Tag Archive for: skiing in Chile

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.

seniorsskiing

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Nov. 23)

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Free (Or Almost Free) Skiing Directory, Skis For Seniors Recommendations, Chile Wrap, Trail Name Series, Ski History Gala, Skiing In Skirts.

Here’s one Tom who made it past Thursday, glad to be trotting on the snow. Credit: SnoCountry

Happy Thanksgiving On The Snow!  For the first time in recent memory, there are plenty of lifts spinning in New England areas and in Colorado and other places in the West. The recent East Coast Nor’easter brought a snow covering and this week’s persistent precipitation has raised the snow level up to the top of boots in many areas.  Fingers crossed this is a harbinger of a long, cold season.  By the way, that is counter to the official El Nino-fused forecast for warm and wet here in the North East.

Last week, we published an update to our listing of resorts where the US and Canada where seniors can ski for free or almost free. We believe this is the only listing of its kind in the ski world.  You can access this list by clicking on the third menu box from the left under the blue ribbon at the top of the page.

We also published our list of ski recommendations for seniors which we compiled with the help Realskier.com, a long-time and respected reviewer of and commentator on skis and ski design. You can find this listing on the second menu from the left, next to the free (or almost ski list) list.

You may be asked to re-enter your name and email address to access these resources. There is no charge for any of these assets. We’re presenting them to the SeniorsSkiing.com community of readers to give you more specifically tailored resources for senior.

This Week

Casey Earle reports on the ski season in Chile, sharing some good news-bad news. Despite a shortage of snow, there were some great days and he took advantage of them.  If you haven’t even seen pictures of South American skiing, his article is a good introduction.  We’ve also included a link to more comments on Casey’s Ski Chile page on Teton Gravity Research.

We continue Don Burch’s trail name series with a swing through Michigan’s many resorts. Also Harriet Wallis reports on the University of Utah’s Ski Archives Gala where awards were handed out to Olympic visionary Harold Peterson and the US Forest Service and the Utah Avalanche Center, a team which has played a major role in controlling errant snow flows in the state.

Finally, our Mystery Glimpse looks at a pair of young ladies skiing in skirts more than a hundred years ago. We report on what the significance of that big brass bell was from last week’s puzzle.

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com.  Tell your friends, and remember, there are more of us everyday and we aren’t going away.

Chile skiing. Credit: Casey Earle

 

 

seniorsskiing

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (June 22)

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Southern Hemisphere Special, Safe and Sane Cycling For Seniors, Zany Videos, El Nino Coming.

Yes folks, it’s the start of the ski season in far away places below the Equator. Here’s a picture of downtown Santiago, Chile, which received a highly unusual coating of snow for the first time in years.

If there’s snow in the city, there’s more in the mountains. Credit: anis_velasco/instagram

And in New Zealand, The Remarkables, those beautiful, mystic mountains from Lord of the Rings fame near Queenstown, are open for the season.  Check out the video of opening day at the bottom of this article. Nearby Coronet Peak has been open for a couple of weeks.  Here’s what the early season skiing looks like down there.

First turns of the season at Coronet Peak, Queenstown, New Zealand.

Skiing Chile

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to follow the snow during the summer and weren’t quite sure how to do it, we have a new series that might get you started.

Portillo Plateau, Chile. Amazing skiing starting now. Credit: Casey Earle

In celebration of the beginning of the snow season in the Southern Hemisphere, we have an orientation to skiing in Chile by a new SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Casey Earle, an American ex-pat who lives and skis down there.  His first article describes the different resorts what line the magnificent Andes mountains. You will hear more about skiing in Chile in the coming months.

Biking With Young Hammerheads

Veteran cyclist, skier, and SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Pat McCloskey offers some advice for seniors who ride with a gang of younger riders.  He has strategies for going around the loop safely and saving face at the same time. It pays to recognized the limitations that senior status brings, especially on a mountain bike.

Have You Seen These Videos?

Here’s Opening Day at The Remarkables, Queenstown, New Zealand. Click below for the festivities.

And, Check Out What Happens To A Show Off When His Ski Flipping Trick Doesn’t Work. Click the picture below.

Finally, mountain biking down Corbet’s Couloir? First time ever, but you can be sure it isn’t the last.  Thanks Teton Gravity Research. Click on picture to view.

And Looking Ahead. El Nino Is Knocking.

