A grazing herd of alpaca curiously eyes the crew. After waking up at dawn at Lago Chungará, we had already done an unplanned hike to 16,800 feet this afternoon. The scenic lake sits at 14,820 feet and calmly reflects a snow-covered peak which rises proudly to 20,930 feet from the arid flats of the Atacama Desert: Volcán Parinacota. Beside it sits a second peak, Volcán Pomerope (20,610 feet). Together these two peaks are known as Los Payachatas, which in native Aymara culture means twins. We are here to summit and snowboard these two Lauca National Park volcanoes. I’m on this trip with the all-female splitboarding crew consisting of the Santiago native surfer and movie producer, Anto Galmez, Argentine multi-sport outdoorswoman Paula Car-ru, and fellow North American, boardercrosser-turned-freerider, Nelly Steinhoff. Our truck comes to a halt as we pull up to the second rental truck where a media crew waits. I can barely speak, but I ask for the third time that day if we can descend. My request goes unful-filled. Anto jumps out of the driver’s seat, walks to the other rig and speaks in fast and frantic Chilean Spanish with filmers Car-los ‘Musa’ Muslim and Xabier Azcarate, guide-in-training Victor Astete-Beltran and Pato Diaz, drone operator and photographer. Pato gets into the driver’s seat and again we head upwards to scout roads onto Parinacota. We come to a stop again after losing traction. I escape the backseat to stand on the soft sand, a small comfort to my alarm-ingly deteriorating senses. The glow of the setting sun breaks through the blackness of my mind and finally, after yet another conversation I cannot understand, the crew decides we can head back down to the village we are using as base camp, Putre. My ailments gradually recede as we reach 11,483 feet at dark. Nelly tells me that the rest of the crew, except for her, has been taking altitude sickness medication. She also had a headache, so I don’t feel so alone regarding acclimatization. THE NEXT MORNING I’m in bed reading climbing expedi-tion stories, escaping the heat of the afternoon, and resting to try to kick the head cold I picked up on the flight here. The cough of the tiny girl sitting next to me on the plane echoes in my head as the crew walk in and out of our 12-by-12-foot room the four of us are sharing for the next two weeks. The door slams open and shut and the property gato sneaks in to snuggle in between her hunt-ress jaunts on the grassy terrace of our casita. I try not to think about the wintery Oregon I have left behind. It is early April, a seemingly odd time to snowboard in South America, unless you want to ride the volcanoes of Northern Chile. NORTHERN CHILE 047
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.3: Page 47
