Valle Nevado

Valle Nevado: reviews

• Mike Sweeney (27 August 2007)

  Peter Smith and I spent eight days in Valle Nevado, Chile at the beginning of August 2007. We arrived at this very high, purpose built resort just after lunch on the Monday afternoon and immediately hired skis (our own had been left in Madrid) to enjoy a few runs in the bright sunshine.

  There are three Hotels in the resort and we were in Hotel Tres Puntas. Although the buffet breakfasts were really excellent, the rooms were definitely more "French" than "American" in size and the walls were paper thin. Our Hotel also boasted a Disco on the top floor which operated until 2pm every morning!

  The Hotel was linked to the Hotel Puerta del Sol and its three Restaurants so, on a half board basis at our Hotel, we were able to book our evening meal in any of four different restaurants. Almost everything in the resort could be charged back to your room which was a great convenience. The Chilean staff were delightful.

  The following day we found out that the two other adjacent resorts - El Colorado and La Parva - were not really linked at all with Valle Nevado. Not only did you require a separate Lift Pass for each (£17 per day at El Colorado and £12 a day at La Parva) the physical links were just not in place properly. Coming back from El Colorado to Valle Nevado required a walk, a long traverse and an un-pisted run back into our resort.

  All three resorts are way above the treeline and if the weather deteriorates there is nowhere to hide. The pistes are well groomed but the tops of some of the runs were very exposed to the wind and did not stay long in good condition. On our second afternoon - again in glorious sunshine - we found the Olympic Bowl. This bowl is not shown at all on the piste map but can be reached from the top of the Andes Express Lift by following the path round to the left and around the back of the mountain. As advanced skiers, finding this bowl was a huge bonus!

  The next two days were spent in our Hotel, reading books and playing Pool - it snowed for 48 hours and with absolutely no definition out on the mountain we were not going to venture forth! The limitations of a small, purpose built resort quickly became apparent - almost nowhere to go to pass the time.

  The fifth day (Friday) was a fantastic powder day - the slopes were very quiet and we were skiing in powder all day long.

  Saturday was again blue sky and sunshine and we went heli-skiing with the local heliski operator. The American in charge runs a very professional operation. We paid $600 for the morning and had two long, great runs.

  The final day and a half were something of an anti-climax. The wind blew strongly and the snow deteriorated quickly. The pistes became pretty hard and un-interesting while even the Olympic Bowl became hard-packed.

  We spent our last night in Chile in downtown Santiago - worth a visit - and found an excellent restaurant where we rounded off a very interesting adventure with steak and red wine

  This is the opinion of a skiclub.co.uk visitor, not the Ski Club of Great Britain.
• Nacho Veloso (02 September 2004)

  Spent a day skiing in Valle Nevado in late August 2004. It was quite comparable to a medium sized European resort, including lift pass prices. The runs were pretty well maintained and the variety was good, although some of the black rated runs were a bit optimistic. The weather was gorgeous - sunny and mild - which is part of the problem here. The snow was wet in some places, which coupled with the fact that the tops of the mountains get a lot of the snow blown off them by wind, meant that the tops of some of the upper runs were dire. And all this only 5 days after a big dump of snow. Skiing in Chile is quite weather dependent and talking to locals, the season is shorter than one is led to believe - good snow cover rarely appears befor July and by mid August you are nearly in spring conditions. Still, its a good way of combining skiing as part of a wider holiday, just be ready to hit the slopes after fresh snow and avoid weekends if at all possible. A great resort in southern Chile is Pucon, where you can ski the Villarrica volcano. There are about ten shortish runs, but the view of various lakes from the (smoking) volcano is what makes it worthwhile. This resort also suffers from weather problems - annoyingly, beautifully clear days are often accompanied by strong winds which close the pistes (I could only ski 1 of 5 days there). However, there are loads of outdoor activities in the area to keep you otherwise entertained (rafting, horseriding, trekking, hot springs to name a few) while you wait for the weather to change.

  This is the opinion of a skiclub.co.uk visitor, not the Ski Club of Great Britain.
• A G Miller (22 December 2003)

  You say that Valle Nevado is the nearest major ski slopes to a capital. In Teheran the lifts start in the city itself. Presumably you do not count it as major slopes.

  This is the opinion of a skiclub.co.uk visitor, not the Ski Club of Great Britain.

• Temperature Map
• Holidays To Resort