Jump to content
Note to New Members ×

Summer Boarding at Portillo Chile??


barryj

Recommended Posts

Seriously considering a week at Valle Nevado.......  I only know I'm not interested in skiing/boarding on a big open glacier like in Europe, so you guys that have been there, what would you compare the runs at Nevado too?......anyplace here in the US??

Any other pros/cons?? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was there about a 15 years ago and had a great time.  The pistes are all above treeline, and the grooming was good.  A lot of European and US ski teams train there and the resort caters to their grooming needs.  Most people stick to the designated pistes, so the off-piste skiing is really nice because it doesn't get tracked up much at all.  In addition, it seemed like most skiers didn't start skiing until around 10am or later, so if you hit the lifts when they open, the pistes are deserted.

There are several contiguous resorts close to Valle Nevada, so you can spend all day skiing round robin to the other resorts like you can in Europe.  In addition, there are heliskiing options by the day or half day, and while the terrain isn't Valdez-gnarly, it's fun with some really long glacier runoffs at the bottom of the runs.  I will say that the resort is pretty expensive, even by Aspen or Sun Valley standards.  PM me is you want additional info.

Heli Valle Nevado 2 (1 of 1).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Barry, I was at Valle Nevado today, and it's a really nice medium-sized resort, but not enough to justify a week on its own. Consider visiting a few of the larger resorts over the course of a week: El Colorado and La Parva are very close. Portillo is a good option for a couple of days, and the same for Chillan which is south of Santiago. Exchange rate is better these days, so it shouldn't seem so expensive when you convert everything to USD.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Big R,

Wow!    Your actually there now!!    Thanks for the reply and the info!

How would you rate the grooming 1-10 compared to US resorts?    ...Out here in CA, family resorts like Northstar are a solid 10, resorts like Squaw are a 2 at best, say they groom but it's marginal with lots of death cookie!

My experience of Colorado is a solid 8-10 grooming wise

...got any photos????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Barry, Valle Nevado has great infrastructure and grooming. I'd say it's really similar to Lake Tahoe resorts. Maybe not as big as Heavenly or Squaw, but similar in terms of quality and enjoyment. It's always good (8-10), and they cater to lots of Argentinians and Brazilians that travel specifically to visit Valle. The biggest difference is the altitude, 10,000' at the base, so there aren't any trees.

 

IMG_1456.JPG.1802f86453a8fac078e98a902505a903.JPGIMG_1455.JPG.ea4169e1b9a8f60fd7c0aa778028bf11.JPGIMG_1454.JPG.6512b68f59fbb6fec93c2dc483464074.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at Portillo Some time ago. The weather can be problem. For half of the time zero visibility. It was so bad racers from Italian national team were skiing down to hotel with snow plow. When it is nice it nice. Old resort no people empty slopes. Grooming mixed result.you can take heli trip also. They have some very strange lifts. One is 4 people T bar. "Real fun" on the board. Food service in hotel was top class, also a lot of avalanches around and earthquakes. We got nice shaker one day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...