Skimo on Volcán Osorno

November 2022 — Puerto Varas, Chile

I grew up in Mauritius, running muddy, rooty ridgelines—no snow in sight. Still, I always wanted to try ski mountaineering. I only learned to ski after moving to New Zealand and eased into touring bit by bit.

I hadn’t heard of Osorno before. Then I got to Puerto Varas, looked across Lake Llanquihue, saw that clean cone, and knew I had to check it out.

There wasn’t much online about how to climb it, so we walked around town and asked in the mountaineering shops. That’s how we met José “Teta” Bustos.

Teta swung by our Airbnb, sized up our experience, and dug through a pile of old boots and skis to kit us out. The sizes weren’t perfect, but the guy was a legend and we clicked right away.

Then I made the rookie move of drinking tap water. Night of Nov 25–26—my 28th birthday—I ended up in the hospital. Great timing. We pushed the climb a couple of days.

Alarms at 3–4 a.m. We left in the dark. As the sun came up, the summit lit up. We geared up at the base and started bootpacking up the volcanic dust.

Three hours later we hit the glacier. Crampons on ski boots, quick bite, then weaving through seracs and across crevasses.

The plan was simple, tag the summit and ski the north face for softer snow.

We took the time to soak it all in. On this conic summit, the panorama was breathtaking. On one side, the Villarica, smoking as always, near Pucón, and on the other, the gigantic Cerro Tronador looming at the border like the big boss of the range.

After a quick lunch, it was time to drop down, so we put our skis back on and started approaching the steep northern aspect. We only went down a few hundred meters until we realised there would be no skiing yet. Instead of a steep slushy face, we hit a ice wall.

The only way down was to rappel. We built anchors with a couple of screws and axes and got on with it. That detour ate 90 minutes or more. Weather drifted in, temps dropped, and for the first time that day it felt sketchy. Mountains have a way of flipping the mood fast.

We got off the wall and finally had room to ski. The face was steep, steeper than anything Theo or I had done. Our boots were a size too big, and made me feel uncertain for a second, but since there was no plan B, I chased that fear away rapidly.

First few turns were cautious, then it clicked and we got to savour this unreal experience. Lakes and crater rims below, seracs to the side, smoky volcanoes on the horizon. Chile knows how to stage a scene.

We slid off the glacier onto ash and rocks, feeling pretty exhausted, but grinning. We bumped down to Puerto Varas, replaying the day and talking life. Core memory unlocked.

Notes & thanks:

Big thanks to Teta for the guiding and the positive attitude, and to my friend Theo for sharing this together, and capturing beautiful photographs.

Henri Fayolle