Rundown: A 14 hour randonneé ski ascent for a weekend of ice climbing!
Loaded up skis, ropes, ice axes, tents, and drove into Cajon del Maipo late Friday night and arrived in the wee hours. Slept in the back of the truck until daybreak when we armed our bags and started hiking.
It was slow going in AT boots with fully loaded packs before we got to the snow and could don skis.
Right around here I took a fall and wrenched a finger catching myself (and my big ass pack). The thing swelled up pretty good and has been a pain ever since. Healing always takes way longer than expected.
Once we got some skis on the going was smoother and we made better time. The snow was untracked back up into the canyon. Felt like a real adventure. We're in short supply of those 'round here...
Made it to our camp after about 14 hours of uphill. Sergio's friends from Spain had been up there for a week. They're professional mountaineers, so it was fun to check out all of their gear, and also listen to their lithpy thpanish. Vale?
Sergio told me he was bringing a bomber tent, which I assumed was better for the mountains than my (tried and true) 3-season. When we got to camp he pulls out effectively a rain fly! It was legit and light, but our bags got dirtier than usual.
The next day out we tried to climb to a massive water ice feature at ~4.500 meters but got shut out by an incoming snow storm. Ended up returning to camp via a glacier, where we did get some climbing in.
Spent the night in the shelter listening to the wind thrash the world and hoping we put enough rocks on the edges of the tent. Awoke to find our encampment blanketed in new snow. Couldn't see too much of it at first since we left camp early in the morning before it was light.
Climbed and climbed, unroped, but with crampons and axes to self-arrest in case of a fall. Once the sun thawed our bones the hike was filete.
Reached a shoulder and saw the huge frozen monoliths another hour or so above us. I took a few steps towards the downhill slope to take a leak and set off a moderate sized snow plate avalanche that crashed down into the valley below us. Our snowstorm the night before had charged the steep slope with a ton of new snow and made passing prohibitively dangerous.
Being late in the day, we cut our losses and glissaded our way back to the camp.
Skied down with our full packs on, avoiding avalanche-prone areas. Awesome to spend three hours skiing downhill, despite the poor form due to the packs.
Only one missing toe nail and no avalanche victims! Success!
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