We visited Valle Nevado, at the last minute, in late September 2026. We had always wanted to ski South America but were put off by the restrictive packages and high prices. Historic late season snowfalls in 2026, saw Valle Nevado’s season extended by nearly three weeks to October 18. So, the shoulder season when prices and package restrictions drop, was twice as long as usual.
Most Chilean ski resorts operate under an all-inclusive holiday model that includes meals, lift tickets, ski rental and accommodation. During peak season you have to stay either three nights Tuesday-Friday or Friday-Tuesday, or seven nights Friday-Friday. In the shoulder season you have a lot more options. We were able to get an apartment with our own kitchen, use our Ikon pass for skiing and bring our skis – which made the trip to Valle Nevado a lot more affordable and inviting.
Getting to Valle Nevado
We flew direct from Sydney to Santiago – a very comfortable 12 hours, so that part was easy. We booked a van to pick us up from the airport and take us up to our apartment in Vale Nevado as we’d heard that the road can be treacherous. We normally hire a car and drive ourselves but research mentioned over 60 hairpin bends which persuaded us to go with a shuttle service. Our driver communicated via WhatsApp where to meet and happily stopped at a Supermercado for us to buy groceries on the way up.
Valle Nevado is only 46 kilometres from Santiago – a city of 6 million which sits at sea level. So it was hard to imagine it was going to take us 1.5 hours to get to the ski resort. That was until we got on to the notorious Camino a Farellones (Route G-21). This road makes the Matterhorn at Disneyland look like child’s play. The narrow road zig zags through the steep Cajón del Mapocho (Mapocho River canyon) then as you pass the little white La Ermita Chapel perched on a rocky outcrop, it switches to the , Cajón del Río Molina (Molina River canyon). This is where the hairpins ramp up, relentlessly, one after another after another. The road is so narrow in many parts that vans must pull over to let each other pass. In the peak of winter, after a snowfall, the road is only open one way up in the morning and one way down in the afternoon. Despite the narrow road and the sheer drop offs, we saw lots of cyclists, a few wild horses munching on grass around a bend, and a local cowboy clip clopping down the road with his four scruffy dogs. Plus, a lot of flowers and crosses marking where people had not survived the drive!
Valle Nevado Village
We arrived at Valle Nevado village (more like an accommodation hub), perched high in the Andes in the late afternoon and were surprised to see the ski lifts still turning at 5pm. Chile went on Daylight Savings a few weeks earlier and the sun didn’t set until 7.40. This high-altitude ski resort was founded in 1988 by French entrepreneurs looking to recreate a European alpine village like Les Arcs or Tignes. They didn’t quite get there as the village is more like a collection of high-rise condo style hotels, with a big carpark in the middle. Each of the Condo blocks have stupendous views out to the endless Andes or, like us, across the car park to the ski mountain and the setting sun (and full moon while we were there). Because the valley faces directly south/southwest, the sunsets (and sun rise) are spectacular. The Andes act as a natural amphitheatre and the peaks glow in all directions and hues from intense pink, purple, and gold at night then powder blue, mauve and lemon as the sun rises. On our second night we saw the golden full moon set behind the peaks as the sky turned pastel pinks and blue with the rising sun. Magnificent!
The “village” centres around Hotel Valle Nevado which has Valle Lounge, a casual lunch and après ski lounge with a a big outdoor panoramic terrace overlooking the Andean peaks. We enjoyed a Pisco Sour, Sangria and mozzarella sticks there for an après ski treat one day. Hotel Valle Nevado also has the famous La Fourchette restaurant which apparently comes alive on sunny winter weekends, when the outdoor deck transforms into a traditional Chilean wood-fired BBQ buffet. It is a local tradition for skiers to take a relaxed, two-hour lunch munching on Costillar de cerdo (pork ribs,) and Lomo Liso (Striploin) as they soak up the sun. In late spring, the restaurant was only open for dinner, so we missed this spectacle!
Hotel Vale Nevado also has the resort’s main fitness centre, spa, and heated circular outdoor pool area. In high season they apparently have DJs and people soak in the pool with cocktails after skiing. It wasn’t busy when we visited in late spring with just a few people in the pool. Scattered around the hotel are several retail stores selling ski wear, a hole in the wall Newsagent selling papers, drinks and lollies, a café called Havana (which we never saw open) and a money exchange (of all things!).
