Going to south america

Im from chile, if you need some help just pm me, and there are more people from chile here in ns that can help you too.
If you want to ski mostly powder and touring, i would say Patagonia and Chillan is the way to go. In Santiago we dont ussually get powder but if we get, we get big dumps (Santiago = El colorado, Valle Nevado, La Parva), but at the same time you are really near the capital, near the airport, easy and fast access to the resort and more places to stay.
Anyway near santiago you have Portillo (a ski resort really near the border with argentina that is a really nice resort with a beautiful view of a lake and really good snow) and you have El Arpa that is basically catskiing so if you would like to try that , you can. So basically you can stay in the capital and go shred any of those resorts and finding a place to stay is not hard at all since it is the capital.

Now if you choose going to the Patagonia, there are alot of resorts (smalls but resorts anyway) where they get powder ussually and you can get nice sidecountry/backcountry terrain, but at the same time it is harder to get there, a minimun of 5 hours by car to Chillan (not even patagonia) and probably like 8 to 10 hours by car to Osorno (One of the biggest cities near the Patagonia) from santiago, guessing you are arriving to the capital.
So then from osorno you have to keep driving and you can get to Antillanca, or you can go to Argentina and you can either go to Bariloche or San Martin de los Andes. Everybody would say those are the best resorts in south america, so consider youself lucky.

Everything i said it was based on you arriving to Santiago, but it could be different if you arrive to Argentina or you go to a southern city on Chile.
Again feel free to pm me if you need more help, or you if you didn´t understand something that i said.

One thing about South America

I guess I should have mentioned that I am going ALL summer, and I don't want to spend more then $1000 on a SEASONS pass. otherwise, thanks for the advice. Do you think it would be easy to find accommodation with a family if I was going to be there all summer? How much do you think they would want to charge me? I'm thinking about getting a van and living out of it anyway, because I kind of want to do some touring (ski wise) and touring (tourist wise). If I do end up living out of a van, I won't really need a place to stay, but I would still like to be close to a town, so which resort has the cheapest season passes, that is close to at least a small town? I read the list you posted, already. So I'll check those out, any other suggestions? resorts in chile or argentina are both fine.

Dont really know the prices of the seasons passes in the south of Chile or Argentina but if you dont wanna pay a grand on a season pass, dont ski in santiago, is fucking expensive. Stick to the south were you can get good snow and better prices, other resort is Las leñas in Argentina that is pretty big too.
For the price you wanna pay and what you want to do, i would say Antillanca is your choice, it is a small resort, shitty chairlifts and probably 2 tbars, but they have a big bc terrain and it is in the Patagonia so you will get good powder.
Anyway you shouldnt base your trip on my ideas, you should keep asking more people, maybe you should try getting a job somewhere so you dont have to pay for the season pass or whatever, and I am mostly talking about the resorts I know, so maybe there are more possibilities.

Some pictures of Antillanca Terrain.





this is what im talking about when i say small

Threads. I'm thinking of doing a similar thing at some point...

2. There's a pretty legit bus system in South America. Buying a car and then finding your way around may be tricky.

3. I would hit up Bolivia, very cool place. And if you've ever thought of doing yayo this is the place.

4. I met two people who found familias to live with for a bit, not sure how they went about it but it is possible.

So I am doing a similar thing this summer. I am getting down there in May as well and am planning on going to language school for 6 weeks first as I want to work down there (instructing). Staying with a family is part of the language school I am going to as it helps you learn the language if you are immersed in it.

As for season pass prices, I am really not sure, everywhere I look seems pretty pricey. Hopefully I will get one through work if I find some.

Thanks for the responses. So what towns are close to antillanca? How close are they? Does the South really get that much more snow? Any other resorts in the south that you would recommend? Steep Terrain is also pretty important to me. The more cliffs I can drop the better. Keep the advice coming guys!

hahaha

The town near Antillanca is Osorno (98 kms away), but i wouldn´t stay for more than 1 months there, it is really small.
Im just giving you the information because of how much you want to pay.
I dont know man, argentina could be a great option too, i dont know a lot about it but the biggest resorts there are Cerro Catedral (Bariloche), Chapelco (San Martin de los Andes and Las Leñas.
If you want to huck cliffs, tour and great night life, Santiago is a great option man, you should pay more for the pass.

