Dreams of Tronador

Tronador. A heavily glaciated extinct volcano with an elevation of 3491m (1000m above its nearest neighbours). Its name, ‘thunderer’, originating from the sound of falling seracs from its hanging glaciers. It was a goal that everyone in our group wanted to achieve as a crowning point of their trip. Would the weather co-operate?

Initially, the weather was not looking good. Fresh off our Lanin attempt, the winds and rain were persisting. Before finishing our last Lanin day, we had already made a decision to spend an extra day in Bariloche instead of driving to the base of Tronador for an early start. That left us with the flexibility to make an alternate day trip out of our 4 days of Tronador time.

Day 1 – Challhuaco

The alternate trip was necessary. For the first day allotted day for Tronador, it was clear that any attempt was futile. The weather was looking rough and the access road was closed. Instead, Jorge made the call to ski a local peak name Challhuaco. It is a modest peak with an elevation of around 2000m. The terrain is fairly simple so it was a good candidate to attempt in shit weather with poor visibility.

And crappy the weather most certainly was. We skinned up to the rocky summit to achieve something tangible for the day. We had to take Jorge’s word that there were some great lines on neighbouring peaks as they were all shrouded by clouds.

After putting our skis back on for the downhill, we cautiously slide down the first 1/3 of vertical on icy patches of snow laced with pointy, ski eating rocks. Once below the ice and rock we actually had a pretty solid descent. The shit weather had deposited good snow. A little more enthusiastic after the good turns, we ate lunch at the treeline. After filling our bellies and watching 5 condors cruising into the area, we did another lap of the lower 2/3 before heading back to the car.

That evening over food and beer we made decisions about the next few days. The weather forecast indicated that there might actually be a sliver of hope for a Tronador summit. There was supposed to be a clearing the following afternoon that would continue through the next day. Excited, we went home to prepare for an early departure.

Day 2 – Goal == Otto Meiling Hut

Up early(ish) we headed out towards Tronador. The goal for the first day was to reach the Otto Meiling hut at 2050m elevation. But first, we had to drive to the start of the trek. As far as we knew the road was open and that shouldn’t be a problem. However, we quickly landed ourselves in some (cold) water. The usual road next to a beach was completely flooded and now part of the lake. Jorge charged forward convinced that it would be shallow. As the water level reached the running boards of his SUV we realized this wasn’t going to be the case. We stopped to evaluate our options.

Eric volunteered to jump out of the car and evaluate the water depth. Not good, continuing further would likely put the water level above the wheels. Jorge had confirmed the previous evening that the roads were open so he called his local contact to figure out what was going on.

Woops! We had missed the branch in the road that bypassed the flooded beach route. Eric jumped back in the car and we carefully reversed off the flooded road and took the high and dry left branch to continue towards the start of our trek.

Packed and ready to go, we crossed a river on a metal footbridge and began the slog towards the hut. At this point the weather had not cleared. Initially raining, and eventually snowing as we gained elevation, the clearing predicted by the weather forecast was not arriving but the snow certainly was. We made our way up through the trees on hiking switchbacks. The powder snow was becoming quite nice but this was not what we were looking for, we needed visibility. As we made it above the tree line, there was still no visibility of our destination or the landmarks leading to it. Cold, wet, and hungry, we ate our lunch and decided to call it off. Time to turn around.

Had we not been burdened by the weight of overnight packs the ski down would have been pretty nice with all of the fresh powder. However, skiing sharp hiking switchbacks with an overnight pack was, for me at least, pure survival skiing. The downhill action didn’t end with the switch back derby, it continued on skis down the lower grade vehicle path alternating between patches of snow, streams of water, and patches of dirt.

Finally, back at the car, we shed our wet gear and started the drive back down. The drive back was probably the highpoint of the Tronador attempt. There was both amazing scenery and amusing encounters. The first encounter was with a cow. We must have startled the poor cow as we bombed down the dirt road. Suddenly, several of us caught sight of a cow’s ass in the periphery of our vision. More of the cow came in to view — it was falling backwards from its perch higher up a dirt cliff. Frantically clambering at the dirt and looking desperately in our direction, it helplessly slid towards the road. Thankfully, a cow meets vehicle collision was averted as Jorge’s swerve and and the cow’s frantic scrambles bought enough space and time.

Fresh off the near cow disaster, we proceeded to race a wild boar for 100m or so before it darted back into the forest. As we made our way further down the road, the light became dramatic as the sun approached the horizon. We made a few stops for pictures., the first of them looking back at a landscape of waterfalls and cliffs reminiscent of the movie Jurassic Park. I fiddled with my camera to try to get a good shot in the challenging lighting.

As we proceed further out of the mountains the sun sank below the horizon and lit up the clouds with colour.

We stopped on the way back to town to fill up on lomo. We took comfort in the fact that there would have been no lomo, wine, or beer in the hut. The dream of Tronador was dashed, it will have to wait for another year.