South America 2026

[ChrisC]

South America might be doing worse than last year, so far.

Essentially, it's July 1st, starting from zero. Or the North American equivalent of January 1st. Puts almost all the mountains a month behind where they should be.

Given the late July holidays, assume no one should plan anything until August at the earliest, if it even snows this year.

The resorts further south are not doing well: Chillan - closed except for a beginner run (& a volcano warning). Corralco - early conditions. Bariloche/Catedral - closed.

Las Lenas even looks green-ish to me. Yikes!

Australia and New Zealand are behind, too.


South America is almost as unreliable as New Mexico for planning a skiing trip, or expecting a 300" season. It hasn't been occurring reliably for the last decade or two.

Never book a Southern Hemisphere ski trip until August/September and verify that there is adequate snow on the ground.

 

[Sbooker]

Never book a Southern Hemisphere ski trip until August/September and verify that there is adequate snow on the ground.

Good advice but it is worth mentioning that NZ and Australia have good winter golfing options as a back up close to the ski hills. Fine if you are already in the southern hemisphere.

 

[ChrisC]

Good advice but it is worth mentioning that NZ and Australia have good winter golfing options as a back up close to the ski hills. Fine if you are already in the southern hemisphere.

Yes, but golf is not really a passion of mine. More like a requirement, and try not to be too awful at it. But your point is that there are many more equally great alternative activities in Oz and NZ than in SA. Agree. Still would like to visit Melbourne, NZ South Island (again), and NZ North Island (more than Auckland).


South America

It looks like there is some snow on the ground in the volcano ski areas of the Chilean Lakes District. However, based on reports about snow quality and weather stability, it looks like it is among the worst in the world. Rain, wet snow, wind, freezing lines bouncing all over the place - a mess of winter precipitation.

If I had to nominate some West Coast places for worst snow quality: Snoqualmie/Alpental, and Mt. Hood (Bowl/Meadows/Timberline). Often rain mixes in, or the snow is barely solid. (IMHO - Stevens Pass, Mt. Baker, Crystal, White Pass, and Mt. Bachelor are better, but can be plagued by many weather issues, especially Bachelor).

Although some of the ski maps look interesting, it is hard to motivate to go skiing in snot while waiting for lifts on wind hold. (Personally, I would rather do a corn-cycle in Portillo, Valle/Parva or Las Lenas with a decent snow base and sunshine).


Example: Antillanca

Same ski area - 2 different maps/renderings of terrain. Looks great! But altitude 1000-1500m / 3-5k ft.

Outlook

At least Chile/Argentina have the potential for Sierra-like storms that can change the entire trajectory of a season in a couple of days. (See below for some optimistic forecasts).

 

[Sbooker]

Yes, but golf is not really a passion of mine. More like a requirement, and try not to be too awful at it. But your point is that there are many more equally great alternative activities in Oz and NZ than in SA. Agree. Still would like to visit Melbourne, NZ South Island (again), and NZ North Island (more than Auckland).


South America

It looks like there is some snow on the ground in the volcano ski areas of the Chilean Lakes District. However, based on reports about snow quality and weather stability, it looks like it is among the worst in the world. Rain, wet snow, wind, freezing lines bouncing all over the place - a mess of winter precipitation.

If I had to nominate some West Coast places for worst snow quality: Snoqualmie/Alpental, and Mt. Hood (Bowl/Meadows/Timberline). Often rain mixes in, or the snow is barely solid. (IMHO - Stevens Pass, Mt. Baker, Crystal, White Pass, and Mt. Bachelor are better, but can be plagued by many weather issues, especially Bachelor).

Although some of the ski maps look interesting, it is hard to motivate to go skiing in snot while waiting for lifts on wind hold. (Personally, I would rather do a corn-cycle in Portillo, Valle/Parva or Las Lenas with a decent snow base and sunshine).


