(Farellones) In the Chilean Andes, ski resorts near Santiago were struggling with a chronic shortage of snow, but rains and unseasonably cold weather in the southern hemisphere have blanketed the mountains with a thick blanket of snow, promising a bumper season.
For 10 years, the Chilean capital had become accustomed to a lack of rainfall, reducing to almost nothing the falls of white gold on the high massifs surrounding it, to the great dismay of the ski resorts barely an hour from Santiago: La Parva, Farellones, Valle Nevado and El Colorado.
But this 2024 season allowed the areas to open almost 50 days in advance, as at Parva which welcomed skiers from May 31, compared to July 5 in 2023.
PHOTO RODRIGO ARANGUA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Skiers at the Farellones ski center
The cause: rain, but above all a cold snap from Antarctica which caused temperature records in neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay and covered the Andes mountain range around Santiago with more than two metres of snow.
The low temperatures in May, the coldest at this time of year in the last 70 years, are the result of “the weakening of the Antarctic polar vortex that keeps cold air at the pole” and allows its icy winds to rise, Raul Cordero, a climate change specialist, told AFP.
Although he considers this event rare, he states that it is not linked to global warming, which on the contrary tends to “strengthen the polar vortex in the southern hemisphere.”
“Never so early”
“We’ve had seasons with a lot of snow before, but never like this one where we were able to start so early,” Victor Gonzalez, marketing manager at La Parva, at an altitude of 2,800 metres, told AFP. “And with this amount of snow, I would dare say that this is one of the best seasons in 10 years.”
These early openings allow for a greater influx of tourists.
Valle Nevado has already received 60% of the 90,000 visitors counted during good seasons.
Farellones has already welcomed 170,000 tourists, mainly Brazilians, and is expecting another 80,000 before it closes at the end of the southern winter in mid-September. “A normal season is 60 to 90 days. This season, given the amount of snow that fell in May, we are counting on 100 to 120 days,” rejoices Felipe Gomez, deputy director of the station.
Ronei Ferreira, a 40-year-old Brazilian tourist who knows the resorts of the Argentine mountain range, is pleased that around Santiago “it is higher, there is more snow, and the view is even more beautiful.”
Adriana Ribeiro, a 27-year-old Brazilian, touches snow for the first time and fulfills “a childhood dream”.
Although this level of snowfall is unusual, the ski resorts around Santiago are attracting interest from foreign investors.
PHOTO RODRIGO ARANGUA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Tourists are numerous at the Farellones ski center
In 2023, Mountain Capital Partners (MCP), an American company that has been operating ski resorts in the United States for 20 years, acquired Valle Nevado and this year took control of La Parva.
“It is the most important winter destination with the best snow in the southern hemisphere,” said Ricardo Margulis, general manager of Valle Nevado, in a statement.
According to the Chilean Ski Resorts Association, the country’s 12 ski resorts received 867,277 tourists in 2023, generating more than 3,000 direct jobs.