South America 2025

Then, just some notes on the Chilean resorts.

La Parva now has a great website! https://laparva.cl/en/mountain-report/slopes-and-ski-lifts/
  • Snowfall to date is 60 inches
  • Only 6-inch base
  • Maybe 50-60% of the tracks/lifts are open
  • The webcam faces Santiago vs the slopes since the conditions must be bad
    1753561703041.png


El Colorado webcam next door - yikes for mid-winter!
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Valle is better but not great

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ChrisC said:
You can see why you want to wait until there is snow on the ground in South America. Sometimes these mega-storms do not come to fruition, and it can be an abysmal season (many in the 2010s and 2020s).

When your average snowfall is 200-300 inches and you miss a 50-80" storm, that's a significant % of your overall snowfall for the season.

Same in California's Sierra, but most mountains receive more snow than the Andes, and Tony calculates less volatility.
Click to expand...

Typical South American season. Nice starter storm in mid-June. And nothing to note till possibly August 1st. (Chillan excepted). Did they miss a storm for July? Maybe August can salvage it...

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Agree.

I stopped using Snow-Forecast.com because I found the forecasts to be too unreliable, but maybe it's not that bad looking below.

Nevados de Chillan Actuals.
It looked like it rained at the base, since it shows 0 new snow and webcams look a bit brown. Maybe it did snow up high, the upper lifts are closed.

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Open Snow

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Snow-Forecast


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Ok - I have been looking at Bariloche/Catedral, and just saw - they have no ski base. Over 80% of the mountain is closed.

If you want accurate conditions, watch the 'SnowBrains' guys who have sacrificed everything to ski year-round. Their Summer base is Bariloche, but the skiing is so, so bad that they refuse to go there. They took off to South Africa for July.

Outside of Chillan, this is a bad, but typical year for South America.
 
ChrisC said:
Their Summer base is Bariloche
Click to expand...
Yes I recall they were there when I was in Las Lenas in 2015. They aggressively give a positive spin to skiing in South America. That was during the couple of years I was writing for them so they were happy to publish my report of a few highlight days there. The picture links were broken when FTO migrated to Xenforo.

If you Google "SnowBrains Bariloche" you'll get a list of enticing thread titles for 2023 and 2024 but nada so far this season.
 
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After receiving OpenSnow storm updates about South America, I decided to check things out.

Finally, the first massive storm of the season for northern Chile/Argentina, but I think at this stage I would write all of Argentina off - it's a train wreck.

The only resort that has been average is Chillan.

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Let's review the Argentinian trainwreck. It's so bad at Bariloche - that this could be its worst season ever?

Tony Crocker said:
If you Google "SnowBrains Bariloche" you'll get a list of enticing thread tiltles for 2023 and 2024 but nada so far this season.
Click to expand...

There is no snow! None. I thought Catedal was misreporting conditions, but they never had more than a 20cm base at the summit? 80% of the mountain has been closed the entire season. And now, the whole upper mountain is closed, and the skiing is down to 5%? of the mountain on a few snowmaking runs.

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Catedral.jpg
catedral3.jpg



Las
 
Las Lenas is a disaster - 20% open, 90cm base at summit. Last year, it was 300-400cm base at the summit.

Las Lenas.jpg
 
La Parva is not good. Only 60" snowfall for the year on an 8-inch base? Only about 50% of the mountain is open.


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ChrisC said:
that this could be its [Catedral's] worst season ever?
Click to expand...
That would be a very high bar to clear :icon-lol: , though I have no idea what season with which to compare this one.

Surprisingly Portillo reports 141 inches YTD snowfall, base 28-75 inches, a foot new snow and its webcams socked in by bad vis today.

Valle Nevado reports 109 inches YTD snowfall, 10 inches new and "44 of 44 slopes open," though only 7 of 13 lifts (which could be weather from the current storm). Though I critique Valle Nevado's terrain quality, it is much better protected from wind stripping than La Parva. This was visually evident when I skied both in Sept. 2007, an average (then, not since then) snow year.

At any rate ChrisC has the big picture right. The odds of Portillo getting anywhere near its pre-2007 average of 254 inches are remote. Average precipitation in that region is approaching the time frame that it usually declines drastically, 2023 being the conspicuous exception.

I still find it interesting that Mountain Capital Partners chose to expand from the frying pan (American Southwest) into the fire (central Chile) in terms of extreme drought exposure.
 
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An interesting development, and so South America - most of the major ski resorts have launched new websites mid/late season. Of course not, pre-ski season.

The offenders - or better late than never:
  • La Parva
  • Las Lenas
  • Nevados de Chillan
  • El Colorado
  • Bariloche/Catedral
 
Although I have spent some time documenting widespread poor conditions in South America, and why one should wait till 100cm+ of snow on the ground before committing, I thought it was worth mentioning that the Nevados de Chillan does seem to stand out, and resorts the further south one travels.

The South American resorts are completely unreliable, and almost 50% of the time in resort years, the Santiago/Bariloche resorts have been worthwhile.

I think the only Chillan and, as suggested, Corralco are worth booking ahead with some confidence. (Only issues seem winds and possible rain).


The guys at Peakrankings did a nice video regarding Nevados de Chillan since there is not too much info on this board:

 
The La Parva YTD might be incomplete. OpenSnow shows 54 inches last 7 days, 210 for season which is obviously based on models vs. 130 reported.
Valle Nevado 64 inches last 7 days, 162 for season (OpenSnow matches both numbers, so presumably accessing the snow report)
Portillo 36 inches last 7 days, 165 for season (OpenSnow matches both numbers)
 
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11 hours to get down from Santiago ski resorts to the city. What happens when it doesn't really snow much all season.

www.instagram.com

Luke Stone | Meteorologist | Powder Hunter | Snowboarder on Instagram: "11 hours to drive 25 miles 🤯 The drive to and from the ski resorts near Santiago usually takes an hour with no traffic. Coming back down to the city on a weekend can certainly m

Un redoble de tráfico en las estaciones de esquí cerca de Santiago convirtió un viaje de 1 hora en un desastre de 11 horas. Un bus se quedó atascado en la carretera y bloqueó el tráfico en ambas direcciones.
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com


The lift lines for the Marte Chair in Las Lenas looked epic!

www.instagram.com

Luke Stone | Meteorologist | Powder Hunter | Snowboarder on Instagram: "Can you believe this 🤯 ? Did you know lift lines got this long in South America? It seems the powder panic has reached every corner of the earth. And this was at a resort who

Explore the ups and downs of skiing in South America, including the stunning mountain vistas, delicious food, and the challenges of lift lines and crowds. Get expert insights on planning the perfect ski trip to the Andes, from heli skiing to finding the best resorts.
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com


And it looks like PowderQuest canceled all its Bariloche/Argentinian Patagonia ski tours, and decamped to La Parva, Chile.

It is that bad there.
 
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Chile was not really skiable until the last week or so.

South America is completely unreliable as a summer ski destination. You need to hold off booking until there is snow on the ground (at least 100 cm), and expect prolonged, multi-week droughts.

Personally, I would always avoid the July holidays and never plan or expect anything until August 1st.
 
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