Tag Archive for: La Parva

Casey Earle

Look Ahead: Despite Challenges, Chilean Resorts Are Preparing

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Areas’ Marketing Campaigns Are In Full Swing, But Will The Weather Cooperate?

La Parva, Chile, sunset through the icicles. Credit: Casey Earle

For 2020, the ski season revolved around the multiple ills Chile has been suffering, including the ongoing drought that affected the skiing. This year would seem to be a continuation of those ills, including social and political unrest, economic suffering, and plague. In spite of all that, last year a few ski areas opened late in August, and the skiing was quite good. These were La Parva, El Colorado, and Corralco. Backcountry access was difficult due to covid restrictions.

Up until a few weeks ago, some optimism was brewing. Chile’s vaccination program had taken off strongly, Santiago had avoided a second wave, the elections for the constituents of the constitutional assembly were on for April 11, and rain had come to the central zone in January. Now, it would seem the Brazilian variant is ravaging the country, 90 percent of the inhabitants are in quarantine, hospitals are overflowing, and the elections are being postponed for a month. Riots flare up periodically, and the slow burn insurgency in Araucanía continues. Hard to be optimistic in this environment, but I will try.

Marketing announcing discounts for this season at La Parva. Credit: Casey Earle

The ski areas are certainly running their marketing campaigns like this season will actually happen with a semblance of normalcy.

La Parva touts their continuing commitment to opening the ski area, as they have done with their bike park during the summer.

Other areas are chomping at the bit to get the season going too, like Antillanca.

The dark spot is Valle Nevado, which is in arrears on a wide variety of debts, and recently initiated a chapter 11-type restructure of their obligations through to 2026, with large additional short term injections to keep the lifts turning. They cite the drought and covid as contributing factors to their woes.

In the weather department, the Chilean weather service just published their predictions for the fall (April, May, June).  Click here for details.

In summary, with rising subsurface temps in the central Pacific, the Niña has ended, and a neutral period begun (“La Nada”), but rainfall deficits are still expected. These will be most intense in the central zone, with the far south receiving excess rainfall. A El Niño event could occur late in 2021, if the warmer waters surge through to the southeastern Pacific, but that is highly unpredictable.

What really matters though is what sort of rainfall will happen from June on when most of the snow falls. I would not dare a prediction as drought has been the norm and is most likely to continue, but one (or god permitting, two) atmospheric rivers could change everything, as happened in late June 2020 under lockdown.

If you are thinking about a trip down this winter, it is probably unwise to plan just yet. That said, if the vaccination effort goes well, and those pesky variants calm down, possibilities for August are not out of the question.

Crossing our fingers!

Riding the Roca Jack “Va et Vient” with the US Ski Team. several seasons ago. Credit: Casey Earle

Casey Earle

SeniorsSkiing Guide: La Parva, Chile

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La Parva Is A GS Cruiser’s Heaven.

As a first installment on the Three Valleys of ski fame in Chile, I’ll write about La Parva. One hour and a half from the Santiago airport, La Parva is perched up at 8,700 ft on the front side of the Andes, and overlooks the city. The road up involves 40 switchbacks and a vertical rise of 7,000ft.  I do not recommend tackling it during a storm!

The furthest north of the three ski areas, the village rests at the base of the La Parva peak (13,000ft), which itself is a sub-peak of the El Plomo Massif (18,000ft). Stretching for a width of three miles across several watershed— all connected with skiable cat tracks— the area faces mostly west, with the north sides of the valleys collecting the most snow. While this western orientation exposes it to the sun and north wind, often leaving bare ridge lines, it also means snow accumulates in those multiple bowls where the snow is blown, and the sun hardly shines.

On a good year such as this, even the north faces are skiable.

As a bonus, the sunsets over Santiago are wildly beautiful.

To get you up the hill, there are four chairlifts, each serving different terrain, and seven good surface lifts (platters, thank god). In windy weather, the platters are safest, as you can bail out wherever you want. But, with 80% of the days being sunny, and often with no wind, the weather is generally not an issue. Grooming is excellent with no mogul bashing required, ever, but add in 70% of the runs being intermediate level, and this is a GS cruisers heaven. The entire vertical rise of 3,000 ft can be skied in one go, so get the long boards out boys!

The village itself is like a classy suburb of Santiago with no hotels, but several restaurants. Most of the 2,000 or so beds are ski in-out apartments, and the family-oriented atmosphere is manifest in the hoards of little racers out at 9 am sharp every weekend. Racing is the name of the game in La Parva, and while often fun to watch, it does take up some of the best runs, especially when the international teams arrive in August. Fortunately, there is a lot of room in the ski area, especially when the off-piste is in good shape.

Casey finds a lonely route down to the Las Aguilas chair, and the small restaurant at its base.

For lodging, there many private apartments, and a few houses on Airbnb or Booking.com. The village has three restaurants, a bar/disco, and a small grocery store. On the hill, aside from the three restaurants mentioned (all accessible on skis) there are two mid-station restaurants, and a small, occasional, open-air one at 11,400 ft. Careful with the pisco sours, it is a long way down…

For La Parva Trail Map, click here

For La Parva Webcams, click here

Check out the La Parva website here.