Portillo, Chile


Portillo is a ski resort in South America, located in the Andes mountains of Chile. In the Valparaíso Region, it is near the city of Los Andes, and by vehicle from Santiago. Its hotel sits at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest lift reaches. The lowest lift loads at, yielding a vertical drop of. Ski Portillo has 35 named runs and 14 lifts. It is owned and operated by the Purcell family who have a chain of hotels in Chile, most noticeably the including in San Pedro de Atacama.
Plans to build the ski area were drawn up in the 1930s. Construction began in 1942 and the ski area was opened in 1949. Several of the ski lifts on the west side of the valley were destroyed by avalanches in 1965 and were rebuilt in time for Portillo to host the Alpine World Ski Championships in August 1966. Those championships marked the emergence of Jean-Claude Killy, who won gold medals in the downhill and combined events. Portillo has since become one of the principal destinations for ski racers to train during the northern hemisphere summer and hosts the national ski teams of Austria, Italy, and the United States.
The summit of the mountain climbs to. Nearby peaks include Los Tres Hermanos at and La Paraya at. Aconcagua, the highest peak in the western and southern hemispheres, is nearby at, which exceeds any peak in Europe, Africa, and North America; only the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Tien Shan in Asia are higher.

Location

Portillo lies close to the border between Chile and Argentina at Paso Los Libertadores.

Season

The ski season at Portillo typically runs from mid-June to early-October, conditions permitting.