South America

I’m thinking about South America as my next boarding mission.

I originally liked the look of Cerro Caterdal in Argentina but I’ve since read that the mountain isn’t run very well and doesn’t get the best snow. The safe bet I guess is to head to one of the Chile resorts but I don’t like the fact that you have to stay a minimum of 7 days on the hill. Plus I like the look of the varied terrain that Argentina has to offer as Chile looks like NZ.

Hit me up people with your experiences, recommendations, advice etc. Not long until their season starts!

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You don’t need to stay a minimum of 7 nights in Chile, I think that’s only Portillo. What I did was a more (and less) flexible option, which was to stay in downtown Santiago, and utilize one of the many ski shuttles to take you up to Valle Nevado and the other resorts closest to the city. They will pick you up at the hotel in the morning, drive to a rental shop, wait a bit too long there, and get you to the hill by 10-ish, and then take you back at the end of the day.

The resorts are around 30-40 km from the city, and take a scenic and vomit-inducing road up about 2000 meters. Fun, if you’re not carsick by that point. And the other advantage of staying in the city is that there’s plenty to see, do, and eat. The subway is easy to get around, and it’s pretty safe to walk around. I stayed at the Hotel Vegas just to the south of O’Higgins Avenue (the main east-west drag), it’s in a decent neighborhood and an easy walk to all of the central city. I would not recommend staying further east in Las Condes as it’s a soulless suburban area, although upscale. The neighborhood is also dicey further west past the rail station. Providencia immediately east of the center is a nice area, overall.

That’s my Chile experience, I’ll write about Argentina later if you want more info.

Thanks Worldtripper.

What was your favourite resort in Chile? Did you do any heli-boarding over there?

If you could let me know about your time in Argentina that would be great.

It looks like to fly to Cerro Caterdal you need to fly into Santiago so I guess I could always ride both countries if I want to cough up more cash.

It kind of depends how long you want to travel for and what kind of budget you are on. I found Chile to be quite a bit more expensive than Argentina. In Chile the most popular place to go is Valle Nevado which is actually connected by lifts to El Colorado and La Parva. You can get lift tickets to all three and with hiking access it makes this the biggest area to ride in South America. El Colorado is generally considered to have the best park in SA if that is a feature you are looking for. It is conveniently located near Santiago and perfect if you are just going for a snowboarding trip rather than a full travel experience.

Argentina is a lot cheaper and the people seem to be a lot nicer (at least in my experience, Chile’s culture seems to be a lot more introverted thanks to their country’s political background). Bariloche is an amazing ski town/small city. There is a huge nightlife scene and the riding is also quite good. You can take a bus from Buenos Aires which takes about 22 hours. This might seem crazy but the buses both in Chile and Argentina are absolutely amazing and put most first class flights to shame. They are easy to sleep on and usually have movies playing in english with spanish subtitles. The resort of Cerro Catedral is not as big or as challenging as Valle Nevado but still has some great runs both above and below tree level. Las Lenas is another popular spot in Argentina but seems to have gained some international popularity and is extremely expensive. Cheap hostel lodging doesn’t really exist. If you have the money though, I’ve heard the hotels and casino are quite fun. Las Lenas does claim some of the most challenging big mountain riding in SA.

In my opinion if you just want to ride in SA go to Chile and check out La Parva, El Colorado and Valle Nevado. If you want to travel a bit more and maybe check out a few different locations head to Argentina, rent a car and travel from Bariloche to Mendoza, visiting a bunch of different resorts and even follow the route that Che took on his famous motorcycle ride.

Cheers! That was a really good post.  Great info.  Gave me a lot to think about.

I also visited Las Lenas, Argentina, by hopping on a quick flight from Santiago to Mendoza, and then taking a bus from Mendoza to Las Lenas. Yes, there is cheap lodging near Las Lenas, this rather bare-bones hostel in Los Molles, which is a small settlement on a dirt road about 1 km off the main highway, around 20 km from Las Lenas. Not convenient, you’ll have to hitch every day, but it’s cheap (if it’s still there). On the plus side, you’ll definitely make friends with Argentinians, as opposed to foreigners. The staff cooked dinner daily, and served plenty of wine with the food. And you will probably sing along to Nino Bravo.

The lift people talk about at Las Lenas is Martes, it was open about one hour during my weeklong stay, and when I got in line to go up the lift, they closed it four people ahead of me. Oh well, then I had to get on the bus back to Mendoza, and my stuff got ripped off at the transfer stop in San Rafael, leaving me naked (nearly, my clothes were in the pack that was stolen). So unfortunately, my Argentina vacation was marred by theft, but let’s put it this way, I’d certainly go back and visit again when I have the chance. One of the folks I met at the hostel in Las Lenas played tour guide when I arrived in BsAs a few days later, and as we stopped to visit La Bonbonera (the Boca Juniors stadium) in La Boca, his car was broken into and his stereo stolen.

As Alex pointed out, I also found the Argentinians to be more extroverted than the Chileans, and it does seem to be attributed to the 20 years of democracy that Chile has had (30 years in Argentina). Oh, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get the Las Lenas swimsuit show too, fun for straight 20-something men.