 Poster: A snowHead
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Hello All,
I was looking to rob some of your knowledge and help myself to a most fanstastic holiday. I am planning to head down to Argentina skiing during the summer, and was looking for advice on best times/best places. There is a small group of us going and we all decent skiers, looking to get in some great powder and possibly some heli skiing too. Any thoughts, experience, knowledge or just banter would be fully welcome, thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yo Dublinfella,
I know Argentina quite well although I have always been there in their summer so I have never skiied there. I think the best resort is Las Lenas which is south west of the city of Mendoza. Also there are several resorts on both sides of the Andes (Arg and Chile) along the main road which goes across from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile. None of them are big by European standards but IMHO the Andes mountains tend to be steeper and more rugged than the Alps so I think there is plenty of hard skiing and challenging off piste.
Other places are Cerro Catedral which is a good ski area near the town of Bariloche (full name San Carlos de Bariloche) which is in the Lake District in Patagonia - this is a beautiful area and well worth a visit - I am sure skiing there would be great.
If you want to really go out on a limb then the most southerly ski area in the World is a couple of pistes near Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego - probably worth checking out if you were in the area but not worth the long journey just to ski there.
Getting around in Argentina can be a bit of a challenge as the distances are huge and roads are not always too good, particularly as you go farther South - but there are networks of high quality buses fanning out from Buenos Aires and all the places I mention above can be reached from BA by internal flights on either Aerolineas Argentinas or LAN.
Argentina is a fantastic country to visit - wildlife, scenery, skiing, friendly people, fantastic food and wine and cheap too - you must go there!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Dublinfella, I've got this saved as a bookmark because one day I'm going to do it. One day very far in the future.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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The domestic Aeroparque airport, a taxi ride from the International EZE airport, handles all the flights to the local skiing resorts.
There is a information desk there permanently available for assisting visiting skiers. When the last time I checked a week skiing package in Bariloche was US$ 700 to 1000 depending on the time of the season. Deals around US$500 could be seen advertised in the underground meteo. I think the Argentina skiing packages commence from Aeroparque. Going to the resort by bus can be hellishly long, especially after a long flight from Europe.
To me the extra price to pay to ski Argentina is the £800 international flight cost getting to the Buenos Aires EZE airport. The snow, infrastructure and facilities are probably not enough to justify the extra cost and has to be compensated by a visit to Buenos Aires. Ideally the trip should be arranged to pick up the Chilean resorts too.
RachelQ,
£5k is a lot of bread to ski a North America resort. Some of the money has to pay for the drviver towing you up the slope with a snow bashing machine.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Hey guys,
Thanks for the info, much appricated. Will have to get cracking on the details, dont think I can afford the £5,000 Rachel Q, might have to slum it a bit! Still Steaks and skiing...does it get much better? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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If you want on info on Chile I have been there many times and there is some fantastic skiing.
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Well, I did say "one day very far into the future". That'll be when we've got the boys through university and have retired. 
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LAS LENAS thank you please
www.laslenas.com
saikee, The trip is 100% worth it, if you like skiing and you like beautiful scenary then South America is amazing. The Andes is beautiful massive peaks, great to be skiing higher than generally you have done before, the air is so crisp. Then the snow, it is much drier than European snow so after a big dump the powder is exceptional. Other advantages of skiing is the food which his heavily dominated by super tasty meat and is often cheap.
The resort above has a failure that the main ski lift can get closed in high winds but in good weather the domain is superb and infrastructure is fine. In terms of Chilean resorts the infrastructure was good and well connected.
The biggest buzz is that you are standing on a mountain in crisp spring temperature (i.e. South American winter) and you look around and realise that you are on a mountain in the middle of summer. It is like opening Pandora's box to all year round skiing!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Dublinfella,
The main ski resorts in Argentina are Cerro Catedral (in Bariloche), Las Leñas (in Mendoza), and Cerro Castor (down at the end of the world in Ushuaia). Check out these sites:-
www.catedralaltapatagonia.com
www.laslenas.com
www.cerrocastor.com
Also check Wikipedia for a summary of these places.
There are some others like Chapelco (by San Martin De Los Andes), but I don’t know what they’re like. As for Chile, there’s Portillo, Cerro Navado and Chillan. Again I haven’t been to any of these.
If you decide to come all the way down here, then the best time would be around the middle of August, when the school winter holidays have finished. If you can get the time off work then I would recommend coming for at least three weeks, as the flight to and from the UK will eat up three days traveling. I also imagine that the flight is not too cheap (although I have no idea how much as my company pays for mine). Just remember that July and August are peak season, and it can be a real bitch getting a flight down here at that time of the year.
You should also take into account that the resorts here are smaller than Europe, so you might want to visit a couple. They are all two or three hours flight away from Buenos Aires. An internal flight will cost around 200 quid return. I would guess that you would really struggle to spend more than 50 quid a day (including everything) skiing here though. It's difficult to be more precise with the costs, as the wife does all the arrangements for our ski trips, and normally we pay in installments.
By the way, the biggest and best steak that you have ever seen in your life will cost you less than 5 quid in the best restaurant here.
Let me know if you need any more information
Oh I forgot to mention that you should bring your own skis, as there isn't a lot of choice rental wise here.
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Cheers guys, much appricated. I hadn't thought about Chile, Skilegs, but like the thought of maybe moving between Argentia and Chile, for a bit of variety...its the spice of life, or so they say. Where would you recommend in Chile? Thanks for the heads up on the flight problems, trying to get organised and book early, but it aint my forte, especially as friends seem to think that August is made for weddings! Surely they know it is really there for South Hemisphere skiing, the fools!  Happlily managed to avoid having those pesky kids to put through uni Rachel, and have more than a couple of years to retirement so carpe diem it is!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Dublinfella,
The ski season runs from about the beginning on July to the middle of October (Cerro Castor in the south stayed open until November last year), so September is still a good time. Snoworks charges ±£5000 for around 12 days skiing so I would imagine that if you arranged a trip yourself it would cost half that amount  . If you want to investigate any further then we can put you in touch with an english speaking travel agent here.
BTW tourism is booming here, as once people get over the cost time to get here, they find that they can have a "relatively" cheap holiday in a fairly unusual destination. As an aside, gay tourism is extremely popular now, much to the amusement of my wife.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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THanks Skier from Argentina, much appricated on the offer of the English speaking travel agent, might easily take you up on it. I have just found a mate of a mate who spent a season down there, so am going to try and pick her brains too. As to the aside, glade to know about the gay tourism, always good to know, as it leaves more of the Argentinian beauties for the rest of us!
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Dublinfella,
You find quite a few foreign instructors working in the resorts here. In fact we used to take lessons with the director of a ski school in Gstaad, and she was brilliant, especially when giving a lesson in three languages.
Back to the aside, according to the wife, at least 30% of men here are gay.
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You know it makes sense.
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If you are considering Chile, head for the 3 valleys - La Parva, Valle Nevado and El Colorado - huge area about 1.5 hours drive from Santiago.
Also consider Portillo and Termas de Chillan. Have been to them all and can recommend hotels etc. if you want. Just avoid July as it is school holidays but August is great as pistes are empty and you will find many international teams in summer training.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Skier from Argentina,
| Quote: |
| according to the wife, at least 30% of men here are gay |
Can be a can of worms if the reliability of the figure is questioned. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Can be a can of worms if the reliability of the figure is questioned
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True. The wife is not renowned for her statistical accuracy. However there is a large and open gay community here.
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