Weather
South America has been a land of juxtaposition this austral winter. The central Andes (Valle Nevado, Portillo, Las Lenas, Penitentes) saw a huge 10-foot snowstorm in early June that put them all in business early this season. The southern Andes (Cerro Catedral, Nevados de Chillan, Cerro Castor, Corralco) still haven’t seen appreciable snow yet and they’ve all had to push back their opening dates up to 5 times and are still not open. But snow is on its way.
This coming snow storm is going to bury the central Andean ski resorts while giving some respite to the southern resorts.
Fingers crossed for big snow everywhere.
SOUTH AMERICAN SKI RESORT FORECASTS:
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VALLE NEVADO, CHILE:
- 161cms (63″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Open daily
POWDER SOUTH HELISKI, CHILE:
- 105cms (41″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Open on July 16th
- Learn more about Powder South Heliski:
Ski the Biggest Lines in South America | Powder South Heliski Guides
PORTILLO, CHILE:
- 99cms (39″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Open daily
LAS LENAS, ARGENTINA:
- 92cms (36″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Open daily
NEVADOS DE CHILLAN, CHILE:
- 56cms (22″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Opening date TBD
CERRO CATEDRAL, ARGENTINA:
- 26cms (10″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Open date TBD
CERRO CASTOR, ARGENTINA:
- 14cms (5.5″) of snow forecast by Tuesday
- Open date July 8th
The reality is that Valle Nevado usually gets less snow than Portillo or Las Lenas. SnowForecast has a history of consistently overprojecting Valle Nevado. The 36-39 inch prediction for Portillo/Las Lenas: that’s what we might expect overall for the central Andes.
10-22 inches for areas farther south that aren’t open yet are a step in the right direction but a long way from actual good skiing, especially on steep terrain.
If North America looked like this on January 8 we would all be moaning about what a disastrous start to the season (see 2011-12). Sadly this is not an infrequent situation in South America during several of the past 5-6 seasons.
All of this underlines that when scheduling to less reliable ski regions of the world, stick to the core of the season to optimize conditions. As noted on a recent SnowBrains feature, that means August/early September for South America.