Ski Chile 2016

[Casey E]

Still excellent today, El Raco downwind supplying ultra dry refreshment on a hot day. The skiff from friday night giving a renewed feel to the pistes.

[GodSpeed]

At least in La parva you won't get into trouble with a BMW, it's a snotty kind of a place. My advice would be to get a combo ticket with Valle Nevado one day, or drive over (30-40 min). That way, if you fancy hiking up rhe Cerro La Parva, you can ski right out to the bottom and ride lifts back to LP. Also, get out early, you can see the sunrise, like today on La Nevada:

Attachment 185801

PM when you are in La Parva, maybe we can hook up.

Yo GodSpeed, I'll be chilli'n en Chillan the same week. Let me know if yer up for taking a lap or two. So stoked to finally slay some sudamericano pow, sip some auténtico pisco sours, and take in the ash-enhanced la puesta del sol!

Sweet, I'll shoot you message Sunday night when I'm in the airport, headed for SCL. I'm hoping to be on the mountain by 11am, noon at the latest. How is La Parva looking?

[Casey E]

So the slush line is rocketing up, but was held off at about 3,100m, at least on the more southern exposures. So freeze/thaw is setting in until maybe thursday, and after 4 weeks with no significant snowfall, it is starting to take it's toll.

The pros for skiing the central zone next week are: still good cover; groomers are well maintained; no line ups anywhere; some slack country above 3,300m could be good. Contras are: lower flats are pooling water; cat track connections will be ugly; sticky snow makes it jerk and go at the bottom.

Some almost powder was still to be found late today:


There is appearing something on the horizon, but the freezing level won't be falling anytime soon, except for Antillanca (N to S):


I will be in La Parva again tomorrow. It would probably be better in the south once the heat is off, unless the central zone snowfall predicted for Aug 29 actually happens....

[GodSpeed]

Are we better off going down South and staying there our whole trip?

[Casey E]

Are we better off going down South and staying there our whole trip?

I always say that being flexible is the optimal plan, go where the snow is best. Looks like no new snow for the central zone for the foreseeable future. If you have never skied Portillo/3 Valleys before, you might as well give them a day each if the weather looks good. Otherwise, head south right away, to where the conitions look best. You may find wet snow down low and ice slabs up high, but with 360 exposures on the volcanoes, there should be somethin somewhere.

[Casey E]

Head south young men:

[Casey E]

For those looking at September or October, this is the local weather forecast for locations central/ south to Puerto Montt, mostly "Normal":

[Casey E]

Snow flurries in La Parva, +4C, not sticking yet, but should continue for the next 24hrs


The view of the base and Stgo today, threatening

[GodSpeed]

Head south young men:

What am I looking at here, lol?

What mountain and what days is this forecast?

Getting excited. Monday morning we land. Just need to survive this wedding I'm at now. The look on everyone's face (door man, Uber, luggage check in, bag dude at hotel) when I showed up with a suit bag and a snowboard bag to North Carolina where we are suffering through a 105 degree heat index is incredible.

[Casey E]

What am I looking at here, lol?

What mountain and what days is this forecast?
.

Chile north to south at that date, still no significant snow fcst for the cetral zone.

It stopped snowing today around 5pm, with little accumulation at fhe base, but more higher up. Tomorrow anything could happen, but most likely clearing during the day, and Monday will be sunny again, so your original plan of going to LP could be a good choice. We will be there tomorrow and monday.

[GodSpeed]

Thanks, Casey! If you can give a little update later this evening with your suggestion, we'd appreciate it!

[summit]

@Casey... hows it looking for next week?

Wife and I have refundable tickets bought with miles:
Arrive Santiago Sept 3
Depart Santiago Sept 11

We have no further plans... so totally flexible...

Portillo? Should we fly a connecting flight from Santiago down so we can go to Bariloche? or the volcanoes? or go all the way to Punta Arenas?
Or switch to YVR and DH at Whistler?

[Beder]

Snowed 2 or 3 inches yesterday at Portillo. Sunny all day today and skied well in spots. Now its snowing again. There's no indication it's going to dump but looks like it might be showery through the week. Base is good.
US Women's team will be here next week and I heard LV is looking for a new massage therapist.

[GodSpeed]

Snowed 2 or 3 inches yesterday at Portillo. Sunny all day today and skied well in spots. Now its snowing again. There's no indication it's going to dump but looks like it might be showery through the week. Base is good.
US Women's team will be here next week and I heard LV is looking for a new massage therapist.

Sweet. We'll head up there, at least for the first day or two. Thanks for the Intel

[Casey E]

@Casey... hows it looking for next week?



Portillo? Should we fly a connecting flight from Santiago down so we can go to Bariloche? or the volcanoes? or go all the way to Punta Arenas?
Or switch to YVR and DH at Whistler?

LP got 2-6cm yesterday and skied well on the upper mountain today. The same lines that were skiable before this were quite good today, fast powder, hard base. Tomorrow should be good too, but warmer so the lower runs will probably slush up sometime. My advice continues to be go south after trying out the central zone for a day or two. Here go some photos from today, not the best photos, but you'll get the idea!

Las Tortolas might be a wimpy lift, but it has some steep, and was fun today






The abominable Huawei Yeti was happy

[bpjh]

Snowed 2 or 3 inches yesterday at Portillo. Sunny all day today and skied well in spots. Now its snowing again. There's no indication it's going to dump but looks like it might be showery through the week. Base is good.
US Women's team will be here next week and I heard LV is looking for a new massage therapist.

Thanks for the reports! We skied Portillo five summers ago and it was one of the greatest trips of my life.

Hoping the snow keeps up.

[Casey E]

Looks good in Corralco:

[Beder]

Apron between Roca Jack and Caracara skied well today

[smallies]

32 in Pinedale WY this morning...huge fan.

[Casey E]

La Parva yesterday was:

Upper 1/3 - good packed powder on the groomers, 6cm of powder mostly skied off to the hard base offpiste
Middle 1/4 - hard packed, with some ice, for most of the day (we quit at 2pm and it was still hard, not fun) offpiste bad
Bottom 1/3 - hard in the morning and soft/skiable in the afternoon, dirty spots appearing

So unless the snow forecast for tomorrow actually happens (forecasts range from negligible to 40cm, I am inclined to believe it will not be much), the central zone is definitely winding down. This is how snow-forecast stands at the moment:



It was raining at the bottom of Corralco today, and Pucon was closed "due to wind". While that sounds dismal, we have brought our gear down from La Parva and hope to spend the first 2 weeks of September in and around Villarrica. Anyone interested in doing Villarrica volcano next week, let me know. After Sept 11, we might try Sollipulli or other spots in the Araucania.

[Beder]

48 hour snowfall forecast from the euro model. Nobody I asked in Portillo believes it though.
Great skiing these last two days. Nobody here. Got hot.

[summit]

snowforecast looks far less generous...

[summit]

Puerto Montt or Valdivia? Or...?

[GodSpeed]

We left Parva a day early. It basically looked like the last possible day of skiing :lol: some runs I'm sure were fine, but being tourists, we decided to spend the day in Santiago and break up the drive to Chilean. We're gonna head down there in about an hour or two. Hopefully better conditions.

[Casey E]

Clear weather in store for Chillan



Ditto for Araucanía, but very windy: