Ski Chile 2019

[Casey E]

Our bus to Bariloche was cancelled today, pulled into a hotel in Santiago.

We have a bus to Mendoza tomorrow booked as backup - but trying to gauge our options.

1. Go to Mendoza tomorrow (if we can get through the pass) and either head to Bariloche from there, or, try for Las Lenas.

2. Go south to Osorno and try for antillanca.

Any other ideas? Recommendations?

Cancelled due to the Cardenal Samoré pass (Osorno-Bariloche) being closed? Check the state of mountain passes here
https://twitter.com/UPFronterizos/st...15200789450752

Portillo pass might close sometime today but the storm doesn’t look bad enough to keep it closed for long.

Roads in the Lake District are suffering from the current wind/rain/snow storm, which is now declining. The pass to Bariloche will likely be closed today, but when they open it will be gorgeous. This is usually the fastest and easiest way to Bariloche from Santiago. Weather looks good starting Monday.

[Casey E]

Corralco is emerging from the storm, with the little Araucarias almost buried.



Backroads can be messy, here is our entrance near Villarrica



Trees down, blackouts, landslides, floods here, and still the central zone is dying of thirst.

[Casey E]

The bright side of things

Chillan


Antillanca

[Casey E]

Will La Parva get 20cm as forecasted? Got some 10cm so far.

[anotherVTskibum]

My wife and I are headed to Peru for general tourusting and on to Chile the week after, including a few days at Valle Nevado. I'm trying to figure out if we can use US-spec FRS radios or not, and my Google-fu is failing. Any thoughts?

[peterbmoorman]

Our bus to Bariloche was cancelled today, pulled into a hotel in Santiago.

We have a bus to Mendoza tomorrow booked as backup - but trying to gauge our options.

1. Go to Mendoza tomorrow (if we can get through the pass) and either head to Bariloche from there, or, try for Las Lenas.

2. Go south to Osorno and try for antillanca.

Any other ideas? Recommendations?

Lots of low coast arilines from SCL to MDZ, then take another low cost from MDZ to BRC. Flying is your best bet with weather like this.

[gnarbro365]

Well, the storm wasn't forecasted to bring much to Portillo, but we got even less than expected. BUT, it is still snowing...

[anotherVTskibum]

....and we just got an email from Ski Arpa that there isn't enough snow on the ground or in the forecast for our planned snowcat day. That means we suddenly have a Santiago day to plan. Considering horseback riding, driving up to Portillo, or maybe some other sort of tour. Not interested in wineries. Anyone got a must-do suggestion that I'm missing?

[Casey E]

....and we just got an email from Ski Arpa that there isn't enough snow on the ground or in the forecast for our planned snowcat day. That means we suddenly have a Santiago day to plan. Considering horseback riding, driving up to Portillo, or maybe some other sort of tour. Not interested in wineries. Anyone got a must-do suggestion that I'm missing?

With all the kids on holiday and roads in general packed, you may as well do something in/near Santiago. Look into a day trip to Sewell, a village the gringos built for miners in the mountains near Rancagua, as part of the apocalyptic sprawl of the “El Teniente” mine. Interesting history.

[Casey E]

The chair at V Osorno decked out with a bit of rime.



The road in to Corralco

[Kirby]

Antillanca and Osorno are requiring people to chain-up. This is problematic in terms of rental cars (as they generally frown against such things), but I should be able to get something that is AWD/4x4. Does anyone have experience with these access roads and have insight as to whether an AWD/4x4 will be sufficient to get-up them?

[Casey E]

Antillanca and Osorno are requiring people to chain-up. This is problematic in terms of rental cars (as they generally frown against such things), but I should be able to get something that is AWD/4x4. Does anyone have experience with these access roads and have insight as to whether an AWD/4x4 will be sufficient to get-up them?

Antillanca is compacted dirt/gravel, narrow, and very wet. The snow would likely be the last 5 km or so. I can imagine mayhem, school holidays, inexperienced drivers and all, so the local authorities panic and demand chains. This discourages the unprepared drivers, SOMETIMES they are really necessary, but you have to have them with you. With 4x4, they could let you thru without actually putting them on.

Osorno is paved, shorter, and roomier, but the same scenario.

Go early in both cases.

[Casey E]

#Argentina Corte de la Ruta 40 por Desprendimiento de Rocas de Gran Tamaño.

Between Villa Angostura and Bariloche, one chunk of rock
https://www.facebook.com/55341877142...94&v=e&sfns=mo

[Casey E]

Skied Villarrica ski area yesterday (“Ski Pucon”). It lived fully up to my expectations, which were dismal. Would have gone elsewhere, but as circumstance would have it, my wife was out on her first day after hyaluronic acid injections in her knees.

Ski Pucon is run by Enjoy, a hotel/casino chain. They have no expertise in ski area management, and no interest in acquiring it. Thus, the infrastructure is even less than it was say 2 decades ago, and a long ways from what was there in the early 70’s before an eruption wrecked the lifts (the terminals are still there). While this location is safer than the old one, it is also much flatter. Of the 4 skiable lifts, only one has a reasonable vertical, and it only opens in the summer now, to move hotel guests up the volcano. The next best one was closed, but on this occasion was supposed to be opened “in the afternoon”. The afternoon came and they then said “the clouds are coming down, and it is complicated.” It then cleared right up, and they still didn’t open.

So we were left with two bunny lifts, and two consecutive chairs with a total of 300m vertical over their 5 km length. That is an average slope of 6%.

Now that would be almost acceptable except that the price was similar to the big central zone ski areas, about $70 (highest season). You get a discount depending on how much you gamble at the Enjoy.

To keep things interesting, there were as many people on foot as skiers on the ski-out of the first chair, and hoards of them were tobogganing, learning to ski/board, and running snowmobiles around. Chile hasn’t regulated snowmobile use in National
Parks, and as they say in the area rules they can appear anytime, anywhere, so beware. And there they were, ferrying boarders up the closed lift, even though many people were skiing over from the operative lift.

So the ski area lived up to my expectations. But the beauty of the place once again made up for the bad infrastructure, the hot springs and our favorite restaurant were nearby, and we had a good day anyway.

My wife’s knees survived.

[Casey E]

A lone split boarder, and the volcanic puff above. Patches of ice seemed present up higher.



This guy offered a days shuttles for leas than a lift ticket.



Contact Andres at +56 9 6172 0037 if you need a lift.

What you see is what you get.

[Casey E]

Makes for a dynamic slalom course.

[Casey E]

For those heading to Torres del Paine, there are now flights direct to Pto Natales, eliminating the long drive from Punta Arenas. “Low cost” too...

[Casey E]

Looks like some serious redlining is in the cards for tuesday. The central zone will be suffering seriously from this and the lack of snowfall, while the south will get rained on, in the middle of 4 days of stormy weather



Don't look at the base info, especially in the central zone, not sure where they get this, maybe just another algorithm.

[Casey E]

The central zone deficit continues around 70%, while the south has shrunk theirs by about 10% after last weeks deluge.

[gnarbro365]

Portillo picked up 13cm. Enough to make things look pretty, but not enough to make much of a difference in the long run. At least the pistes will be soft today!


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[peterbmoorman]

When was the last time Portillo had decent snow for their season? I feel like at least the last 4 winters have been extremely low snowfall totals.

[Beder]

^^^ I would say 12 years since they had a very good year from start to finish.
I was at Las Lenas last year and an old timer there told me it had been 10 years since they had a really good season. I've never been to Bariloche, which is further south, but I think they have had some good seasons lately.

[peterbmoorman]

I've never been to Bariloche, which is further south, but I think they have had some good seasons lately.

Shhhhhhh!

[anotherVTskibum]

Looking pretty at Valle Nevado as long as you look in the right direction, but conditions are kinda like low tide at Big Sky: the untracked might be a great turn, or it might be a shark, and there's only one way to find out.

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[Casey E]

After the soaking the southern ski areas got today, comes a drop in the freezing level and a light dump, before temps spike again with dry weather for a few days anyway





For those that can get there, thursday and friday look good in the Araucania, before the spike



The outlook is for more precipitation still in the south, while the center parches