Example: Antillanca

Same ski area - 2 different maps/renderings of terrain. Looks great! But altitude 1000-1500m / 3-5k ft.

View attachment 52254View attachment 52255




Outlook

At least Chile/Argentina have the potential for Sierra-like storms that can change the entire trajectory of a season in a couple of days. (See below for some optimistic forecasts).


View attachment 52253

Are you fully loaded and ready to pull the trigger if snow conditions warrant? You can get leave on short notice?

 

[Tony Crocker]

But your point is that there are many more equally great alternative activities in Oz and NZ than in SA.

+1

Antillanca

Same ski area - 2 different maps/renderings of terrain. Looks great! But altitude 1000-1500m / 3-5k ft.

I read somewhere anecdotally that Antillanca get the most snow down there. So maybe the "Mt. Baker of Chile?" Of course Mt. Baker is relatively low and gets lots of rain too. But Mt. Baker's snow excess means that the rain almost never wipes out its deep snowpack.

Personally, I would rather do a corn-cycle in Portillo, Valle/Parva or Las Lenas with a decent snow base and sunshine

+1 to that too. It certainly applied to my days at Portillo in 2007, though staying in Los Andes we missed most of best Roca Jack corn due to late morning arrival. My best days at Las Lenas in 2015 were mostly in corn. Still waiting for ChrisC's 2024 Las Lenas TR.

If I had to nominate some West Coast places for worst snow quality.....

I published a relative altitude table here last year. By those parameters, the worst are Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, SoCal locals, Snoqualmie, Vancouver locals, Hoodoo. At a higher relative latitude but similar to each other are Palisades, Hood Meadows and Crystal.

That list was compiled with rain incidence in mind, and I believe it is reasonably accurate on that score. But for snow preservation, "worst snow quality," I suspect there's an absolute altitude effect. While I carp at Palisades' snow preservation vs. Mammoth's elite standards, I suspect Palisades is overall better than Hood Meadows and Crystal, which presumably ChrisC can confirm with larger NW sample sizes than mine (2 days at Meadows and 5 at Crystal). My first day at Crystal on Feb. 8, 1993:

Patchy clouds. Occ. wind on top. Spring conditions everywhere on mainly E facing area. Some pp on steepest N faces. South faces extremely heavy. Much did not freeze overnight.

Sounds like mid-April at Palisades. Another factor in spring is that Sierra areas are usually at least half north facing while PNW areas get much more direct spring sun. But the main issue in the PNW I think is more humidity and thus more nights with no overnight freeze.

plagued by many weather issues, especially Bachelor

I have traditionally viewed Mt. Bachelor is the same reliability class at Mammoth and Whistler but no more.
1) Even discarding the recent outlier season, Bachelor's Summit lift is open less than half the time January - March and just a little over half in April. That's at least twice the closure rate of top of Mammoth and Summit serves a higher proportion of Bachelor's acreage than G2+23 do at Mammoth. Plus I see some days where wind closes the gondola but 23 still operates. Whistler is not nearly as windy as either Mammoth or Bachelor, so even though it has more bad vis days the alpine lifts are probably open more often.
2) I've also learned that it requires about a 50 inch base to open Bachelor's Summit in early season because snowcats must climb the advanced intermediate runs under the lift to reach and clear the unloading area. Thus Summit is rarely open at all before January whereas the high alpine at Whistler and Mammoth is routinely open mid-December. Snowcats can ascend Mammoth's backside via Roadrunner even though the front side is much steeper than Bachelor. Highway 86 probably works the same way at Whistler.

I believe the real issue here is that isolated volcanic peaks are inherently windy with limited terrain sheltered from it. Sure Mammoth is windy, but its prime terrain is on the leeward side of a long ridge with substantial extra snow deposition beyond its direct snowfall. I believe all of these Chilean volcanoes plus Mt. Ruapehu in NZ have similar issues as Bachelor (and Hood Meadows/Timberline). None of these places even try to put lifts to their summits and they are still plagued by wind, rime and frequent lift holds. My experience on Mt. Fuji in July 2009 fits this weather pattern too.

