Chile: El Colorado and Valle Nevado, August 13-15

My wife, daughter and I joined our son during second half of his El Colorado race camp.

There are 3 ski areas next to each other: La Parva, El Colorado and Valle Nevado. You can get from one to another just by skiing, but you'll need a ticket to come back, since all three scan RF-enabled tickets at every lift. Supposedly there is a combined ticket available.


August 13, El Colorado

El Colorado is catering to local crowd: weekenders and day trippers from Santiago area (2hrs away) and to race camps.

Evening before, wife and I rented Atomic Crimson Ti's (from performance ski category), daughter was going to ski on her twin tips. Three of us explored front side of the mountain that sunny morning. Few trails on the top were taken over by race teams training, mostly empty elsewhere. It was not snowing in the area for a few weeks, yet conditions were packed powder, no ice. No bumps to speak of, despite pretty soft snow at the base by the end of day. Air is very dry and melting snow evaporates before it gets a chance to form into a stream.

In the afternoon my son had free skiing time, so he joined and showed us the back side of the mountain. Sky became cloudy and the light was very flat. There are only T-bars on back side, a little tiring to ride them even for couple hours. This was the only day we spent at El Colorado









August 14 and 15, Valle Nevado

This is one of the premier Chilean ski resorts and crowd was very different - less racers, more international visitors, plenty of mountain-owned real estate, ski village-like base area.

Both days were mostly cloudy with sun peeking for just a little bit. Visibility varied from whiteout to Ok, depending on the slope direction. From base of El Colorado, we had to take 2 chairs and 2 T-bars to get to where we can ski down to Valle Nevado, whrer trail "El Sol" took us to the lowest point of Valle Nevado. Guided by the ski patrol we took a chair up (one with loading assisted by people-mover thingy) and then skied down to upgrade our El Colorado pass to Valle Nevado's. At the end of both days we skied down to our condo at El Colorado's base without taking any of their lifts, thus being charges only "access fee", much smaller than full ticket price.

Beside "El Sol", runs from "Tres Pintas" were memorable, as well as views from the top of that lift. For lifts they've got gondola which goes to low located mid-station, some fixed chairs, one express chairlift and many Poma surface lifts, one is very long.

Again, mostly packed powder snow conditions with few inches of wind-blown powder in certain spots. Both days temperature was from just below freezing in the morning to 40s F during the day, never warmed up enough to soften single designated bump area.

Nice report thanks for some photos of skiing.

I see your daughter has a Gore NYSEF jacket on.  What race program is your son in that went to Chile this year?  What year is he and how was the camp?  Is he skiing FIS and was there for his first FIS races to score some points?  Some kids from Northwoods I know just did that in New Zealand. If he raced how did he do?

Did you find it was worth the costs? I'm debating with the value of summer skiing vs. the costs.  I'm not at all rich compared to the Jones we are trying to keep up with in the ski race world and I'm still trying to figure that out.  

Coach,

My son is also with NYSEF at Gore, this winter will be 2nd year of U16. Before we booked the vacation and signed up for the race camp we were waiting for NYSEF summer camp schedule. Unfortunately they did not plan on Chile in August, as was the case in previous years. Currently scheduled race camp in September/October does not make sense for us, as it disrupts new school year and conditions may be marginal for a family to join. We sent him with Arcs-USA club which exists only for this race camp.

Camp itself was good, about 10 days on the snow, 8 of then doing gates in the morning, knowledgeable coaches. My son said he glad he went, we'll see if any results show up in December. There is no FIS in his foreseeable future. He is going to the new high school, which has an alpine race program, so any additional training may help with getting on the team. If next August NYSEF goes to Chile - we are in, if not - we will have to see.

Coach, are you considering Sunday River camp in November? We did that camp last year and that was money well spent, albeit skiing single open trail.

My son is doing the Nysef winter term with 2  weeks in at Copper Mt and then 2 weeks at the OTC and training at WF
Last yr my son did the 1 week camp at Copper and that worked well
The 2nd yr u14s that did that last yr did really well all season
We felt that was better bang for the buck over the France camp and just the one week at CopperMy son took an on line class this summer to lighten his load for the winter and add an extra study hall.  He trains Friday thru Sunday at WF and TUesday and Thursday at Pisgh

Thanks for the trip report, Denis.  I've wanted to ski Chile/Argentina for years.

Denis

Have you skied Portillo as well?

How does this part of Chile compare if you have done both as I have only been to Portillo.  I heard the road to NV is almost as difficult or more than to Portillo.  

We loved the food and vibe in Chile - I'd love to go back but ski racing is killing my own ski trip budget.

Did you spend time in Santiago?  Really great city from our visit

Coach,

I am in Portillo right now, along with actor Jeff Bridges, snowboarder Jamie Anderson, entire Austrian men alpine race team and probably many more I don't recognize. Road to El Colorado/ NV was just under 2 hours, 41 turn as it ascends, no trucks waiting to cross into Argentina, road a little tighter. In between we have visited Atacama desert (San Pedro de Atacama), have not seen Santiago yet.

I'll try to compare to NV, need to get my thoughts together.

thanks for the report..looks like a real adventure..hows the food

funny how a thread about dildos on ski site gets more views and responses..

JasonWx wrote

 

funny how a thread about dildos on ski site gets more views and responses..

that was funny

Cool report btw

Nice report - thanks. I'm surprised at how little snow is there this year.

I look forward to your Portillo report

See if your son can ski with Mike Rogan in Portillo.  He is a Ussa coach and long time Psia demo team member.

The ultimate run in Portillo is if the Lake freezers ski the Lake Run and skate back across the ice.