|
|
-Chile-
by Gaston
location info by José Astete
I was there a few years ago, when there was
no snow at any southamerican resort. It is usually packed with
tons of freshies. It´s hard to get there if you are riding in
Argentina cause the nearest town is Chillan city, about 80
kilometers (55 miles) from the resort, and only 3 miles from a
very important road. The nearest airport is Concepción, 200 km (
130 miles ) from the resort. The flight ticket from Concepcion to
Santiago, Chile´s capitol, is only u$s50.
The resort is small, it has only two chairlifts and a few pomas, but you can
get to ride a snowcat that takes you to the very top of a few
nice freeriding trails.
Sometimes, when it´s really packed, you can
make runs from the top to your own porch, 2 miles down the
road!!!… A few years ago there was such a dump that all the
roads to the mountain were closed!!!… so you could
ride like hell… but couldn’t buy a Coke!!!
There´s also a Volcano…
don´t worry it´s not active!, but you can still ride it. There
are two ways to do so… hiking or flying… Yeah!,
there´s a chopper that will take you on a heli-boarding
trip for about 45-60 bucks. This ride is awesome… and you
can end up at home too if the snow´s been good.
Lift tickets
are about $28 or so… I really don’t remember, but it´s
cheap and it gets really cheaper if you buy a week-pass. I rode
for free for about two weeks on hiking; it´s only a 15 min hike
and maybe a bottle of cheap liquor for the lift-guy… anyway,
it´s not a hard thing to do.
Lodging at the
resort’s base is quite expensive, but you can get cheap
rooms for 12-15 dollars a night only a mile down the road…
so you will have to walk or hitchhike every day. I was picked up
once by the ¨carabineros¨ (those are like militarized cops).
You will certainly find a good snowpark at Chillan, usually ran by
Canadians who know their job.
I don’t recommend it if you are riding Argentina cause it is difficult to get there, and if you are already riding Chile there are much better mountains… but if the southern hemisphere is having trouble on producing snow, then Termas de Chillan is the place to go!
If you do know other ski resorts well and you want to help me to make this page grow... just e-mail me to gassnow@yahoo.com whith the description and if posible some pics.