Patagonia Report: Cerro Imagen | “Malvadisco Chute”

Report from September 6, 2026

After the fear and loathing of the steeps, mandatory air, and the unknown of the previous day, we were excited to ski Cerro Imagen again. Same mountain, same zone, but a different line…

A mellower, more straightforward line.

Less Chamonix, more Eastern Sierra.

Cerro Imagen Stats:

• 1,905 vertical feet
• 1.4 miles
• 1 hour and 59 minutes to the top
• 3 hours and 38 minutes car to car
• 109 average heart rate

We started late to let the snow soften up fully.

Hiking by 11:30 am.

We did skin up a short ways before the inevitable boot crampons.

The lines on the north side of this peak are straight up and down.

Our zig-zagging booter climbed right up the apron, into the chute, then out onto the big shoulder before we hit the summit monolith and ran out of snow.

No flat spot led us to building platforms or ‘launch pads’ as Andrew McLean likes to call them.

Skip went all out and damn near built an apartment up there.

My platform felt shabby next to his…

The views atop were stunning.

To the west we could see unimaginably massive volcanoes, jagged spikes, low-lying ice fields, and one massive, winding river system.

Of course, we saw more peaks and lines we wanted to ski, photographed them, and added them to the list.

I dropped first and struggled in sticky snow at first, then delighted in perfect, full-speed, 5-star corn on the apron.

The biggest turns and highest speeds of the trip, by far.

I was grinning ear to ear and let my unchecked passion ski me right into a mini Lenga Tree forest with no escape.

Rookie move…

Skip came next, shredded top to bottom and took the smarter eastern exit directly to the car, Malvadisco.

He skied happy.

I had to put my skis on my shoulder and battle shrubs, walking directly downhill for 5 minutes before I found an escape route to the road.

I walked the road back to Malvadisco and we rejoiced.

Another damn fun one.

Gracias, Chile

Photos