First Ski Area to Open For 2020 Season in the Andes
Catedral ski area in Argentina has announced it will open for the 2020 season at 9.30 am on Thursday, 23rd July.
Argentina has not been as badly hit by the virus as most other South American countries (including neighbouring Chile which is sadly now one of the 10 worst hit in the world by some measures) after an early lockdown and as a result is carefully now easing restrictions.
The country is slightly lifting its lockdowns on a regional basis, with decisions on what can and cannot open being made region by region, and travel within Argentina still highly restricted, as is international travel, so what’s opening is intended for locally-based skiers only.
The country’s most southerly ski area, Cerro Castor, re-opened base facilities at weekends in early July, including restaurant, ice rink and cross-country trails, but not ski lifts.
Now the country and indeed South America’s largest ski area by uplift capacity, Catedral near the famous ski town of Bariloche, says it will open its ski lifts on Thursday.
Infact early reports last week were that it would open on Tuesday, but that was then delayed by bad weather.
The resort said it was announcing it would decide at least a day in advance if it would or wouldn’t open, rather than deciding on the day depending on actual conditions, as a COVID-19 prevention measure by avoiding the danger that people would congregate at the base whilst a decision was made.
The Andes have had a very snowy start to winter with several ski areas in Chile reporting the snow is lying round 5 metres deep there.
At Catedral the snow is reported to be 80cm deep at the base, 2 metres at the top. It is snowing heavily on Wednesday and another front is expected to bring more snowfall from Friday.
