IN PATAGONIA #2
START ON THE BUS GUS: REFUGIO LOPEZ CERRO LOPEZ IS A 2,075M BIG MOUNTAIN CLASSIC WITH AMAZING BACKCOUNTRY SKIING JUST A 45-MINUTE BUS RIDE PLUS A HIKE AND SKIN UP FROM BUSTLING BARILOCHE.
© Ramiro Calvo
The lights of the city (it has 120,000+ permanent inhabitants and 25,000+ tourist beds) are spectacular from up here. Day trips are feasible, but it’s far better to stay up at Refugio Lopez on the tree line at 1620m. Nic Lawrence checked it out as the last of his Patagonia refugio ski missions. Local guide Ramiro Calvo supplied the shot opposite – he can safely show you the best of it, or anywhere in the region for that matter. They get big avalanches up here and conditions change quickly, so having a guide with decades of experience is gold. I was never particularly enamored with the idea of ski touring at Cerro Lopez. It’s so close to the main road out from Bariloche that I thought Refugio Lopez would be crowded. In addition, Cerro Lopez itself 78
is a big open slab of a peak that wasn’t the most impressive of the almost unlimited options across the Andes skyline when I looked out the back of Cerro Catedral each day dreaming of my next touring trip. So it wasn’t until near the end of my trip, on 11 September, that I finally decided to visit, more out of an “I should at least take a look” attitude than really being all that excited. Boy was that attitude misguided!
through the native beach trees to Refugio Lopez, which sits on a rock bench at 1,620m with amazing views over the lakes and mountains. The lodge can sleep up to 100.
Cerro Lopez is great. There is a scattering of terrain to suit anyone and everyone, with multiple faces, spines, basins, rollers and chutes of all aspects and angles.
After a quick bite to eat we emptied our packs of overnight gear for the skin up the face above the refugio. That took another 2.5 hours, arriving at the top greeted by a billowing westerly wind. Luckily we were on the lee side, but it still made the last 15 minutes of skinning interesting with dry windblown snow landing on a slick raincrust underneath.
After catching the bus to Colonia Suiza, my flatmate Caleb and I met an American couple, Chris and Sarah, at the trailhead, and we all started up the track with skis strapped to our backs. It’s a steep uphill, but not much distance, and after an hour or so we could put skins on. From there it was another hour skinning
Chris and Sarah pointed out a steep spine under some big rocks about 300m along the top ridge to looker’s left, so we took our skis off and bootpacked the lee side of the ridgeline to reach the spine. By this time the wind was howling, so it was good to get under the rocks.
