading home. The last year had pushed us to our breaking points, been beyond words rewarding, and forever changed us for the better. I cannot lie and say we weren’t looking forward to being re-united with Tucker, eating accessible fresh food without worrying about Montezuma’s revenge, and squishing our toes into carpet (who knew we would miss carpet so much). It wasn’t over though, after all, this trip was only the beginning of “Dandy’s Grand Adventure.”