Ski Club 2.0 Home
Snow Reports
FAQFAQ

Mail for help.Help!!
Log in to snowHeads to make it MUCH better! Registration's totally free, of course, and makes snowHeads easier to use and to understand, gives better searching, filtering etc. as well as access to 'members only' forums, discounts and deals that U don't even know exist as a 'guest' user. (btw. 50,000+ snowHeads already know all this, making snowHeads the biggest, most active community of snow-heads in the UK, so you'll be in good company)..... When you register, you get our free weekly(-ish) snow report by email. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either)... We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)
Username:-
 Password:
Remember me:
👁 durr, I forgot...
Or: Register
(to be a proper snow-head, all official-like!)

Skiing in Chile - anyone been ?
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

Had tentative thoughts this year about maybe skiing in Chile during summer. What's the season in terms of best time to go ? What are the resorts like ? What else is here to do ? How easy is access and what are the hotels like ?
ski holidays
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Plenty of info in this Forum if you do a search.
snow report
snow report
 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?

In brief:

Went in early Sept 05
Did Chile's 3 Valleys (La Parva, Vallee Nevado, El Colorado) - very easy acess (though road very windy and steep) from Santiago. Local tour operators go daily if you want to travel up from Santiago - though the 30 odd miles can take 90 mins. We also went to Termas de Chillan & Portillo. Portillo can be done in a day trip from Santiago (local tour operators go daily), Termas de Chillan is 6 hrs further south.
We had fantastic snow, inc lots of powder
Resorts vary - from Les Arc replica (Vallee Nevado) to shacks at the roadside and basic (but adequate) hotels (El Colorado) to volcanic spa resorts comprising a few hotels (Termas de Chillan).
Skiing is more extensive than we expected and generally on a par with small to medium European resorts. Infrastructure varies from fast quad chairs to very slow, ancient chairs and draglifts.

We did a mix of DIY and roadtrip with a US company (See www.Casatours.com). No doubt this will re-open the old Snowheads package vs DIY arguments - but we had a great time. Casatours include just about everything in their prices (eg 6 hr road trips between Santiago and Termas de Chillan, food and drink, lift passes, transceivers, on and off piste guiding, visits to wineries & markets, night out in Santiago etc). Great value, great staff (Chilean and US/canadian), great time.

See www.skitotal.cl (based in Santiago) for transfers, hotels and info if you want to make any DIY arrangements.

We visited Portillo under our own steam (hired a driver locally - very reasonable) and also went to Val Paraiso on the coast. This is a well known beach resort and is well worth a visit - about 90 mins from Santiago.

Santiago is very modern in the centre and feels/looks like a US city, though there are very poor looking areas outside the city centre. It's worth spending a night or 2 there - some good restaurants. We found that hotels are of a comparable standard to Europe but a lot cheaper for ones near slopes or 4 star (in Santiago). Once outside Santiago it's a real cultural experience - fantastic!

Can't recommend Chile highly enough. As a travel and ski experience it's amazing Very Happy .
snow conditions
snow conditions



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy