I'm going back to Chile to ride in a couple of months, after going for the first time last year. Based on the comments from my posts back then, and my own experience planning this trip, I figured it'd be useful to put together a guide with some of my key takeaways and tips, if you're planning to make the trip down South because you, like me, couldn't wait 8 months to ride again. This is kind of what I wish I knew, when I was planning my own first trip.
1. For your first time riding in South America, Chile is a great option.
The Santiago region (aka Región Metropolitana) has several ski resorts nearby (1.5-2 hour drive), and a major airport; so it makes for an excellent entry point. For comparison, if you want to ride in Argentina, you have to fly into Buenos Aires, likely change airports, and then take a second flight towards the mountains.
2. Lodging in Santiago is cheap. Lodging in the mountains isn't.
Even by North American standards, staying up in the town of Farellones (the only town close to the resorts of La Parva, Valle Nevado, and El Colorado) can be expensive. Think US$60/night for a hostel bed, or $250/night for a hotel room. It's got killer views, though. Staying at the resorts is even more expensive, and your only options are resort hotels or Airbnb condos.
While it might seem tempting staying in Santiago, if you're going to be riding all day, every day, the drive up and down will occupy ~3 hours of each day, plus you're gonna have to deal with...
3. The road up and down is a very tricky drive.
Here's what most of the curves look like on the way up. There's about 3 dozen of those. Now imagine it with snow around you. You need to go slow, and you need to be careful. Don't do the drive at night. During the ski season, the road is only uphill in the mornings, and downhill in the afternoons. So don't try to drive up at 4 pm. You'll have to wait.
Fortunately, there's shuttle services that will take you from Santiago to the different resorts in the area. I've used Ski Total, but there's many others, just Google "transfer Santiago a Farellones". They're not super cheap, but they're really convenient, if you're planning to stay up there for a few days. If you don't mind the extra time and cost, you could take the shuttles up and down every day. Or I guess you could drive up and down every day, but why would you do that to yourself?
And if you rent a car, be aware that you also need to have chains in the trunk, which are not included with rental cars (don't ask me. I have no idea why this is). Which brings me to...
4. Stock up in Santiago, before you head out
If you're staying up in Farellones, or any of the resorts, there's no supermarket, and barely any place to buy food up there, that is not a tourist restaurant. There's a small (and expensive) convenience store in Valle Nevado, but it's more like a 7Eleven. Go to the supermarket and buy supplies before you head up.
Also, remember those not-included chains for the rental car? On the way out from the city, there's a lot of ski rental stores, and most of them will rent chains ("cadenas", in Spanish). Get them there. There's a police checkpoint on the way up to the mountain, and they check for that sort of stuff. There's also randoms on the side of the mountain road that will rent the chains, at exorbitant prices, to unsuspecting tourists; and probably will want to keep your ID as a guarantee that you'll return them. Don't expose yourself to scams. Get them from a proper rental place in the city.
Speaking of rentals, if you're renting gear but don't want to rent directly from the resorts, your best option is renting in Santiago. The rental "shops" on the town are setup more like a market, and they've got some of the crappiest gear I've ever seen. Granted, it's also like US$10/day to rent a board, but you'll really be getting what you pay for. A friend of mine was given a board with a base so scratched and dinged, I thought it was his rock board.
5. Getting to and from the resorts
If you have a car, or are taking the shuttle up and down every day, that's no issue. The shuttles will leave you at the parking lot of the resort, and pick you up there. If you're driving, be there early, because the parking lots are small, and the "overflow parking" is just parking on the side of the freeway.
If you're staying in Farellones, transportation to the resorts is more complicated. You can hitchhike, or you can try to make friends with someone who has a car and can give you a ride. If all that fails, there's people who make extra money by transporting tourists to the resorts (they call them "transfers", over there). They charge a flat fee per trip, regardless of if there's 1 passenger in the car, or 4, so if you're in a group, or can put together one with other people going the same way, you'll pay less per person. There are no taxis or ride-sharing services in the town of Farellones, so these transfer services are your only option. Ask your hotel, or other guests. They'll know someone.
The only exception is El Colorado, which is easily accessible from a lift that goes right onto the town of Farellones. It's free to take that lift up, and you can buy your ticket once you're halfway up the mountain. Speaking of lifts...
6. Get ready for surface lifts
I'd say about 75% of lifts in the Chilean resorts near Santiago are either T-bars or button lifts. Some are easier than others, but there's definitely a good number, in the steeper areas of the mountain, that are icy and steep. You can enjoy these resorts by riding only easy T-bars and chairlifts, but if you're one of those people who want to ride the gnarliest lines and explore the entire mountain, you'll need to be comfortable riding surface lifts.
7. Brush up on your Spanish
A passable knowledge of Spanish will be very useful. I was pretty surprised at the number of people working in the area (at the mountain, the shops, lodgings, restaurants, etc.) who don't speak English, considering how touristy the place is. On the other hand, most of the tourists they seem to get are from other places in South America, or Brazil, so I guess it makes sense. You can get by with just English, and maybe the help of a kind bilingual stranger every now and then, but if you took high school Spanish, it's a good time to review.
8. A few words about each resort (I've been to)
Overall, don't expect copious amounts of snow. To start with, the region is right at the edge of one of the largest deserts in the world; and climate change has made the snowfall less frequent and predictable. Also, no tree riding either, as the resorts are high up in the mountains, and the terrain is arid to begin with.
You should know that you can ride between El Colorado - La Parva - Valle Nevado. They are connected and there's lifts at the mountaintops where you can drop on the other side, and be in a different resort. However, unlike some European resorts, the ticket you bought for one resort is not valid on the others, and there's no unified ticket, as of this writing (2023); so if you start in La Parva, drop into Valle Nevado, and want to ride the lift back up to where you started, you'll need to buy a second ticket.
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El Colorado: the closest and easiest to access from the town of Farellones, but also the smaller and flatter of the three resorts in the area. Even the "experts only" runs are something a good intermediate North American rider wouldn't have a lot of trouble with. Some great runs for carving, though.
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La Parva: this is the fancy, "skiers" resort. It's definitely the steeper and more challenging of the mountains in the area. If you catch it during a storm, it has some faces and drops, inbounds, that are positively gnarly and/or fun. The groomers are fun and fast, but they can get pretty icy, so make sure to sharpen those edges.
However, this is not a resort for the beginner snowboarder. And it's not even the difficulty of the runs, but it's setup more for skiers: most of the lifts are button lifts, including all the ones in the beginner runs, and the ones that access the advanced terrain are long and steep; it's also got a weird number of runs that are only accessible by long, winding cat tracks; finally, most of the runs I got to do have sections with double fall lines, that will catch you off-guard the first time you do them. You need to have a very solid intermediate level to ride there, including the ability to handle unusual conditions and terrain, if you're used to riding in North America.
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Valle Nevado: this one is higher and in a different valley than the other two, and generally gets more, and better, snow. If you're used to North American resorts, there's great runs, modern infrastructure, restaurants and shops, and outrageous ski resort prices. You have runs that range from easy to damn challenging, across a range of terrain. It has some great off-piste sections that are a lot of fun to explore if the snow conditions are good.
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Parque Farellones: this place is like mini-golf for skiers. If you wanna go tubing, or take the kids to see snow for the first time, by all means. But if you want to ride, steer clear. It's not worth it.
