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Summertime shred: Six South American ski trips that make yearlong winter a reality

Featured Image: Ben Girardi/SASS Global Travel

Summertime shred: Six South American ski trips that make yearlong winter a reality

evoTrip: Las Trancas, Chile

When: Aug. 5-12, Aug. 12-19

summer skiing
Bryce Phillips at Nevados De Chillan. Photo:Adam Clark

Evo takes “experiential retail” to a new level with its evoTrip program, which offers small-group adventure trips all over the world. The seven-day Las Trancas trip begins in Santiago and includes lodging at the RocaNegra Mountain Lodge & Spa, food, lift tickets and airport transfers. While the dirt road to the lodge may be best-suited for goats—and you’ll see plenty of those—you’ll arrive to a home-cooked meal, local wine, micheladasand hot tubs out back. Wake up each day to plunder the glittering slopes of Nevados de Chillan, which boasts the longest run in South America and the biggest vert in Chile. Ski with the group or go rogue each day, with options to hire a backcountry guide to tour up the volcanoes, book a cat trip ($60) or buy some heli drops (three for $500). Other diversions include waterfalls, natural hot springs and local vineyards.

Sled Chile

When: July 22–27, July 29–Aug. 3, Aug. 5–10, Aug. 19–24, Aug. 26–31, Sept. 2-7

Photo: Courtesy of SledChile

Sled Chile is a carnivorous powder addict’s dream. Slay fresh Chilean blower off of a snowmachine by day, and eat grilled asado beef and lamb by night. Perched in an auraucaria forest beneath Volcan Lonqumay outside of Temuco, Sled Chile is the only sled-ski op in Chile, and it’s run by pro snowboarders Skylar Holgate and Chris Coulter. Trips include six nights of lodging and food with four days of sled skiing. The lodge is cozy—including a wood-fired, stacked-stone hot tub out back—and on the basic side of the luxury spectrum, but after shredding massive couloirs or lapping mini-golf zones all day, you’re not going to care about whether or not there’s a mint on your pillow at night.

PowderQuest: Summer Snow Escape Off Piste, Chile

When: July 20–26, July 29–Aug. 4, Aug. 17–23

Mmm, what a tasty couloir. Photo: Maxi Artoni

When the lift-served, hike-able pow abounds, there’s no need to spend your days sweating on the skin track. PowderQuest is named after what they’re known for—getting eight lucky participants into the deepest lift-served snow in Valle Nevado, La Parva, Colorado, Portillo and Arpa—the only cat-skiing op in Chile. PowderQuest has been operating trips in South America since 1999. Includes lodging at boutique hotels, two certified guides, food and wine.

evoTrip: San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

When: Aug. 19-26

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bir_-jSgEFg/?utm_source=ig_embed#

Get fresh lines all the way to the frozen Nahuel Huapi glacial lake by day, and dine at quaint refugios and five-star restaurants in Bariloche by night. This evoTrip includes a week of slopeside lodging, food, domestic flights, two days of guided skiing and five lift tickets to Cerro Catedral, South America’s largest ski resort. Set in the foothills of the Andes and inside the Nahuel Huapi National Park, Cerro Catedral is named after its church-like granite spires. Its 3,000 acres of terrain and 3,773 vert is riddled with couloirs, cliffs, tree, and bowls—all of it choked with pow. A guide will show you to the best zones during the first two days (and save you from bushwhacking back to the lift).

Casa Tours: High Andes Adventure, Chile

When: Aug. 6–Aug. 12

Bluebird skies and pow, doesn’t get much better in the summer. Photo: Courtesy CasaTours

This is a grab bag of lift-served, cat and backcountry skiing at five resorts in seven days. Starting from the Santiago airport, Casa Tours kicks off at Portillo, home of the famed Super C couloir, the Roca Jack lift and Tio Bob’s. On days three and four, the group moves to cat-ski in the shadow of Anoncagua—the highest peak in the Americas—at Valle El Arpa, where the drive itself is an epic adventure. Next up is Tres Valles—comprised of Valle Nevado, La Parva and El Colorado—all accessible from the base village of Farellones. The trip includes lodging, dining, lift tickets, cat skiing and guide fees.

SASS Global Travel: San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

Those views, tho… Photo: Ben Girardi

SASS has been operating in Argentina for 15 years and has designed this trip to Cerro de Catedral as a progression platform for skiers who want backcountry experience and avalanche awareness. SASS’s groups have a maximum client/guide ratio of five to one, which keeps groups nimble and categorized by ability level, and the lodge is within walking distance of the gondola at Catedral. Guests will have access to the entire lodge and an indoor/outdoor hot tub. Trip includes food, lodging, lift tickets, daily guiding and backcountry coaching, avalanche awareness program and Folsom demo skis.

 

Posted from FreeSkier