Traditionally you have great spring skiing at the three resorts outside Santiago (La Parva, Valle Nevado, El Colorado) and Portillo with their high altitudes of 2700m to 3600m. You ski in above zero temperatures with fascinating Andean "corn" snow.

Why do I say fascinating?

When we skiers hear about spring skiing in above zero temperatures we automatically think frozen snow in the mornings and heavy slush in the afternnoons with a small window of an hour, maybe two if you're lucky, where the snow is skiable and good fun.

However in Chile the high Andean snow is of such a different nature that it always surprises.  It is a dry snow that cannot be compared to the dry snow of such places as the Canadian Rockies or Utah.  It's dryness is such that it does not perform the way you would expect at temperatures above zero. It stays playful and does not get heavy or sloppy.

Another factor is that the snow falls as a very fine particle which compacts and forms a dense base so that in the spring the groomed runs stay firm and do not get soft and heavy.  In +5C weather you are skiing on groomed runs with playful carving snow and the window for this great snow is most of the day. It might be a little firm first thing in the morning skiing like firm winter hard pack. Then it quickly turns into grippy winter snow lasting until midday.  As it continues to soften in the afternoon, it becomes a playful soft spring snow on top of a very solid base that does not give way to heavy slushy snow were carving at speed is hazardous to your health.

The only thing spring-like about the experience is the clear blue skis, warm temeratures and no toque (Canadian for wooly hat).  Under foot you are ripping it up like any other great ski day in the middle of the season.

Not to blow my horn about the great snow in the Andes, but it got even better yesterday while I was up at El Colorado...

Four days ealier the temperatures dropped much cooler than can be expected for the end of September as a large front came in.  In Santiago it was literally the coldest day of the year!  And the front brought big percipiation.  It dumped 50cm up at the the ski resorts!  And the temperatures were so cold there was snow in the higher parts of Santiago.  This is a rare occurance in Santiago and happens maybe once a year in the winter, not the spring.

I arrived at El Colorado and there was not a cloud in the sky and everything was a brilliant white with the new snow of 3 days ago. Knowing there had been the large dump with very cold temperatures, I had a feeling I might be in for a completely differnt Chilean spring day.  I warmed up on the front groomers and the snow was as I previously describerd - great carving on winter like snow.

I met up with a couple of instructors visiting from Termas de Chillan, Monica from the Czech Republic and Rene from Chile. We skied over to a lift called Cornisa where the complete face is southward facing. In South America this means no direct sunlight all day.  And there it was - 50 cm of somewhat chopped powder right next to the lift.  It was dry winter snow on a sunny spring day with ambient temperatures above zero!  Unheard of where I'm from(Canadian Rockies).

We skied a few laps of chopped powder still not believing it was the end of September.  As we were riding the lift I had my eye on an area you could see plainly from the lift as it was just a couple hundred metres over.  It looked fresh but with some small ridges and what looked like old choppped powder with snow blown in.

I knew from experience this could possibly deliver a great run.  Monica and Rene had their doubts thinking the ridges and lumps were hard or even frozen as all of us would think in the srping.  But this was high Andean snow, on a south aspect, at 3300m, that fell during very cold temperatures.  Therefore it must be all soft I kept telling myself. Therfore I said I would go first for the obvious reasons, first tracks or... no, I wasn't going to entertain those thoughts.

I dropped in and it was magic!  Sweet soft powder up past mid -calf all the way.  The ridges were soft dry snow that had no effect as they just blew apart as I went through them.  Needless to say we eagerly skied this area getting fresh each run until our legs were done.  You must remember as well,  this snow was still untouched 3 days after the storm, just 200m from the lift, and visible from the lift!  Only in Chile!

I returned to Santiago to be greeted by +23C temperatures, a nice summer's day and had dinner on a patio.  Not the usual finish to a powder day and not the usual spring ski day.

Gerry