Its now always true that the south gets more snow than in the central area, it allways varies from year to year.. (2009 was really good in the central areas and really shitty in the south, and in 2010 it was bad in the central area an really amasing in the south of chile.)

It really depends what you want to do, because if u are an all round skier that enjoys the park as much as POW, i would recomend Valle Nevado (next to santiago) or Bariloche in Argentina. These 2 resorts have really good mountains and the terrain is really fun.

Maybe the best resort as a mountain, like good vertial and all is Chillan, but if has shitty conditions it can be pretty boring cuz the park completly sucks.

Also im going to be up in valle nevado all season, so fell free to PM me.

and the best park in Chile is either
Valle Nevado: good jumps and good but few rails and boxes
Colorado: great rails and boxes but the terrain is to flat so jumps at shitty.
Parva: dosnt have a park, or at least they didnt have one last year.. but sick powder skiing
Portillo: they dont have a park and they are not going to have one.

the pass in Valle nevado cost like 1000 USD

and also like said above the night life in the central resorts is so much fun, parting is so cool

BTW how old are you? cuz the drinking age here is 18 so thats cool to know. not 21 like the US

You can probably find lots of information on TGR, try there if you havent yet.

Valle is flatter than colorado paul mentiroso.

what i mean is that the park in Colorado is comletly flat, too flat for jumps, landings are always too short

I hope you speak Spanish.

paul y switch_pow..you're all liars...

Antillanca sucks dude, cause for real, you get like 1 sunny day every 10 shitty days. Plus, the snow is so wet. Dont get me wrong, the south is amazingly beautiful, but if you want to make the most out of your trip, dont stay further south than Pucon.

And if you are looking for bc an dropping cliffs, get a seasons pass at colorado..you can ski Sta Tere, the fwt venue, or hike up anywhere really. Or just look for trail map for the three resorts and see what suits u better.

If you dont like this, take a look at las lenas en argentina.

Thanks again guys. So I have decided against the south and I'm looking towards central Chile, though Bariloche, and Las Lenas are still in the cards. Park isn't so important to me, though I would like to improve. The most I've done are some rainbow rails, double kinks, backflips, and 540s. Though, considering that the chart I have says that you only get about 20 feet (6 meters) of snow a year, I'll probably be getting a lot less powder days than at Snowbird, so I might want a place where I can ski the park when backcountry conditions kind of suck. How many days out of a month are good backcountry skiing on average?

So I actually did a little more research and realized some mistakes I made. so here is a new list:

Check your PM's

true true, i completly forgot about Santa Tere.

that sound like a really sick list, all of those resort are awesome.

its true what you say about Cerro Catedral and Chapelco, both those mountain are low and sometimes it rains in the lower part of the mountain and it really sucks...

but yeah i would recomend staying near a resort in santiago: la parva, colorado and valle nevado are like 1 hour from santiago (valle a little more).

and portillo is like 2 hours

So I've pretty much decided on staying in Santiago and and skiing Colorado, Parva, or Valle. So now i have a couple other questions.

whoops didnt mean to press enter. my other questions are: 1. how much will a van/car cost in santiago? i want to do some touring of SA so this is important to me. 2. how can i find a family to stay with in santiago? im 24 and will be 25 in june id this makes a difference. 3. since all 3 of those resorts are right next to each other, is there a pass that combines the three resorts?

1. a car depends how much, like if you wanna buy one i would recomend this website (http://www.chileautos.cl/chileautos.asp), i probably cost similar to cars in the states
2. i dont really know there is always somewhere to stay but i cant really help u out on that.
3. yeah there is a ticket that combines all three but its REALLY expencive.

I just said antillanca, because of the price of the pass, read the whole thing, i never said it was a good resort.

true, but still its not a resort to recomend...

I would go for a week or two to ski there, love antillanca.
But still, not for more than a month at much.