Chilean Patagonia Report: Raging Storm in the Heart of Darkness Couloir

Report from August 31, 2026

Storm day on Monday.

Tyler, Ally, Skip, and I.

Molly the dog’s foot is still broken off…

We had a plan.

If the weather was gonna be rough, let’s go ski that chute that Tyler likes – The Heart of Darkness (or at least that’s what we’re calling it).

The chute has tall, black walls that would lend some visibility to a whiteout day.

Heads down, we ground up the ridgelines to the summit we’d tagged the previous day.

The team was nervous.

Skip and Ally were leaning towards not skiing the chute.

Tyler and I were all in.

The Climb:

• 2,122 vertical feet
• 2 hours & 31 minutes

I had a plan, and felt good about it, which led to a lack of fear.

We talked about it clearly, gave people options, and I let folks know I was gonna go check it out.

We broke the top slope into 3 pieces and when I approached the chute proper, there was no cornice, no wind slab, no scary funnel, and you could see everything.

Everyone relaxed.

I dropped first and the snow was pretty good in the upper sections before giving way to a vicious dust-on-crust in the bowels of the chute.

The chute mostly wasn’t steep and wasn’t deep.

I radioed back to the group and I could feel their collective anxiety slip away.

Tyler came next and put on a clinic.

Then Ally, who is a gorgeous skier.

Finally, Skip, and we were all pretty stoked.

It wasn’t amazing skiing, but it was novel and scary and fun.

We’d snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and that felt right.¡

Gracias, Chile!

Photos