South America’s Biggest Ski Centre Adding Lifts and Runs for 2022

Argentina’s Catedral Alta Patagonia ski area near Bariloche is working to install a new quad chairlift  and create new slopes ahead of the 2022 season start in just under three months’ time.

It has already been snowing there over the past week though, with autumn just getting started.

The new lift and runs are the latest part of a modernisation master plan announced in 2020 as the ski centre, which has the most ski lifts on the continent, celebrated 80 years of operations. The plans also include snowmaking upgrades a remote avalanche triggering system.

The new French-built POMA quad chairlift is being erected in the resort’s “Connection” sector climbing up to 1,900 metres above sea level with an uplift capacity of 2,000 people per hour. New slopes also being created in this sector will increasing the ski area on ​​the upper third of the mountain by approximately 25%. The new equipment is reported to have arrived on 20 40-foot containers.

The new runs are being created from the former Garganta and Paralela pistes, which are being reshaped and widened.

“The aim is to improve the skier’s experience and ease of circulation in the sector with wide pistes and new connections between slopes,” a Catedral statement explains.

The new quad is the latest stage of the new master plan with developments expected to continue in 2023 with a six-seat chairlift due to be installed from the Base to the Plaza Oertle, with a new wider piste and improved snowmaking system. In addition the Princesa I chairlift will be upgraded and another new slope, La Herradura, created.

2024 is due to see a third new lift installed, a quad from the Plaza Oertle sector to Conexión, with the Centro lift also due to be dismantled and replaced by a chairlift..