Scheduling mountain trips has been tough lately. All the usual suspects (myself included) have had non-overlapping schedules making it difficult to find a group for a full weekend out. To make a long story short, a few of us discussed a short hike up Cerro Manquehue, just outside of Santiago. The weekend weather looked a bit iffy, with a possibility of rain in town – great for finally clearing the smoke out of Santiago but not as much fun to hike in.

The trail up to Manquehue is a popular weekend excursion and the parking lot was full when we arrived a bit before 1100 (leisurely start). I had done this hike before, almost a year ago, with Kelly, Neil, and Claudia. This time it was just Neil and I.

The trail system had undergone some limited renovations a year ago, including the construction of a small hut near the entrance, some maps positioned a few places in the park, and a few signs / trail markers. Amusingly, these had received some level of sponsorship, so we spent a bit of time hiking on the “Merrill” trail, for example.

The hike up to the summit of Manquehue (1634m) is fairly straightforward – hike uphill until you can’t go any higher. The trail is pretty good on the way up and even involves some fun near-scrambling through some rocky sections. After a little over an hour and 600 meters of climbing we reached the summit. We spent about half an hour on top eating some snacks and taking in what little of the view there was. Despite some clearing of the smoke, we had hiked up near to the lower boundary of the clouds, so Santiago was partly obscured from our view.

On the way down (and up) the trail passes through a saddle between Manquehue and “Manquehuecito” (“little Manquehue”). I had not been to the top of Manquehuecito before, so upon reaching the saddle we started back uphill. The trail to the top of Manquehuecito is much shorter (only 100m elevation gain, versus 600m) but is about as steep. But, another 15 minutes of hiking and we had reached the top.

The summit of Manquehuecito has a south-facing cliff; one effect of this is a view towards Santiago that is not blocked by bushes. We spent just a few minutes on top, watching birds and gliders enjoying the thermals on the mountain, before returning to the car.

Image for Santiago from Manquehuecito

The remainder of the hike was pretty uneventful aside from a brief moment of uncertainty about the route back to the car (we descended Manquehuecito via a different route than our ascent). But, we returned to the car fairly quickly and returned to Santiago to cap off the hike with a pizza and a beer.