La Parva Ski Resort

The convenient location of some of the world’s best skiing to Chile’s capital city of Santiago might make you consider spending a winter here. Or at least skipping a week or two of your own summer when European and North American pros come down to the Andes to practice in the off-season. If you want to try to spy some US national ski team members, try July and August on the advanced slopes at La Parva, when they just might be training. 
La Parva has about 1,000 acres of terrain, and runs 14 different lifts, of quads, triples and doubles. It’s also one of the ski resorts that caters to the youngest children, starting from age 4, though some of the lessons for the youngest kids are inside. One thing that sets La Parva apart from other ski resorts is that people stay in private homes and condos here as opposed to hotels, which puts more of a family feel to it. Staying on the mountain will give you some of the best possible views of the twinkling lights of the Santiago’s night sky, both the stars above and the city below.
In summer of 2015 in La Parva, they’ll be making improvements to the snowmaking system, as well as changing out some of the ski lift motors. In December 2014, La Parva opened as an experienced downhill cyclist’s paradise, where you take the lift up and pedal back down, with about 2,700 feet of vertical drop.

Practical Info

La Parva is mainly a weekend destination, so if you dream of nearly no lines on fresh Andean powder come up here during the week in July, August or September.