Valle Nevado - Ski Resort Chile, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile

4Mike L 5:00 PM Sep 7, 2013

Perspective from an American
We just returned from a week at Valle Nevado, Aug 30-Sep 6 2013, which is the first week of the Low Season (spring). I'm writing this review from the perspective of an American to give an honest idea of what to expect. The first thing you should ask yourself when planning at ski trip to Chile is what are you looking to get out of it. If the answer is for a multi-cultural experience and skiing in the summer, then I encourage you to go. If you are looking for world class powder, tree skiing, high speed lifts, and top notch service an hotels, then I suggest you save your money and go to the Rocky's or Europe. Valle Nevado is a pretty good sized resort at 2,200 acres of skiable terrain. I would highly recommend a package deal where you purchase at least one extra day ticket at El Colorado and La Parva so you get the whole experience. Be advised, the El Colorado resort uses an electronic ticket system so you just put the ticket in your left pocket. DO NOT punch it or it WILL NOT work!!!! Unfortunately, there were no instructions given to us so we had a big hassle straitening this out. The La Parva tickets look like a ticket, but are actually a voucher so you have to ski down to the bottom to get a ticket for that day. Those tickets you punch and put on your coat. The biggest things Valle Nevado have going for it over the other resorts is that they do have one high speed lift and a gondola, plus a more developed base area. The lifts are not laid out in the most logical fashion so you have to take some slow ones sometime to get where you want to go. The upper mountain is only served by surface lifts, which can get really cold holding onto the steel bar. Although the lifts are pretty good, the quality of the lift operators were unbelievably poor bordering on negligent. I totally blame management as operating a lift is not a difficult job. The following are some specific examples: 1. Numerous people fell exiting the lift, they never stopped the lift. 2. One of or friends actually slid off the Andes Express lift right as it was taking off and almost got her head taken off by the skis. They never even stopped the lift or got out of the room to see if she was OK. 3. We probably took the Embalse double lift 20 times over the week and perhaps 3 or 4 times we had someone catch the chair and help make sure you get on straight. This is important as this chair swung wide all the time. 4. The operators or ticket personnel did not control the lines whatsoever and allowed chaotic cutting in line that does not occur in the USA. We tried not to let this bother us too much as the lines were not all that long, especially mid week. As far as the terrain, I would recommend that you be at least a strong intermediate skier capable of getting down a groomed Black run in the USA. The grooming was done nightly and they did a good job to make the best of the conditions. We got really lucky and got a nice 3-5 inch dump of powder mid week which really helped. Without that, the off-piste terrain was just too icy to be skiable. There are hardly any moguls and no trees at all. On the powder day, the off-piste was amazing because we had it all to ourselves and were skiing untracked powder until 3 pm. The lifts at El Colorado are not very good. The chair lifts are slower than the surface lifts, and unfortunately surface lifts take a lot out of you. The runs on the east face are pretty boring, but the big bowls on the west face are pretty spectacular, especially if you have good fresh snow. La Parva is the smallest of the resorts, but don't let that fool you. The lift operators were just as good as in the USA. Every lift has a map at the top and the bottom, which you do not find at the other resorts. The runs are really long and have interesting curves and rises, plus they are laid out in such as way as to minimize surface lifts. If you only go for a single day, this is the place to go. I'm only going to comment on the lunch food for Valle Nevado, since that is where we spent most of our time. The breakfast and dinner were included in our package, which I will review separately. The lunch is pretty much the same at every restaurant: burgers, pizzas, etc. I would rate it about a 4-6 on a scale of 1-10. Expect to spend 1.5 to 2 times what it would cost in the USA and just deal with it. It really, really helps to know at least a little Spanish as most of the servers do not speak English very well. There are some fresh crepe places that are a little better than the regular lunch. If you a Gluten Intolerant person like my wife, you will have a really hard time. She pretty much ate french fries and salad every day, and fortunately she brought some food with her.

4formershrink 5:00 PM Aug 23, 2004

Fantastic vacation skiing in the Andes
Valle Nevado is, by US standards, a medium-sized ski resort set in the spectacular setting of the Andes mountains, close to Santiago. The resort is quite popular with Americans and, unlike the other Tres Valles ski resorts, much of the staff speaks English. The resort makes snow on the main trails, where conditions are generally good, but not on the trails at the back of the resort, which have spectacular scenery.