Patagonia Report: “Viento Rojo” | A Wide-Open Face Into a Tight Chute

Report from September 14, 2026

Rough weather has had us on our back foot lately.

There isn’t any truly soft snow left in this range except corn and sun-softened snow.

So what do you do if the sun doesn’t come out or plays in and out?

You go for it anyway?

This day we did.

Viento Rojo Stats:

• 2,871 vertical feet
• 3.2 miles
• 2 hours & 11 minutes to the top
• 3 hours & 51 minutes round trip

A gorgeous wide-open face that ends in a tight, steep-walled chute.

Paradise on a powder day, perfection on a corn day.

A struggle on an in-between day.

We got the latter of those, and it was still damn fun.

As we hiked up, the sun was in and out, it was cold, it was windy.

Almost the perfect formula for some off-color skiing.

Not a long walk.

Only about 2 hours to the top, with a very cruisy north-facing corn run as a plan B.

The type A in me sent me into the bad snow of the east face.

I wanted the line, whatever conditions it was in.

I was optimistic.

I was still hoping it would soften as I descended.

It didn’t…

I cranked turn after turn, feeling as if I was walking on eggshells…

The snow wasn’t quite a breakable crust, but it wasn’t far from it.

Every turn brought fear of a break-in followed by a twisted knee and tumbling crash.

But the snow held and eventually did soften for about 10 turns above the chute.

The chute itself was a whole other animal…

Crust, water ice, refrozen avalanche debris, and fear.

The good news was that we’d skied much worse snow in some nearby chutes recently, so it coulda been worse :).

I struggled through the chute, relieved to find a smidgen of slushy snow in the sunshine on the other side.

I eventually slid to a stop, looked up, and honestly felt great about the line.

I skied it slow and calculated, but I skied it.

Neat spot, and maybe we’ll get to come back and flash it someday.

The wind was ripping on the whole run, and I’m calling it “Viento Rojo,” Red Wind.

Red for the kind of wind that puts every warning you own into the red.

Skip came down next and handled all of it damn well.

Those Tahoe boys know how to ski bad snow.

We floated back to the car, happy and healthy with thankfully untwisted knees.

¡Gracias, Chile!

PHOTOS