Tour Guide, Malalcahuello-Nalcas, Chile
| 6 mins read
The Sierra Nevada is a magnificent mountain that, from a distance, appears to be a simple and honest edge in its location, inviting you to venture into its multiple route options, being the adventure portal that connects scenic mountain crossings to the Conguillio National Park, the town of Malalcahuello next to the valleys of Lonquimay and Melipeuco among the most obvious possibilities. With this varied geography, it offers unbeatable views of lakes, volcanoes, glaciers, forests and a geomorphology that almost hypnotically invites you to venture into its exploration.
Under this enchantment, and after a couple of successful crossings in the territory of the Andean Araucanía during what had already run of the year, we had decided to cross it in alpine mode. The right equipment, bivouac and essential mountain tools to be able to advance as quickly and efficiently as possible. With these resources and an impetus difficult to measure, he found us the second night of the journey on a steep slope of hard ice, very tired, exposed and with no view of a safe place to camp.
The Crossing
The day before, the approach from Lonquimay to the Sierra Nevada glacier had been a beautiful ski touring ride, where the accumulated snow exceeded 5 meters in several sections, creating difficult crossings in the multiple streams that cross the route. This route has become very popular in recent summers due to its obvious trail and world-class natural beauty. Together with the Araucaria forests, the Lonquimay or black waterfall (depending on the literature consulted), the mirror lagoon, the white granite formation on the way to the glacial plateau, and the glacier itself make up a route that can easily be compared with any section of the Paine circuits.
This mountain is also the unmistakable epitome of the cords that were naturally the border of the Pewenche territory and are currently the limits of the Patagonian Lonquimay Valley with the rest of the country. A silent mystique emanates from its multiple valleys inspired by its myths and stories such as the crashed plane at the end of the 1960s, the construction of the Las Roots tunnel at the beginning of the century, the smuggling with Argentina through its secret passages to Melipeuco and Curacautin or the constant stalking the Ngen, spirits of the forest of the Mapuche cosmology that usually manifest themselves at the least expected moments.
A comfortable bivouac in the forest at the foot of the Punta Negra waterfall served to maintain good energy for the hard day of the glacier crossing. The direct ascent towards the plateau thanks to the accumulation of snow saved us a little estimated time, advancing quickly thanks to the skins directly towards the gorge that slopes much more towards the south in normal conditions. Such was the accumulation of snow that we even managed to touch the stone wall of the jump while accessing the plateau. Above, the beauty of this mini ice field is indescribable, the total white coverage allows you to imagine how this place must have been during the last glaciation and its orientation towards the wide Lonquimay valley create a vivid panorama that forces you to stop again and again to admire its beauty. We overcome the mirror lagoon crossing it almost in the middle, totally frozen and covered by snow, it goes unnoticed for those who do not know that it is there and it is the last comfortable point, before starting to climb the glacier that leads to the summit of the Sierra Nevada.
Despite the obviously difficult descent that lay ahead of us, the disappointment along with the overconfidence that the successful day had given us up to that point, formed an incendiary cocktail of arrogance that prompted us to launch ourselves into the first bowl after the summit, which showed between the wide ice some patches of windy snow and a distant ravine towards the emptiness of the interior valley of Malalcahuello. A couple of laps were enough for the first loss of control and almost falling into the vast gorge that once must have been the seat of a great glacier. At that point the real adventure began, the ski touring traverse was transformed into a mixed mountain traverse where the skis and skins had reached the end of their journey.
The intimidating scene softened a bit with the brightness in the middle of the darkness of the towns of Curacautin, Lautaro, even Temuco, and the 15 minutes that the exploration must have taken had become an eternity between fascination and fantasizing about the possible scenarios. with which we would end the day. Sebastián returned with the crampons and the good news that on the other side of the shoulder there was an esplanade with soft snow, and Felipe was already preparing the place for our next bivouac.
Around 11:00 p.m. we had already managed to calmly settle into a strange formation, which resembled a glacial crack. Cooking, hydrating ourselves and waiting for the good weather to continue for the next day.
The Descent
We woke up with the blessing of a new sunny day in our magic crevasse, we quickly equipped ourselves and continued with the descent towards Malalcahuello. The narrow final ridge that leads to the forest had become more acute with the snowfall and the wind, forcing us to mount a small rappelling
The exposure and location of this point is simply spectacular, with the long edge pointing like a compass needle to the north, towards Malalcahuello and the colossal Lonquimay and Tolhuaca volcanoes. In addition, the route is flanked by the vast emptiness generated by the multiple caissons attached to this incredible mountain.
Once this last technical step had been overcome, the mostly frozen edge made it possible to ski down it carefully in a beautiful walk, maintaining the spectacular panoramic view already described.
After the edge, came the absolute prize of the day, more than an hour of skiing through very good snow, descending between araucarias and coigues accompanied by a pleasant sun and in absolute solitude.
Arriving at 4 in the afternoon the last patches of snow on the Centinela hill allowed us to meet almost until the end of the route on skis. We walk along the muddy path that goes down to the Cautín river where we finally meet our friend Manuel from endémiko staff to celebrate the end of this incredible mountain crossing with which we fulfill the dream of the winter crossing on skis through this magical mountain that after the experience lived we recommend doing it in an integral way only in spring, thus avoiding the objective dangers presented by the hard slopes of ice and the difficult route reading among other characteristics of winter.