Photos by Tim Konrad (UnofficialAndes.com)
Skiing in South America does not come up in US news papers that often but when it does we will have it on Unofficialandes.com. This story from the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette.
By Lawrence Walsh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This is the time of year when dedicated, some might say demented, skiers head south — far south — to find snow.
They’ll find it in the mountains of South America, where winter has arrived, the slopes are open and the lifts are running. That includes Chile, blessed with the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world.
Pittsburgh Ski Club members hope to find the Chilean resorts of Valle Nevado, Portillo and Termas de Chillan in mid-season form when they arrive Aug. 23 for a two-week visit.
Portillo, which had been scheduled to open June 16, delayed opening until yesterday because it has received more than 12 feet of snow since June 1 and had to clear everything from roads and roofs to parking lots and chairlift ramps. The resort receives an average of 25 feet of snow a season.
Frank Malone, the club’s vice president of travel, said members and personal friends have been nudging him in recent years to organize such a trip to the resorts he first visited in 2004.
“I felt this was the time to go for it, especially during the year of the club’s 70th anniversary,” Mr. Malone said. Among other things, the club is celebrating that event with “around-the-world” ski, bike, cruise and tour trips to Chile, China, Croatia, France, Portugal and Spain.
“We still have space available for all the trips, but anyone thinking about going to Chile should contact me now,” he said. Those who aren’t club members can join as part of the signup process.
Mr. Malone, a Beaver County resident with an insurance business in Robinson, has been skiing for 38 of his 59 years. His favorite Chilean resort is Termas de Chillan.
The latter’s attractions include great snow, the opportunity to ski past an active volcano, which, he said, is in “no danger of an eruption,” and a hot springs pool and spa at a hotel to help slope-weary muscles recover at the end of the day.
He said club members will enjoy Chile’s cities, modern highways and friendly people.
He said communication shouldn’t be a problem because employees at each of the resorts speak English. He said he didn’t have any language problems during his first trip. He also said one of the people going on the trip speaks Spanish fluently.
Valle Nevado, which means “snow-covered valley,” brags about its “unbeatable” location — only 37 miles from Santiago’s international airport — 10,000-foot elevation, quality snow and abundant sunshine.
The resort, which opened in 1988 at the base of Peak El Plomo, describes itself as the “gateway to the largest skiable acreage in the Southern Hemisphere” because it connects to the neighboring resorts of La Parva and El Colorado. Valle Nevado’s base facilities include:
Three hotels, apartments, six restaurants, bars, pubs, discos, heated pool, fitness center, gymnasium, day-care center and an assortment of shops and stores. “Everything is carefully combined to create a unique winter experience,” according to its Web site www.vallenevado.com/?lang=eng.
The resort also offers heli-skiing with experienced guides to the “majestic snowfields of the Andes Mountains,” where it’s possible to descend more than a mile through untracked snow.
Mr. Malone said Valle Nevado has plenty of long, groomed intermediate runs. Four chairlifts and six T-bars serve 34 runs. The terrain is rated 12 percent beginner, 29 percent intermediate, 41 percent advanced and 18 percent expert.
Portillo, which means “little pass,” is the oldest ski area in South America. The first recreational skiers arrived about 1910 and used the Transandean Railway as a lift. In the early 1930s, skiers developed slopes at what would become the Portillo resort and used a rudimentary version of a Poma lift to get to the top.
After World War II, work resumed on a 125-room hotel. It opened in 1949, a time when the area had two single chairlifts and one surface lift. The ski school, the Chilean army and some guests used their skis to pack the slopes.
The resort now has five chairlifts, including three quads, five Poma lifts and three “va et vient” (come and go) lifts. The latter feature five Poma-style discs hanging from a bar that pull five skiers, standing side-by-side, up the mountain. “It’s a little like water-skiing uphill,” said the resort’s Web site: www.skiportillo.com/home-eng.html.
The terrain is 10 percent beginner, 35 percent intermediate, 35 percent intermediate-advanced and 20 percent expert. It said everything is groomed daily except the expert terrain. Olympic champion Jean-Claude Killy won a gold medal on Plateau, one of its most popular runs. The U.S. and Austrian ski teams have trained at the resort.
Portillo sells no more than 450 lift tickets a day to provide a skiing experience that is “as pleasant as possible.” It offers heli-skiing in six different valleys that feature alpine bowls, couloirs and wide mountain faces. The average descent is 2,400 vertical feet, but some extend more than 4,000 feet. The scenery includes glaciers and majestic mountains, including Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas at 22,841 feet.
Because termas means “hot springs,” Termas de Chillan might be considered an unusual name for a ski resort. But because it offers snowsports as well as soakspots, the name fits.
The resort, which Mr. Malone said is “a relaxing day train trip from Santiago,” has a base elevation of about 5,000 feet and more than 25,000 acres of terrain. He said it sits in a forested valley under the shadow of the 10,535-foot-high Chillan Volcano.
It has 28 runs served by one triple chairlift, four double chairs and six surface lifts. Las Tres Marias, the longest run in South America, descends more than seven miles through native forests. The terrain is rated 30 percent easy, 40 percent intermediate and 30 percent difficult. The vertical drop is more than 3,300 feet.
Its snowpark has a half-pipe, a quarter-pipe, a fun box and a jump, and may have installed more elements by the time the Pittsburgh group arrives. The resort also offers heli-skiing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling and sled-dog rides.
The $2,745 per person, double occupancy, cost includes:
Round-trip air fare on American Airlines from Pittsburgh to Santiago via Miami; all bus and train transfers to and from the hotels in Chile; 13 nights lodging with breakfast and dinner daily except in Santiago; all ski passes except at Portillo; and access to the health clubs, spas, hot tubs and pools at the various hotels.
That price doesn’t include optional trips to go snowcat skiing at Ski Arpa near Portillo; heli-skiing; wine-tasting and other tours; the $100 entry fee at Santiago International Airport; or international departure taxes, fuel and security surcharges that currently total $240.
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