Top 10 Reasons Why You Have To Ski South America:

The Andes Mountain Range in South America is the longest mountain range on Earth. It has the highest mountains outside the Himalayas and some of the best skiing and riding anywhere. The Andes also have the most skiing and riding on Earth, with over 1,500 miles of snow-covered, lift-serviced terrain.

There are so many excellent reasons to come ski and ride South America that we decided to list a few for you below.

Experiences are the most valuable things in the world. Nothing can touch them, compare to them, or take them away.

And don’t forget what Warren Miller has always told you: “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll only be one year older when you do.”

Don’t make it two.

Top 10 Reasons Why You Have to Ski South America:

#1. It’s Summertime and You’re Skiing Powder

Do we even have to elaborate on this one? No, we don’t, but we will anyway.

The South American powder machine turns on during the northern hemisphere’s Dog Days of Summer. In the north, they’re hot, bothered, sweaty, sticky, looking like this dog above, and bored out of their minds in August and September. In South America, they’re skiing powder, getting face shots, hooting, hollering, hucking, flipping, spinning, high-five-ing, and grinning.

#2. South America Gets The Most Snow in the Southern Hemisphere

South America gets big snow—real big snow—most years. Many ski resorts average over 300″ of snow per year in just three months of operation. A number of resorts have already exceeded their average annual snowfall this season—and it’s only July. South America gets more snow than Australia and New Zealand, and snow conditions are generally better than Australia and New Zealand. Do you have any questions?

#3. It’s Always Snowing Somewhere in South America

One of the best things about skiing in South America is that there’s always good snow somewhere. Ski resorts in South America span from latitude 32ºS down to 54ºS. That’s over 1,500 miles of skiable, lift-served, snow-covered terrain in the Andes mountains. The Andes mountains offer more skiing and riding than any other mountain range on Earth.

The central Andes hold Las Lenas, Portillo, La Parva, El Colorado, La Parva, Los Farellones, Valle Nevado, Penitentes, Powder South Heliski, and more. The southern Andes hold Catedral, Cerro Bayo, Cerro Chapelco, Caviahue, La Hoya, Cerro Castor, Nevados de Chillan, and more. There’s even a string of ski resorts between the central and southern Andes to catch storms in between.

If your current location isn’t working, hop on a comfy, wine—and food-serviced 24-hour bus ride and wake up where the snow is. If the bus isn’t your style, hop on a plane, and bam! Powder.

#4. Some of the Best Terrain for Skiing & Riding on Earth

The Andes mountains are enormous, rugged, featured, and steep. They hold some of the best skiing and riding terrain on Earth. The ski resorts are great, it’s true. But the backcountry holds mind-blowing terrain out of science-fiction novels. The high alpine terrain of central Chile & Argentina is big, remote, exposed, and has some of the best couloir skiing found anywhere on Earth (think Jackson Hole). The southern Andes are glaciated, have a lower elevation, are snowy and spiny, and are enormously featured (think Tahoe).

Whatever terrain you dig, you’ll find it in the 4,500-mile-long Andes mountains.

#5. The Andes Mountain Range is the Longest Mountain Range on Earth, With The Tallest Mountains on Earth Outside of the Himalayas

The Andes mountain range is the longest on Earth, with over 4,500 miles of continuous mountains. Over 1,500 miles of that range is skiable and lift-served. If you’re crazy enough, you can also ski & ride on the incredibly high 20,000-foot peaks of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, & Peru. No other mountain range offers more skiing and riding.

Aconcagua, at 22,838 feet in Argentina, is the highest peak in South America, the highest peak on Earth outside the Himalayas, and one of the “Seven Summits.”

#6. World-Class Wine

Malbec is a French grape that has become enormously popular in Argentina and Chile. It’s everywhere, and it’s cheap—real cheap. You can get a quality bottle of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, or Merlot in Argentina for about $5 US. Or you can splurge and get a super high-end bottle of wine for only $20 US.

Malbec is one of the best wines on Earth. A $6 Chilean Malbec called La Moneda Reserva Malbec, sold exclusively at Asda, a British supermarket chain owned by Walmart, just won a platinum “Best in Show” award at the Decanter Magazine World Wine Awards in June 2016.

A well-aged Malbec with a juicy Argentine steak you can cut with your fork is about as good as life gets after a sick day on the mountain.

 “While acreage of the Malbec is declining in France, in Argentina the grape is surging and has become a “national variety” of a sort that is uniquely identified with Argentine wine. The grape was first introduced to the region in the mid 19th century when provincial governor Domingo Faustino Sarmiento instructed the French agronomist Miguel Pouget to bring grapevine cuttings from France to Argentina. Among the vines that Pouget brought were the very first Malbec vines to be planted in the country.” – wikipedia

#7. World’s Best Steaks

You’ve most certainly heard that Argentina has the world’s best steaks. Let’s explain why.

•  Argentines have their own cuts of beef that they claim are better suited for flavor.

•  Argentina’s “Asado” slow cooking technique “keeps flavor in.”

“The technique of Asado is very different to barbecuing, it’s far slower and puts more emphasis on slightly smoking the beef than sealing it, which according to new research doesn’t “keeps the flavor in”, no matter what some fancy chef says. We never use propane and we only use briquettes to start the fire. Wood is the standard, and BTW you’re going to need a real parrilla made with ceramic thermal bricks or volcanic stones to make asado, black metal BBQs literally burn to the ground after even a small asado since those weren’t designed to resist high temperatures for hours in a row.” – Juan Videla, Argentine steak connoisseur/Forbes

• Argentine cows are free-range, and they eat grass.

Cows in the USA are trapped in feed lots, living in their filth and eating corn, fish, sheep, soy, hay, sawdust, and antibiotics. Cows shouldn’t eat any of that. Nature designed cows to eat grass. Grass and exercise keep cows healthy, which improves their taste. That makes sense, right?

“Grass has less saturated fats than grains and more of the healthy omega three fatty acids. And although production results of free roaming cows are harder to control than in feedlots, most experts agree that natural conditions, in which the cows don’t consume antibiotics and growth hormones, are a principal factor in the final quality of the beef.” – argen-times.com

#8. Good Money Conversion Rates

Things are still cheaper in Argentina and Chile, with Argentina being the more affordable of the two.

Current Conversion Rates as of July 2024:

• 1USD = 925 Argentine Pesos
• 1USD = 942 Chilean Pesos

#9. Cheap Lift Tickets

Lift tickets in Argentina usually cost around $75 US during the ‘middle season.’  That’s about a third of the price of a lift ticket in North America. South American ski resort lift tickets have three prices, depending on the time of year. July = High Season, when tickets cost around $100 US. August & September = Middle Season when prices are around $75 US. June & October = Low Season, when tickets are around $50 US. The best times to ski and ride in South America are August & September.

Compare these lift ticket prices to the standard $200+ per day in North America, and you’ll wonder why you haven’t gone yet.

#10. South American Culture is Amazing

You’re in a place where EVERYTHING is different. You’ll be constantly speaking Spanish, learning new customs, meeting the best-looking people of your life, skiing high-altitude treeless moonscapes, battling bamboo, charging down shadowy south faces instead of north faces, riding overnight buses, ripping perfectly spaced deciduous trees, eating the best steaks of your life, tango shows, drinking some of the best wines of your life, experimenting with Fernet & Coke, trying Mate, and quite possibly seeing it snow harder than you’ve ever seen it snow before.