Whistler is more like the Alps. There's a ton of high alpine exposed terrain, but there are also surrounding mountains of comparable elevation which I suspect cut down the chronic winds.

 

[ChrisC]

Are you fully loaded and ready to pull the trigger if snow conditions warrant?

No, not really. A big IF. I just sit and watch. There is no reason, almost ever, to ski South America before August 1st:

• June/early July - Not enough snow for expert terrain most of the time.
• Mid-late July - South American Holidays.

Also, there's a high bar for me to return for any reason. I have been to my bucket list South American ski areas (Portillo, 3 Valles, Las Lenas, Bariloche/Catedral) with good snow. Why more?


Frankly, I am not sure whether skiing the Chilean Volcanoes/Lake District is worth the effort. Each ski area is about 4 hours from the others or from a regional airport. This adds travel time and $. Researching terrain (Chillan, Corralco, Antillanca?). Snow looks plentiful (not yet) but variable. Scenery appears unique. Highly enjoyed Chilean Patagonia / Torres del Paine.


Conversely, visiting Santiago-based areas (Portillo, Valle Nevado, El Colorado, La Parva, Arpa) is very efficient and similar to SLC:

• Arrive AM, ski arrival day, resorts only 45-120 minutes from Airport
• Can avoid Gringo Pricing (Valle Nevado, Farellones, Portillo) by staying in Santiago or Los Andes, and lodging/meals become very cheap/high value
• Depart PM, ski departure day
• Chile (well, Uruguay) is maybe the Costa Rica of South America: stable, relatively modern, successful

Easy. Excellent value. And the terrain at Portillo & La Parva, and parts of Valle Nevado & El Colorado is strong. To me, they ski like A-Basin, Loveland (slow lifts!), Solitude, Brighton, but with snow more similar to the feast/famine/consistency/quality of California's Sierra/Tahoe (but with more famine). Maybe like a Mount Rose or Sugar Bowl.

What can be a long weekend to Santiago becomes a full-week commitment to Southern Chile (2 travel days to/from), plus additional lodging/food/etc. And to ski a volcano-based resort that will likely have the best terrain closed 25-50% of your stay? You will likely pay 2x, use 2x as much time, and ski the same amount. Meh.


So overall, there is no real reason to go:

• I have no streak, and I have skied every month of the year; no need to repeat any month. (This uses up valuable time/$. I'd rather visit National Parks, scuba, sail, work out, travel - almost anything else besides track down small islands of snow.)
  • However, if I lived in the Pacific Northwest and could day-trip (or snow-camp 1 night) and ski at Mt. Rainier (Paradise-south/Emmons-north), Snoqualmie Pass (Alpental/Snow Lake), and the North Cascades... maybe a 12-month streak once. That could be accomplished from downtown Seattle with 45-min to 3-hr commutes.
• New Zealand would be more interesting to ski, but snowfall is often low/poor, usually only 100-200 inches - barely enough to naturally cover expert terrain. (Expert skiers don't flock to Sun Valley, ID or Panorama BC most years - and have similar numbers. Zermatt maybe a little better).
• Euro Glacier Resorts - only an addendum to another trip.
• My motivation to ski is new, interesting expert terrain in good conditions. I would put the Southern Chilean ski areas as barely meeting that threshold. Overall, I would rather return to Japan (Honshu + Hokkaido), Austria (lots there), Catski BC (yes!), etc.

Basically, unless there is great snow at Chillan/Corralco (150-200cm+), and one can find decent $ lodging (Latin America charges $$$ for US/Western tourist spots like Cancun, Cabo, Machu Picchu, Patagonia, Las Lenas, Valle Nevado, etc.), it's not worth the time/money.

You can get leave on short notice?

