Conditions Report
Portillo, Chile Conditions Report, July 26 – August 2
by Paul Ferrell
I skied Portillo from July 26 to August 1. Sorry for the late posting, but the moral of the story remains the same: book your flight to Santiago.
Although this isn’t the best season for snow at Portillo, with parts of Chile in a drought, the conditions were awesome.
The hotel is world class, as are the staff and ski instructors, who I believe are some of the best ski instructors from all over the world, gathered in one place.
Maybe it’s all the orange signs in front of Andarivel Roca Jack, the steep terrain, or maybe the unique design of the “slingshot” lifts, but most pasajeros avoided the best lifts and runs on the mountain, so if it weren’t for the ski instructors, a powder day could last all week.
Photo Credit: Rafa Almeida
Unfortunately, the fact that the ski instructors really do shred meant that fresh tracks were harder to find by 3pm most days, when the 2nd “colectiva” (group lesson) started.
Fortunately, it kept snowing about every other day, and new terrain would open up, so it was fresh all week.
