Goodbye Vail, So Long Aspen: This South American Region Is The New Hotspot For Skiing

When American skiers reach for the poles and salopettes each winter, the name Colorado looms as large as a Rocky Mountain glacier. Yep, stats show that the Centennial State hosted nearly 14 million winter sportsters in the 2024 to 2025 season alone, while the likes of Vail and Aspen's Snowmass are among the most lauded resorts in all of North America for 2026, according to Peakrankings.com. But what if we told you that there was a whole other haven for powder hounds in the Americas, where the prime skiing happens when it's peak summer in the United States, and where there's a whopping 5,000 acres of ski terrain to conquer? Cue Chile's Tres Valles.

Draped over the Andes to the east of the country's sprawling capital, this resort is formed from three separate ski towns, which combine to offer some of the very best terrain on the South American continent — huge acreage, great intermediate offerings, and hundreds of marked runs. On top of that, moves to join up lift access between the various sectors of the Tres Valles have made this one arguably a more tempting prospect than ever before.

The final kicker? This one's super-easy to access. Simply jet into the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport (SCL), the main international arrival point for all of Chile, and head east from there. In normal traffic, you should arrive at the foot of the pistes within the Tres Valles area in under 2 hours of drive time. There are also regular shuttles that make the trip from the metropolis to the mountain resort for those who don't have their own wheels.

The Tres Valles has long been established as one of the leading resorts in the Southern Hemisphere, but recent moves by U.S. firm Mountain Capital Partners (MCP), which currently owns a whole clutch of ski fields across Utah, New Mexico, and even Colorado, have set the Chilean ski world abuzz. There have even been reports that the three separate areas that constitute this Andean snow mecca will finally be lashed together in the same style as the European namesake resort of France's Les Trois Vallées, the largest ski area in the world.

It all began back in 2024, when MCP took major stakes in the ski fields of La Parva and Valle Nevado, giving them overall control over a majority of the Tres Valles terrain. After that, an expansion into the third and final arm of the valley, the beginner-friendly area of El Colorado, seemed the obvious move, though speculation — and the overall largest ski area in the Americas — ended when the Chilean Fiscalía Nacional Económica (FNE) raised competition concerns.

Nonetheless, MCP's takeover of just a portion of the Tres Valles has allowed them to develop something the region hasn't seen before: A shared lift pass. It's known as the Power Pass, and it allows for 10 days of interconnected skiing between the two MCP-run resorts. Just remember that you'll need to bag a separate pass to ski the area of El Colorado.

Just as the name implies, Chile's Tres Valles is made up of three quite distinct ski areas. Valle Nevado is the biggest of the bunch, offering close to 2,000 acres of skiable country on a mountain that's well-rated for its overall snow quality (though perhaps still not quite as snow-sure as Colorado's Vail, named the most resilient ski resort worldwide). Skimag.com recently profiled the area, and waxed lyrical about the professional grooming and the unbounded nature of the terrain, though it did point out that there's a bit of a reliance on awkward drag lifts.

For your taste of glitzy ski vacationing a la the premier Italian town of Cortina d'Ampezzo or the glam mountain of Gstaad in Switzerland, turn your sights to La Parva. It's seen as the more monied, jet-setter corner of Tres Valles, and clocks up its own nigh-on 2,000 acres of terrain across over 40 marked slopes.

The final feather in the proverbial cap is El Colorado, the closest of the three areas to the big city of Santiago. It really shines for learners, since there are easy-access nursery slopes right there at the base of the main mountain. Oh, and tricksters, listen up: this location hosts the biggest snow park in South America, with ramps, rails, and all sorts to get stuck into.