South American Ski Areas Announce 21 Season Start Dates as Snow Falls
A number of ski areas in the South American Andes have announced plans to open over the coming week, several before the end of June.
The ski season in the region usually starts by mid-June and sometimes even in late May, but ski areas had delayed opening so far, some due to pandemic restrictions, some due to lack of snow, some due to problems making enough income if they did open, some apparently due to a combination of two or three of these factors.
Snow has been falling over the past few days however, with some areas announcing over 30cm (a foot) accumulating in the past 24 hours, and more on the way. Vallecitos in Argentina – pictured above – reported 32cm (13”) of fresh snowfall.
Chile’s Corralco looks like it will be the first on the continent to open, saying it will do so this Tuesday, 29th June. It had previously aimed to open on the 19th and 26th June but said it had inadequate snow cover.
Another Chilean ski area El Colorado has said it will open the next day, Wednesday 30th June.
In Argentina the world’s most southerly full ski area, Cerro Castor, has already opened for cross country skiing but says the lifts will start tunning next Saturday, July 2nd.
Although they have not officially published opening dates other resorts are expected to open in the next week, including the leading Argentinian resorts of Catedral and Las Lenas which leading tour operator Powderquest expect will open on July 1st or 2nd.
Other areas have hinted they could open imminently, but not given definite dates in most cases. Only Argentina’s Caviahue has named 9th July for their opening.
The pandemic is playing a part in resorts opening or staying closed. Chile has one of the best vaccination rates in the world but is issuing local lockdowns where infection rates are high and Valle Nevado announced it was closed due to such a lockdown in late May and has not updated its status since.
It was oner of the leading resorts in Andes that did not open at all in 2020 although they were allowed to from late in the 2020 season when the pandemic’s first wave eased. However by then it was too late for a viable opening.
Half a dozen ski areas did open but only for 3-5 weeks at the very end of the season with the majority staying closed.
Another Chilean ski area, Lagunillas, has been reporting heavy snowfall but said that they are currently in tier 3 of pandemic local lockdowns but that they needed to be in tier 4 to be allowed to open.
International borders to Argentina and Chile remain closed to tourism and Powderquest report that one of the region’s most famous resorts, Portillo (pictured below on Friday), which relies heavily on destination travellers and was closed all last winter, won’t open until mid-July at the earliest.
