It’s scorching, your AC’s working extra time, and you’ll’t keep in mind the final time you noticed snow. For diehard skiers within the northern hemisphere, {the summertime} could be a distinctive type of torture. Nevertheless it doesn’t should be this manner. As our ski season begins to wind down, mountain locations throughout Chile are simply getting began. And in contrast to some ski resorts you would possibly go to within the southern hemisphere, Chile’s mountain choices aren’t a diluted model of the Rockies or Alps. As a substitute, they’re really distinctive—each when it comes to terrain and tradition—serving up a definite snowboarding expertise that, as you would possibly guess, can’t be skilled wherever else on this planet. From tight chutes to wild backcountry terrain and deep snow, the Chilean ski expertise ought to, if it is not already, be in your bucket listing.When you’ve ever dreamed of reserving a flight south to sip pisco sours and ski powder, right here’s the place you need to begin.Wish to sustain with the most effective tales and pictures in snowboarding? Subscribe to the brand new Powder To The Folks e-newsletter for weekly updates.
Picture: Courtesy Valle Nevado
1. Valle Nevado
A sprawling main ski vacation spot situated in Chile’s famed Tres Valles space, Valle Nevado is very accessible for worldwide guests, with quite a few main multi-passes, together with the Energy Cross and the Mountain Collective move, offering days on its slopes. Valle Nevado can be the one South American ski resort included within the Ikon Cross program. It is sensible that the businesses behind these passes needed to work with Valle Nevado. The ski resort has trendy facilities, luxurious accommodations and an expansive heli-skiing program that spans 125,000 hectares—all above treeline. The chance to attach with and hopefully befriend worldwide guests, who typically crowd the slopes of Valle Nevado, provides to the attraction.
Picture: Adam Clark/Aurora Photographs/Getty Pictures
2. Nevados de Chillán
Ever needed to ski on the flanks of an energetic volcano? Add Nevados de Chillán to the bucket listing. This ski resort is perched on the flanks of the Nevados de Chillán stratovolcano group, so skiers who moonlight as geologists can scope rock formations whereas they shred powder. Scorching springs out there at three accommodations—Resort Nevados, Valle Hermoso and Parque de Agua Termal—are one other type of geothermal exercise on the ski resort, serving as the perfect place to recuperate from a day spent snowboarding arduous. Like many different Chilean ski resorts, Nevados de Chillán has a popularity for housing world-class backcountry terrain. One space above the ski resort is reserved for catskiing, so guests can hitch a experience earlier than schussing downhill. Guiding companies, like Powder Quest, provide journeys to Nevados de Chillán, too, making it simpler and safer to expertise the encircling mountains past the rope strains.
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Picture: Liam Doran, Courtesy Ski Portillo
3. Portillo
Portillo stands out with its iconic shiny yellow resort. Right here, the ski resort affords all-inclusive packages that embody raise tickets, lodging and meals for one worth. The terrain, in fact, is a very powerful a part of the expertise at any given ski resort, although, and in that division Portillo doesn’t disappoint. Its slopes are steep and technical, with quite a few backcountry strains close by excellent for skiers keen and outfitted to enterprise out of bounds.
These strains have made Portillo a frequent cease for North American professional skiers, like Connery Lundin, who in the course of the austral winter have dropped clips of themselves shredding on the ski resort. One other draw for skiers in search of distinctive experiences is the Roca Jack—one of many funkier lifts you’ll ever encounter. This distinctive floor ropeway capabilities like an enormous slingshot, pulling skiers and snowboarders uphill.
Picture: Marcela Vieira/Getty Pictures
4. La Parva
La Parva, one other Tres Valles ski resort, shares a border and an proprietor with Valle Nevado. Over the previous few years, each ski resorts have come underneath the umbrella of the Durango, Colorado-based Mountain Capital Companions. For skiers who wish to take pleasure in La Parva and Valle Nevado as one, that’s a boon—MCP’s Energy Cross now affords 10 interconnected days at each ski resorts.
By itself, La Parva is value visiting, too. The ski resort operates greater than 10 lifts and spans over 3,000 toes of vertical. In-bounds, newbie to professional skiers will discover loads of trails value trying out, however La Parva additionally shines with its backcountry choices, which embody a line named after the late, nice Shane McConkey.
Guests to the ski resort can unwind in La Parva’s Bavarian-style village, which homes a grocery retailer, three eating places and, in case you’re in want of some post-skiing dance remedy, a bar-slash-disco.
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Picture: erlucho/Getty Pictures
5. El Colorado
Freestyle followers, this one’s for you—El Colorado options South America’s largest terrain park, with an enormous array of options. Exterior of the jumps and jibs, the ski resort’s slopes primarily skew in the direction of the newbie and intermediate crowd, making it a stable cease for many who don’t want the hardest and steepest terrain. Nevertheless, skiers craving a problem will nonetheless discover some tougher runs at El Colorado on the japanese aspect of its cone-shaped peak.
A visit to El Colorado can, relying in your plans, additionally embody trying out La Parva and Valle Nevado. El Colorado is the third Tres Valles space ski resort, though MCP doesn’t personal it, so you may’t entry the mountain’s lifts utilizing the Energy Cross.
Picture: Indy Cross Media Package
6. Corralco
The lesser-known Corralco ski resort was added to the impartial ski area-focused Indy Cross in March 2025, changing into the primary South American vacation spot to affix this system. It doesn’t have the acreage or facilities of, say, Valle Nevado, however Corralco’s off-the-beaten-path standing might make for a novel journey, notably for these craving backcountry journey. The ski resort stands on the flanks of the picturesque Lonquimay Volcano, that includes 500 acres of skiable terrain and eight lifts, plus quick access to a great deal of out-of-bounds terrain.
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