Advertisement
Published: August 2nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
(The location is not actually quite right but not all places are listed - we actually stayed in Farellones but we did ski in Valle Nevado a couple of days...)
So, it was pretty cold the morning we arrived at the ski shop around 7.15am to catch a minibus up into the mountains. While waiting for them to start selling tickets the shop next door caught Hugh´s eye and he discovered that their transfers were 2/3 the price and the bus was just leaving so off we went. Despite the fact that I was already wearing much of my ski gear, the driver kept the windows open all the way and it was absolutely freezing. We knew it had rained in the night in Santiago and it was not long before we spotted snow on the slopes ahead. The traffic started to build up quite quickly and as we climbed into the snow cars were stopped at various points on the road putting on snow chains. We managed without for a while but eventually the driver gave in and pulled over. We jumped out for a stretch and were amazed to see cacti covered in snow - how weird!
By the time we arrived at our hotel - the first building of any size we had seen for a while as it is right at the entrance to the village - I was shivering with cold - not really a good start for skiing! We dropped our bags there, added a couple of extra layers and the hotel minivan took us up to one of the 3 ski areas, El Colorado, where we hired boots and skis. I was still shivering and huddling in front of the wood burning fire in the ski shop despite blue skies and sun outside. However, I dragged myself out to the slopes and, despite never really getting warm all day, we had a good day pottering about the easier slopes which had great snow and not that many people.
And that´s really how the week went. The weather was mixed, quite cold most of the time but we had some sunny days, some cloudy days but never a real white out. After a difficult first couple of days, I got my ski legs back and was almost keeping up with H (though I don´t imagine he was skiing as fast as he
can!). If you compare the videos it looks like I´m going in slow motion although it was quite a steep slope. H is skiing bumps - watch those knees go!
We skied in 3 different areas, all pretty high and with good snow but we liked Valle Nevado the most. El Colorado had a large number of T-bar lifts, one of which I fell off trying to get off, enough to put me off skiing there too much! Overall there was plenty of ground to cover and a good range of slopes although I skied a number of black slopes (supposedly the hardest) which I usually refuse to do in Europe. Most noticeable was how quiet it was. The week we arrived was school holidays and that weekend was quite busy but the Monday morning after we almost had the slopes to ourselves for the first hour or so.
One thing that surprised us in the hotel and later on the slopes was the number of apparently Russian speakers all around. It didn´t take too long (!) for us to work out that it was, in fact, Portuguese - the resorts were full of Brazilians. While they obviously
don´t have any of their own snow, I was surprised that there were quite so many - probably more than half of the hotel guests.
The hotel we stayed in was cosy and quiet with excellent evening meals and a hot tub to ease those aching legs. On the 6th day I unfortunately pulled something in my neck on a lift - not badly but we had had a great week and I didn´t want to make it any worse so H skied on his own on the 7th day. It was beautifully sunny so I was a little disgruntled to have missed it but a day in front on the wood burning stove with my book was not bad compensation.
So, I think H has got over missing the best snow in Europe for 30 years and is looking forward to the approaching winter season at home. (I´m sure I might be persuaded to get my boots out again at some point too!)
We spent the last day relaxing in the hotel until the bus picked us up late afternoon. It was a very different journey back to Santiago - the snow around the hotel had
almost all gone and the roads were completely clear. They really need some more snow to keep the resorts going for the season but we were incredibly lucky.
From H:
In case anyone is interested in details of the resorts themselves, there are 3 resorts which are sometimes known collectively as Las Tres Valles (El Colorado, La Parva and Valle Nevado), although it's not possible to ski directly between El Colorado and La Parva and they don't have a combined lift ticket.
I've gathered some rough stats from the piste maps themselves, rather than use the resort stats (El Colorado claims 70 pistes, but only numbers 28 on the map, although a few are more than one colour).
El Colorado has 33 pistes (5 black, 13 red, 6 blue, 9 green and 14 lifts (4 chair lifts, the rest are mainly T-bars)
La Parva has 34 pistes (9 black, 14 red, 5 blue, 6 green) and 14 lifts (4 chair lifts, the rest are mainly button lifts)
Valle Nevado has 29 pistes (6 black, 11 red, 7 blue, 5 green) and 12 lifts (4 chair lifts, including one high speed quad, the rest are mainly button lifts).
End of 'piste spotting'.
Back to S:
We hear that summer hasn´t bothered this year but at least hope you haven´t had snow....
Lots of love
S + H xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.206s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 19; qc: 74; dbt: 0.1522s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jonathan
non-member comment
Unbelievable
You've been on holiday for nearly a year now and you're already talking about future skiing holidays... Looking forward to seeing you soon. J x