I typically just schedule vacation time and weigh options. In this case, August in Massachusetts (Cape Cod - parents, friends; Martha's Vineyard - partner).

Work-wise, much of our development team is in the Boston area, so it's important to spend time with them. It's easy to drive up 60-90 minutes any day.

Would I want to make a detour/add-on?

 

[Patrick]

Patrick, I did not understand why you visited Ski Pucon (now Pillan) twice over the years, if it is relatively flat and most of its lifts remain closed. Looks like a one-and-done, and get the hell out of there; not a repeat visit. I likely will just avoid it.

2008: beginner mistake. It was my second trip to the Andes and not really planned unlike the 2007 trip. Pucon was the only spot planned prior to flying to SA. Looking and trading messages with someone from TGR, Pucon was the bulleye of the snow forecast. Jski and I meet in Pucon, turned to be a total bust forecast wise and lost a few days due to rain and/or shutdown. Jski eventually left instead of waiting for better opening window. Jski was spending many weeks. I decided to leave on Aug 31 and try to ski Pucon. By the time the bus finally got up on the hill, only the lower lift was open under fog and rain. The area shutdown after that one run below tree line.
The storm would continue for a few days. I bought in to San Martin of Los Andes late the following evening. Puking in Chapelco with over 1 metre of heavy snow on Sept 1, only managed 3 runs as power went out.

Chapelco, ARG – Sept 1, 2008 – Argentinian Adventure 2

Day 4: Agosto 31 Pouring rain again. It’s been raining pretty much nonstop since my bus passed the town of Victoria while coming down from Santiago. Sky was nice and clear around Santiago. I …

madpatski.wordpress.com

However, I did not look at your Chile/Argentina itineraries over the years, nor was I familiar with the geography.

It's impressive and somewhat masochistic to fly to Santiago twice and then take a bus all the way to La Hoya Ski Area near Esquel, Argentina. Yikes! Assume Pucon, Chile, was a logical stop (a larger city near a mountain pass in the Andes) on the route.

Given that there are so many cheap flights from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, Argentina, I guess it was always cheaper (not easier) to fly to Santiago, Chile, even if your final destination is Argentina's Lakes Region/Patagonia.

Or you just booked Santiago, Chile, early and had to relocate due to South American snow droughts.

Tony is correct. Nothing was planned. 2010 was my 4th trip and didn’t make the same mistake as going to the centre of the precipitation. I recall the system being similar as the 2008 one, so it was better to go off centre.
After landing in Santiago, I surfed the weather and various other sites from the bus station: decided to head to Pantagonia. First bus journey was 12h overnight to Osorno. I got my next bus ticket to Bariloche. No final decision until that last bus trip to Esquel, La Hoya was on par with my Chillan experience.
At the time, Air Canada had a direct flight Toronto to Santiago, not the case for BA. Bus distances from the Andes to BA are over 15h from Las Lenas and 24h from Bariloche.

You missed the during Patrick's 2010 trip? La Hoya is at the ends of the earth but it is where Patrick had the best conditions on two of his trips, so he extended his time there in 2010. I'd point out that he could routinely get days of that quality at Castle Mt., which is a perfect fit for him in ambience, terrain, snow quality

I skied Castle, twice in December, but upper lift wasn’t open. Upper Revy or Alphabet Whitehorn chutes can offer similar rush.

43 Below, ARG – 29 Aug-1 Sept 2010

To start off, let me pick a post from an earlier discussion on ski conditions in Chile from the Epic ski forum. Tony Crocker advises not to book South America on a La Nina ENSO year. Looks like he …

madpatski.wordpress.com

 

[Tony Crocker]

I skied Castle, twice in December , but upper lift wasn’t open.

Sort of like skiing Las Lenas without Marte.

 

[Patrick]

Sort of like skiing Las Lenas without Marte.

Marte open on each of my 4 ski days in Las Lenas.
Unfortunately the bad news happened after.