Theres two other major hotels next to and just behind the Hotel Valle Nevado – Hotel Puerta del Sol (a more family-oriented 4-star hotel) and Hotel Tres Puntas (a budget/youth-oriented 3-star property). Hotel Puerto del Sol has two restaurants open to the public: Mirador del Plomoan international buffet-style restaurant with live cooking stations where chefs prepare custom pasta, steaks, and seafood to order. And Zuki Nikkei a Japanese -Peruvian fusion restaurant which sits in the hotel lobby area. We dined there one night and found the food a rather stodgy version of the light Japanese cuisine we know in Australia.
Hotel Tres Puntas is the nightlife capital of Valle Nevado. Only problem was that this hotel was right next door to our condo block. On the top floor of the hotel is a pub opens which opens late afternoon for après-ski drinks and transitions into a full nightlife venue with pool tables, karaoke, live music, a DJ, and a dance floor that keeps going until 2:00 AM. I knew exactly when the DJ set finished every morning and pity those who were staying in the hotel. There is a restaurant on the first floor called Restaurant which serves local Chilean cuisine and à la carte dining. We never visited but heard it was good.
Valle Nevado snow, pistes and runs
The name “Valle Nevado”, in English means “snow-capped valley”, which is a quite apt as it gets on average 5 metres of snow a year. The huge amount of snow might be a blessing for powder hounds but it does cause its fair share of issues – starting with its official grand opening which was mooted for June 1987 until a massive blizzard buried the ski lift towers entirely, forcing developers to delay the official opening until June 1988. And in July this year (2026) A massive blizzard hammered the central Andes, dropping an incredible 3 meters of snow on the resort in a single day. The road was closed for three days, and you can see steel storage sheds, some steps and pathways were warped by the heavy load. The good outcome was that the resort extended its season by three weeks and we got to visit!
Valle Nevado’s base location is 2,860m and the highest run (Tres Puntas) is 3,670m above sea level. This is the highest base elevation in the Southern Hemisphere. We felt the elevation as soon as we arrived and just unpacking our gear and taking it up to our apartment left us breathless.
Valle Nevado features 44 trails served by 17 lifts, and a mix 14% beginner, 25% intermediate, 41% advanced, and 20% expert. There are a lot of platter lifts – pomas and t-bars due to the high winds and also high snow! In 2024, Valle Nevado was purchased by the neighbouring resort, La Parva. This mega-merger officially joined Valle Nevado with La Parva and El Colorado to create the “Tres Valles” (Three Valleys). Together, terrain spans over 7,000 skiable acres, making it larger than Vail and one of the largest interconnected ski areas in the world.
When we skied at Valle Nevado in Spring, we found a series of giant rolling open bowls covered in freeze/thaw and some corn snow. The treeline here stops at around 1500 metres due to the lack of moisture, and cold winds. So, there’s no tree skiing like in North America (where the treeline stops at 3500 metres). The good thing about this is that on a clear day you have stupendous views over the Andean Mountain peaks – which were the conditions we enjoyed for our first two days. But on our third day a thick white cloud mass rolled in mid-morning, and we found ourselves in the thickest whiteout of our lives. The white sky perfectly mirrored the white snow, and you couldn’t even see the bamboo poles marking the trails and we didn’t see the Peligro No Pasar (Danger do not pass) signs until we were on top of them. Trying to keep away from the edges that plunged into the valley became our priority and we searched for a trail down but found ourselves staring at a flag saying Solo Expertos instead. We gingerly snow ploughed our way to safety and called it a day!
I imagine that with fresh snow that Valle Nevado would be a dream. The wide groomers, good mix of steeps, and backcountry-style off-piste routes, would have us whooping all day long. We still enjoyed the long blue groomers off Mirador and the backside trail towards the Sol sector. I loved the Red trails off The Andes Express – and I really liked the pomas for getting around particularly when windy. Jamie enjoyed the black and double-black runs in the Tres Puntas area, the highest elevation point at 3670 m, as this area has wide-open bowls and his favourite Shake (Black Diamond run that is occasionally groomed, so Jamie could do his high-speed carving turns down a steep pitch. I preferred the other side – Vals (Red Triangle) a long, rolling advanced cruiser with an incredibly scenic ridgeline.
After we left Valle Nevado they had another 135cms of snow. And it was still falling the day before they shut the resort on October 18! The Super El Nino created a season I doubt we’ll ever see quite the likes of again.
Want more? You can watch our video on Valle Nevado and our Atacama desert trip here.
