Skiing the Volcanic Spine of Chile During the Pinochet Dictatorship with Craig Caryl

One winter while most skiers were planning trips to Colorado, Craig Caryl decided to chase an entirely different dream: to ski the volcanic spine of Chile from south to north the following Summer. It would become one of the most unforgettable expeditions of his life.

Chile was still under the military rule of General Augusto Pinochet although beginning to transition to a democracy. But secret police, military checkpoints, forced disappearances, and political terror as well as the country’s infamous Caravan of Death still cast a long shadow.  2 Americans traveling with maps, cameras, and ski gear attracted attention and some of it from armed military personnel.
But the political climate was only half the battle.  The Andes offered virtually unlimited freedom but little safety net. There were limited ski patrols, no helicopters waiting on standby, no satellite communications, no avalanche beacons and little in the way of organized mountain rescue. If an avalanche, serious crash, or storm left you stranded, survival depended almost entirely on your preparation and ability to self-rescue.
Craig recruited his longtime skiing partner, Stu Gitlin, and together they embarked on an expedition that pushed them far beyond the limits of ordinary ski travel. They rode primitive “slingshot” rope-tows up steep avalanche prone terrain, crossed hundreds of miles of isolated dirt roads linking remote ski areas, negotiated armed military checkpoints, and regularly found themselves embraced by the locals once they convinced them they they were neither CIA operatives nor enemies of the State.
Join Adventurers’ Club member Craig Caryl for an evening of extraordinary stories, breathtaking photography, and lessons learned from an expedition where every volcano, every military interaction and every decision carried real consequences. It’s a story of risk, resilience, and discovering what happens when adventure takes you far beyond the edge of your comfort zone and sometimes to the edge of civilization itself.

This program was organized by Reymundo Perez #1219.