Hello from Corralco, Chile where we are currently bundled up inside our lovely hotel which feels like a snow globe as a windy, chilly storm sweeps through the area.
The ski resort is located on the Volcano Lonquimay, also known as Corralco, in the Malalcahuello National Reserve area of southern Chile. It is one of the 10 most active volcanoes in Chile, but it’s most recent eruption was only in 1988. The mountain is 100 percent volcanic sand and surrounded by beautiful and sacred pre-historic araucana - Monkey Puzzle - trees.
The US Ski Team first started coming here in 2014 when Sasha Rearick, one of the men’s head coaches, was scoping out alternatives to the famed Portillo training center, because Portillo’s snowfall is unreliable, whereas Corralco gets consistent snowfall every year.
I first came to Corralco 5 years ago in 2018 when it was mostly only the US Ski Team training here, but since then, Corralco has grown in popularity and there have been over 11 different national teams here from alpine, skier-cross, border-cross and mogul skiers!
We’ve had some incredible training with only a few weather days, today being one, which gives me a chance to catch up on the blog. I usually use our off days to get caught up and ahead of computer and work, but unfortunately I caught the infamous Chil-alien (what we jokingly call getting food poisoning in Chile), so I was out for two days with a nasty stomach bug during out last day off. I actually tried to ski after throwing up the first night, and promptly fell on my face during super-g training. It was a good reminder that sometimes no matter how much you want to will yourself to be healthy, all you can do is take a step back and rest. So, I reluctantly went back to bed and let the fever run its course. That was about a week ago, and now I am feeling great again and we’ve had some really amazing downhill training. Here are some photos from the past ten days: