Shortly after the 2009 South American Freeskiing Championships at La Parva, Chile, Griffin Post and I turned our attention to the high peak behind the La Parva/Colorado/Valle Nevado trifecta of ski resorts. Cerro El Plomo.

At 17,800′ El Plomo dominates the skyline when seen from Santiago, the capital of Chile. Normally a two-three day trek in the summer, Griffin and I decided to attempt to ski the peak in one long day from La Parva ski resort. We did cheat on this a little bit, as we got special permission to sleep at the ski patrol’s top shack at “Tres Aguilas.” A 330am departure had us cruising along miles of the bone-dry, high alpine scree slopes that are so characteristic of the Central Andes.

We summited after about 11 hours on the go. The summit push was exceptionally difficult due to our lack of complete acclimatization in the preceding days. But we pushed through the headaches and nausea and were shaking hands on the summit, looking off into the core of the Andes soon enough. The ski descent down the Ivar Glacier was incredible. The slope is about 4,000′ tall, almost 1,000′ wide, and nice and steep the whole way. Massive Andean scale!

The exit was quite painful, as you must climb out of a deep valley to return to the Valle Nevado ski resort. And then it took a while to find a ride back to Farellones (hitchhiking). But we finally made it, too tired to celebrate that night, so we saved it for the next.

Griffin above Santiago de Chile

Scree slopes of the high Andes.

Hard work up high.

Victory and blurry vision.

The real stuff, Juncal and Aconcagua. I'll be back.

Ants and glaciers. Click for larger photo.

We are but artists, the mountains our canvas. Griffin Post's photo.

Link to story on powder.com.