Our own summer is struggling to take off, but the South American winter certainly isn’t: over the past 15 days, the entire Andes range between Chile and Argentina—home to 35 ski resorts spread across nearly 2,500 km of mountain range from north to south—has benefited from good snowfalls (up to 170 cm of snow between Portillo and Las Leñas) and a significant drop in temperatures, meaning that everywhere the season will be able to start right on schedule between June 7 and 22.
At El Colorado—one of the 3 resorts making up the largest ski area in the Southern Hemisphere, just above the metropolis of Santiago, Chile—the season already kicked off last Friday with the opening of nearly two-thirds of its skiable terrain and a great turnout of enthusiasts from the capital, while all the other resorts focused on slope grooming, aided by snowmaking capabilities.
Blizzard in Las Lenas | June 2013
In recent days there had been concern over violent tremors at the Copahue volcano in northernmost Patagonia, raising fears of an abrupt awakening followed by a potentially major eruption that would have jeopardized both the current and future ski seasons in Caviahue—a rapidly expanding resort set in a unique landscape of araucaria (monkey-puzzle tree) forests at the foot of the immense (and skiable) volcano. Just today, however, volcanologists lifted the highest alert level, restoring optimism among the evacuated residents as well.
These have also been days of anticipation for the operators of Cerro Castor in Ushuaia, the sea-level ski resort in Tierra del Fuego, albeit for very different reasons: right now, the FIS General Assembly meeting in Croatia is reviewing their bid to host a World Cup stop in 2014, which would fully establish the resort on the international stage—already the most sought-after summer training destination for all the major national ski teams.
Overall, industry operators’ forecasts are decidedly optimistic: for the past 10 years, the South American snow market has been growing steadily, driven by an impressive surge in Brazilian enthusiasts and supported by domestic markets untouched by economic crisis. There is no shortage of investments, expansion projects, generous sponsors, and an increasingly rich, international calendar of competitive, sporting, and social events: the enthusiasm feels just like ours did 30 years ago!
For interested Italian skiers, the highlight of the “temporada 2013” is undoubtedly the AISIM project, which aims to build a network of cooperation between Italy and Argentina on mountain themes and activities, drawing on the strong, enduring social and cultural ties between the two countries. One of the most important aspects of the project is tourism cooperation between Argentine ski resorts and—for now—those in Abruzzo, already formalized through several twinning agreements.
Thanks to these initiatives, this coming August it will be possible to join splendid itinerant group ski trips across the best Patagonian ski resorts, attending institutional events and visiting some of the most breathtaking scenic and cultural landmarks on the entire continent, such as the Continental Ice Sheet (Hielo Continental), Buenos Aires, and all the major Patagonian national parks. For competitive ski teams, training camps are organized in ideal settings under conditions that would otherwise be impossible to obtain.
For lovers of winter snow, now that our own extra-long winter has ended, it is hard to find anything better!
For more information on the South American ski season and holiday packages, we recommend visiting the website www.paolociotti.it
No comments yet