Ski Arpa -- Keeping it Real in Chile

Chile’s traditional ski resorts are selling out faster and faster every year and most now demand an obligatory 7-night stay – so it’s good to know that Chile’s newest ski center, Ski Arpa, still offers untracked powder, few people, and one-day or short-stay packages that include lodging in colonial towns that offer a more “Chilean” experience. Ski Arpa is South America’s only snowcat-serviced resort, with a maximum of 28 people and prices that are far easier on the wallet than heliskiing. Located near Los Andes and Portillo, about 2 hours from Santiago, Ski Arpa has spectacular views of Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, and 4,000 acres of outstanding advanced and expert terrain that is entirely above tree line.

To get here, visitors ride up in a 4x4 to Ski Arpa’s resort base Refugio Avalanchas, a shelter and café at 8,825 feet. The resort has two Snowcats that can reach heights of 12,500 feet for 3,000+ vertical feet per ride. Depending on group size, a full-day ticket for four rides starts at $115 plus guiding fees. Multiple-day packages include lodging at either a luxury spa resort in the foothills, a traditional 19th-century hacienda, or a 3-star local hotel on the plaza of Los Andes, and packages can include wine tasting at top vineyards such as Errázuriz. Packages, based on double occupancy, for 1 night lodging, 2 days cat skiing, roundtrip transportation and meals start at $642 per person.

Ski Arpa is owned by Austrian Toni Sponar, a ski pro who has spent decades working in Aspen and who purchased the land in the 1980s. It is a work of love, and a truly soulful place where the highest priority is placed on skiing and snowboarding in freedom, sharing the mountain only with good friends and like-minded skiers and snowboarders, and a few condors that soar overhead.

For more information, check out www.skiarpa.com, or call (802) 904-6798 in the U.S., or 244-2750 in Santiago.