TR: Central Couloir, Punta Negra 9/13/12
So after a not-so-snowy couple months of slave labor ;) guiding at Ski Arpa Papatroller and I decided to head out and see what we could find around Santiago before we both headed back to the states. Papatroller had made an attempt to climb the Central Couloir on Punta Negra early in the season and wanted to make a return trip with skis. After a quick stop at the Super Market and an hour or two in the car we were off to make camp on the other side of the lake. Because of our late start, the approach was something Id rather forget but included a fair mixture of scree scrambling, rockfall, and waist deep wallowing through patches of isothermic crap. Unfortunatly, My bag (along with camera, hardrive and everything else) was stolen a couple days after returning to Santiago so all of these photos are from Papatroller.
Arpa Guides gone wild
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After making camp we headed down to the lake to make some dinner. Papatroller had forgotten a spork but quickly improvised one from his days as an investment banker.
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The sun had set by the time we had finished dinner, so after a little bit of wondering around we found our way into our sleeping bags with alarms set for an 8ish start. The temps dropped overnight and the isothermic crap we had delt with on the approach had frozen over nicely and after a quick breakfast for me and a cup of joe for Papatroller we took off skinning.
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Steep(er) skinning on the moraines below the couloir had us quickly ditching skins for crampons.
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We reached the base of the couloir and headed up the climbers right side, finding mostly good, boot-top, snow. As we climbed the scale of the Andes played tricks with us. What looked like a short 300m couloir turned into a treadmill. Both Papatroller and I felt a little out of shape as we passed the choke but after a little bit of shit-talking, bitching, cheerleading, and cramping we found ourselves at the top with awsome views of the lake and our camp down below.
I went first and found...
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POWDER! Well, sorta. :wink:
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We leapfrogged down the upper section and found slightly variable facet/crust combinations. Mmmmmm...Poor mans pow.
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The lower section that had gotten some morning light however didnt provide such good conditions and had started to refreeze by the time we got there. A couple turns after this picture Papatroller graciously took over my normal spot as a target for rockfall and just missed getting nailed by a radio-sized chuck while skiing
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After the near miss we hurried out of the couloir and onto the flats below. The snow on the moraines had corned up nicely and we canadianed it back to camp.
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After the afternoon approach the day before we decided to relax and hang for another night and walk out in the morning
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The walk out the next morning was partly on snow
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And partly not on snow
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Hope you enjoyed and many thanks to Papatroller for driving, having the idea in the first place, and the pictures. See you in JH dude! :yourock:
