South America 2026

Just a heads up for visitors, things in Chile are not quite normal. There have been 2 "States of Emergency due to Catastrophe and public calamity.":

"Norte Grande" (August 2026): Arica y Parinacota, Tarapacá and Antofagasta due to the frontal system that caused floods and massive damage. Previously declared in the province of Tocopilla.

North-Central Zone (July 2026): Previous state of catastrophe in the Coquimbo Region, the province of Huasco and the commune of Tierra Amarilla in Atacama due to previous frontal systems.

The entire north still has infrastructure problems, and certain points of central/southern Chile do as well. The far south, "Patagonia" has been spared the worse, but has had some very cold spells. For the rougher parts of the fronts, it is good to keep an eye on the alerts on meteo.cl, like this one, which includes Nevados de Chillan and Maule backcountry. When they say "Moderate", it is a lot, and "Fuerte" is a whole lot more.

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Not sure if it is related to the weather, but there have been several blackouts in the 3 Valleys lately. Now this one just announced -

NOTICE OF GENERAL POWER OUTAGE THROUGHOUT LA PARVA, COLORADO FARELLONES Valle nevado 18 hours until 2 am
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My AI agent monitoring road conditions just informed me that a “binational coordination committee ordered preventative closure” as of 12PM with descent deadline of 5 PM on account of incoming weather.
 
Tony Crocker said:
'll editorialize that @snowbirdsurfer should absolutely make the effort for Las Lenas with its rare current snowpack. I'd say the same for ChrisC except that he already scored big there two years ago. ChrisC is correct about Portillo terrain. It is skewed advanced/expert. IMHO closest analogies in scale and terrain weighting are Alyeska and Taos, though topography (high tree line) is completely different at Taos. Adam disputed my Alyeska analogy, but he saw Alyeska in prime form with Christmas/New Year's chutes open and lots of powder, but then Portillo with the Roca Jack traverse burned off (Cara-Cara wasn't there yet), both of those trips in 2007. Since then I see those chutes at Alyeska not open all that often in my bimonthly reviews in-season.
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Yes, a dream trip this year would be to fly into Santiago and spend 3 days in Portillo. Then fly from Santiago to Mendoza and spend 5 days in Las Leñas.

If the Portillo shenanigans continue, skip it - add additional days to Las Leñas or La Parva + Valle Nevado.
 
Lights still out in La Parva and Valle Nevado (bottom right). Maybe back by 12:40.

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While the rain soaks the ski area bases in the south, the first front hits Santiago

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It's currently above freezing and drizzling at Valle Nevado meanwhile it's dumping cold smoke at portillo. It seems Portillo just gets way more snow than the 3 valleys resorts, despite VN having a higher base elevation. Anyone know why? Just more favorable topography?
 
Portillo is probably wet snow. The difference in total snowfall is the location, with the 3 Valleys being on the front side of the Andes, and Portillo up on the divide. When the storms get stuck on the high Andes, or the front extends far north, Portillo gets more and for longer. When the fronts creep up from the south, and dump on the 3V, they may just not get far enough north to hit Portillo too, so 3V gets more. It depends on the front, but the former is a bit more common than the latter, especially for years like this one.
 
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Casey E said:
Portillo is probably wet snow. The difference in total snowfall is the location, with the 3 Valleys being on the front side of the Andes, and Portillo up on the divide. When the storms get stuck on the high Andes, or the front extends far north, Portillo gets more and for longer. When the fronts creep up from the south, and dump on the 3V, they may just not get far enough north to hit Portillo too, so 3V gets more. It depends on the front, but the former is a bit more common than the latter, especially for years like this one.
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I see. Whenever I've looked at cams this season it's been dumping at Portillo and just cloudy at 3V. Figured it must be better topography responsible for double the snowfall.
 
Long report from dovski who spent 3 weeks in Chile but was shut out of Portillo due to road closure.
www.skitalk.com

International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) - Chile in August, We came, We Skied, We ate Epanadas ... it was Epic

Let me start by saying after almost 3 weeks in Chile with Epic snow the question you should be asking yourself is not should I go ski in Chile this summer, but why have I not done this already. In fact we are already planning our return trip next summer, it was just that good. The other thing I...
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Portillo finally opened the Lake Chutes last week—it’s about time!

However, a significant amount of snow has accumulated on the traverse out, and it looks like they haven't been able to clear it properly during the recent storms. If you're planning to head out there, I hope you aren't afraid of heights!

Inca Lake must be quite deep, like Lake Tahoe, since it is no longer freezing over.


 
ChrisC said:
Portillo finally opened the Lake Chutes last week—it’s about time!

However, a significant amount of snow has accumulated on the traverse out, and it looks like they haven't been able to clear it properly during the recent storms. If you're planning to head out there, I hope you aren't afraid of heights!

Inca Lake must be quite deep, like Lake Tahoe, since it is no longer freezing over.


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That traverse looks like a death trap in that video! Hopefully in real life its not that crazy.
 
Skieric said:
That traverse looks like a death trap in that video! Hopefully in real life its not that crazy.
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The Lakeside chutes are among the more expert-friendly off-piste areas at Portillo. However, if you ski them, you cannot cross the lake; you ski this traverse, or you pay for a helicopter ride out.

The fact that it took Portillo a month to open the Lakeside Chutes shows how sketchy the traverse is.


Casey E said:
I might add that, for a groomer cruiser, Portillo is basically 2 runs, Plateau and Juncalillo, with a few variants, and a few shorter runs. But Chile is not a heavy grooming country, with one run per lift a normal average, so the 3 Valleys are similar. With this years coverage, there could be corn to be had on the Va-et-vient lifts in September, which would be a major bonus.
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I was being generous with Portillo and its intermediate mileage ;)

But one quickly gets into a Lake Chutes situation, or riding slingshot lifts or some traverses off the slingshot lifts. Things escalate quickly.
 
The more stories I read, the more glad I am we are going as late in the season as we are. The lake was frozen Sept. 6-7, 2007 despite the quite warm weather at the time.
 
This is somewhat related given I’ll be in Chile in mid to late September…..
I know mid March in the northern hemisphere is the same as mid September in the southern hemisphere but my brain has me thinking poor conditions are more likely in the southern hemisphere at that time.
Is this because I’ve skied places with only unfavourable elevation or aspect or latitude (Thredbo, Perisher, Coronet Peak, Cardrona etc) in mid September while I’ve only skied places with favourable elevation or aspect or latitude (Whistler, Banff, Altabird, Mammoth, Tignes, Val D’Isere, Aspen) in the northern spring time?

I’m looking forward to skiing at a bit higher elevation in a few weeks.
 
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