Words by Lauren Cantwell. Images by Lauren Cantwell and Matt Reid.
The shoulder season — that awkward time of the year that the snow starts to fall just enough to knock out the mountain biking, cover the roads with thin layers of ice, but still not enough to ski. Maybe it’s days of wet, cold rain — but for many of us who live in areas with real winter it can be uninspiring to go seek long hours in the saddle in the dwindling daylight. For those of us who ski, we’re usually waiting impatiently for real winter to kick in for a sports switch up. In other words, it’s a great time for a trip!
Brainstorming for a fun off season trip involved a list of about ten possible destinations. Skiing and riding bikes are my two favorite activities and one trip I’ve always had in the back of my mind since I spent some time in the area years ago, was getting back to Chile to ski more volcanoes. I tossed this idea out there and couldn’t have been more excited when my partner, Matt, looked at the list and immediately said ‘Well, there was one with skiing that looks really interesting…’
Chile is located on the Ring of Fire and has many volcanos spread throughout the country. Central Chile has many relatively easily accessible peaks and tend to receive large amounts of snow through the winter months making them amenable to a spring skiing trip.
After some research I created a list of ‘target’ peaks within a range that would be reasonable to link together by bike in our timeframe and created a tentative route linking them together with a start/finish in Pucón, home of Volcan Villarrica. After weeks of planning, anticipation, and watching snow continue to fall on the peaks it was time for the trip. In typical Patagonia fashion we were challenged by weather, confusing ‘open’ signs, road closures, and more! They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll just let the pictures tell the rest of the story…
Bike: Otso Waheela C switched to the longest dropout for maximum stability
Drivetrain: SRAM Eagle AXS with Wolf Tooth 38T 107 BCD and LoneWolf Aero
Wheels/Tires: WTB CZR i23 7000 with Byway 44s
Attachments: Wolf Tooth Morse Cage for each ski boot, B-rad medium strap for avy probe
and shovel handle.
Other:
—WT-1 Chain Lube performed stupendously with whatever the Patagonian weather and roads
threw at it. Throughout the trip we had smooth drivetrains and no significant build up either.
—8 Bit Kit Two: The perfect array of tools and spare parts great for not only bikes but some ski
repair if needed too!
Final trip Strava stats:
Miles Ridden: 454 mi
Elevation Ridden: 36,472’
Total Volcanos: 4, two summits, one weather shut-down, one summit prohibited due to
volcanic activity
Elevation Skied: 19,387’
Tips from our experience:
- While ‘abierto’ may mean open, these signs outside restaurants and stores do not
correspond with whether it’s actually open or not. And in our case usually not. We definitely
ran quite low on snacks a couple of days. - Chilean Patagonia is often cold and wet. Knowing when to hunker can be a skill. Take
advantage of weather windows to move but also know when to stay put or keep it a short
day out in the elements. - I strongly recommend a Titanium frame for similar trips. My Waheela C handled beautifully,
however the carbon frame and seatpost/clamp are in rough shape after two weeks of
gravel roads and ski edges. - Bringing a bike into Chile was surprisingly complex and required unpacking it fully to
access the serial number so the customs officials could write a sort of ‘bike passport’
document that you had to carry with you. If you crossed a border (ie. ride into Argentina
and then return to Chile) this process will have to be repeated with every entry. We thought
our 4.5 hour layover was excessive on our arrival to Santiago, but we ended up being lucky
it was this long!
Many thanks to Wolf Tooth Components, Otso Cycles, WTB, FlyLow Gear, Velocio Apparel, and Mountain Dog Cycling for their support with this adventure!
For more of a day-by-day breakdown of the trip check out our Instagrams @lmackenzie87 and @mattreidmattreidmattreid. All photos by Matt Reid and Lauren Cantwell.