Weather worriers are looking at an emerging El Nino pattern forming in the eastern Pacific. El Nino comes around when the surface water temperature increases ever so slightly in the ocean west of the Peru and Ecuador. Since everything in the weather world is connected, that water temperature change impacts the atmospheric wind patterns which impacts the everyone’s weather.  From the Weather Channel Explainer:

“If El Niño conditions are present during the winter, the jet stream pattern over the U.S. shifts and can result in a wetter-than-average winter across the southern tier of the U.S., including portions of California.

“During an El Niño winter temperatures are also typically cooler-than-average from the southern Plains into the Southeast and warmer-than-average from eastern Alaska into western and central Canada and into the Pacific Northwest, northern Plains and Midwest.

“The strength of the El Niño plays an important role in impacts across the U.S., including in the tropical Atlantic. At this point, it is too early to know when an El Niño pattern may develop and how strong it might be.”

Happy First Day Of Summer.

Onwards.  Have you bought your season ticket yet? Time to pay attention to whatever deals are left.

And tell your snow loving buddies about SeniorsSkiing.com.  Remember, there are more of us everyday, and we aren’t going away.

 

 

Casey Earle

Ski Chile: An Introduction For Neophytes

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Chase The Snow To Summer’s Skiing Headquarters In The Southern Hemisphere.

Come May, you have probably set your skis into hibernation and begun patiently waiting for the snow to fly next fall. But you really don´t have to wait!  Southern America’s greatest mountain range starts getting snowed on in May, and by June the ski areas are normally in full swing.

In Chile the resorts are sprinkled just east of the Pan Am highway along the 700 mile stretch from Santiago south, at roughly the equivalent latitude of central California. With an 80 year tradition of skiing, you will find a whole new world of winter adventure, lasting into October on good years.

Santiago and the Andean foothills, after a rare low altitude snowfall. Credit: Casey Earle

Visitors will be happy to know that within a two hour drive of the airport in the capital, Santiago, there are four good ski areas, and upwards of 70 percent of winter days are sunny. Closest are the Three Valleys, which hang above Santiago on the western slopes of the Andes. At night, you can see the snocats grooming trails from this metropolis of seven million!

The La Parva, Valle Nevado, and El Colorado ski areas are interconnected, and it is possible to enjoy a total of 40 lifts and dozens of groomed runs, with multiple options for lodging and dining. Skiing here starts at 8,000 to 9,000 feet, reaching up to 12,000 feet, and is entirely above the treeline. The sunsets are extraordinary.

Casey looks out from El Colorado ski area towards the upper Valle Nevado and La Parva lifts. The 18,000 foot El Plomo mountain looms in the background. Credit: Casey Earle.

Two hours north of Santiago is the world-renowned Portillo hotel and ski area, smack in the middle of some of the highest mountains in the Western Hemisphere. The hotel sits looking north over the mysterious and beautiful Laguna del Inca lake and boasts a long tradition of great service and entertainment. Here you can rub shoulders with racers and ski fanatics from all around the globe.

Portillo and the Plateau chairlift (spot it!), with the Laguna del Inca. Credit: Casey Earle.

Further south, the ski area infrastructure and access may leave a bit to be desired, but I love it nonetheless. All of the ski areas are situated on volcanoes which have varying levels of activity. They are also surrounded by gorgeous temperate rainforests, lakes, rivers, and hot springs. The main ski areas are Nevados de Chillan, Corralco, Villarrica, and Antillanca. The first three have adjacent towns within a 30 minute drive with plenty of lodging and other touristic services. All but Villarrica have a good hotel at the ski area base.

Villarrica ski area, note the smoking volcano. Credit: Casey Earle.

My recommendation for potential visitors is to contact one of the tour companies operating in Chile, or book directly with one of the on-hill hotels such as Portillo. You will have one of the best and most unusual ski trips of your life. Most of the tour operators

Las Araucarias ski area, west side Volcan Llaima. Credit: Casey Earle

in Chile are mainly for younger, adventurous skiers, such as Casa Tours or Powder Quest. However, for the +50 crowd, I can recommend DreamSki Adventures which offers group guided resort based tours in Chile and Argentina for the 45-70+ skier. Their guides are seasoned ski instructors trained in the CSIA (Canadian Ski Instructor Alliance) and offer a high degree of customer service on and off the snow.

Come on down!

For the latest in conditions in Chile from Casey Earle, click here.

Here are the resorts mentioned.