Snow report Villarrica Volcano, 09/17/2026

We’ll start around 10:00 a.m. From the parking lot, it’s about a 20-minute walk until you reach the snow. From there, though, you can ski the entire route. First, we’ll head through the ski resort with a stop at Restaurante Mirador, where you can refill your water bottle. Then we head “lookers left” out of the active ski area, past some old lifts. The snow has thawed just a bit, which makes the ascent doable without crampons but a bit of a hassle. In the snowpack, you can see extensive cracks about 2 cm wide here and there; locals and guides we asked about this assured us that it’s not a problem here. The ascent is steep but easily manageable. We walked the last few meters up to the crater, though it would have been possible to ski them as well. The descent is exhilarating—perfect firn, a uniform snow surface that’s perfect for carving. Around the level of the ski resort, however, the snow becomes too soft and slushy, so you can’t go very fast here anymore.