Coupla times here we’ve blogged about the skiing in Chile, so why not do so again. After all, it is winter down
there right now, and the slopes are open and welcoming. Chile is one of my favorite countries in the world. I lived
there for a year some time ago and consider it one of the best times of my life. When winter rolled around, I took a
few trips down south of Santiago to do some skiing and found the raw open splendor of the Andes a terrific contrast to
the often over-crowded, over commercialized (and over-priced) resorts in the US.
This article in the
Globe and
Mail takes on two places in Chile. The first is an area that I confess I’d never heard of before. Called
Ski Arpa, this little area is owned by Toni Sponar, an Austrian skier who used
the money he’d saved working as a ski instructor in Aspen, Colo., to buy the property where his little resort now
stands. There are no lifts at Ski Arpa. You get up the mountain on two Sno-Cats that haul your a$$ uphill to wherever
you want to go. Talk about mobility.
The other place mentioned is Thermas de Chillan, which I
have skied. It’s a fine little area, perhaps not as well-developed as
Portillo or other places, but that’s the key to its charm.
There’s still time to buy your ticket and hit the slopes, so if you’re jonseing for some snow, check it out.