- Date: November 7, 2026
- Distance: 5.7 miles round trip
- Elevation Gain: 4,200 ft
- Start location: Corralco ski area
Lonquimy was the second volcano of our trip, and just a couple days’ ride from Antuco. We rented a cabana near the base of Lonquimy with a two night minimum and decided we would take the time after skiing to rest a bit before moving on to our next objective.
The cracks appearing in our touring system pointed to the fact that we might need the rest anyhow. Riding up to Lonquimy Mark lost his gloves, and then a few hours later I bested him by losing my skins. Despite our best efforts to find both, we did not recover either.
After a warm greeting from our host at the Cabanas Pukem, we ate dinner and packed for the next days ski. Around 8pm I realized I had lost my skins and we rode back down to the town where I had left them (6mi and 1000ft of descending away) to look for them. With no luck, we returned to the rental and promptly fell asleep.
We headed up to the closed ski area with our skis still strapped to our bikes (although significantly lighter than with all of our touring gear), and after 45 minutes of riding, arrived at the parking lot where we were just yards away from the snow line.
When we started up Lonquimy, we were happy to see that there was a bootpack already set in, and that we would be fine without skins.
It was a beautiful Saturday as we got a better view of the mountain we could see that atleast a dozen other hikers were out to climb the volcano that day. We only met one other person with skis, but we were excited to see everyone out there anyhow!
With the bootpack already well established and very little wind, we made quick progress to the summit. At the top, however, the wind was howling, and we didn’t spend much time up there since we had been able to take in the views all the way up. The first few hundred feet of the top were variable and wind effected, but soon we were into warm spring snow that made for excellent skiing.
The descent exceeded expectations. The views were incredible, the skiing easy and fun, and we were getting tons of positivity from the other people hiking up.
Soon enough, we were back at the shelter where we had locked our bikes and switching back to riding shoes.
We decided to splurge on two beers at the bar at the fancy hotel ($500 per night!) at the base of the ski area so we could bask in the views of Lonquimy knowing we had just skied it.
The warm sun, the cool, refreshing beverages, and the excitement of having just gotten to ski such a fun line left us content and relaxed.
By the time we left the big view of the volcano for our rental cabin, I was ready for a nap. And after a quick shower to wash off the sunscreen I was out.
The afternoon felt luxurious with no where else to go. We lounged next to the wood stove, planned out our next objective, ate a meal we were actually excited about (sometimes our camp meals can be rather underwhelming) and went to bed early.
Lonquimy was such a fun ski in such perfect conditions, it really felt like a win for this trip!