In Chile, the ski season heats up in summer

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As I peered out the window from my makeshift bunk across two airline seats, the snowy outlines of our destination began to emerge from the predawn grayness.

The Andes.

When it's hot in North America, it's cold in the southern half of the planet and in good years, the brown Andes Mountain peaks disappear under a quilting of snow. For the past two years, the stretch of Andes separating Chile and Argentina was frosted by a 4-foot snow base by late August.

Developed ski mountains in South America are relatively few and some are far from gateway cities. But for sheer adventure flavored by a different language and culture, South America is a mountaintop experience.

For our summer foray to winter, we decided on Valle Nevado, among South America's finest ski sites, and now that it is linked with its two neighbor resorts, part of the continent's largest ski mountain. (There are 41 runs and a vertical drop of 3,900 feet.)

Valle Nevado is about two hours' drive east from Santiago, Chile's capital. For those with a sturdy wallet, helicopter service is available right from Santiago's airport. That certainly will get you to the slopes faster, but you will miss the experience of a two-lane road with at least 100 switchbacks as it ascends almost 10,000 feet to the base of the ski area.

Guidebooks said police close the road when even a little bit of snow accumulates, a policy fully understood only when the visitor realizes how many stretches of the road are free of guardrails. A slide off the road would result in a fall that only a parachute could break.

Valle Nevado recently was stitched to its two neighbor ski resorts - La Parva and El Colorado. Valle got our vote as the best - long, wide and varied runs, all of them well-groomed. A lift pass for all three is about $40.

South America's ski season can begin in mid-June and sometimes extends to October. August often is the best month, so that's when we visited, planning our trip for late in the month to avoid winter school vacations and the crush of Chileans on weekends.

Valle's ski runs are above the tree line, making the mountain seem brawnier and almost lunar in the whiteness broken only by rocky cliffs where snow did not accumulate. The snow was granular with a minimum of crustiness and ice - not Utah-quality snow but decent.

One area of improvement needed: Slope signage is not the best and actual runs don't seem to precisely match the map.

Valle Nevado also has a piece of equipment that has disappeared from most American ski resorts - poma lifts. These contraptions consist of dinner-plate-sized disks tethered to a length of pipe connected to the lift cable. The disk part is placed between your legs and you lean back as if you were trying to sit down. Easy enough in theory but when the cable jerks you away from the base of the hill, it can feel like some of your body parts will stay behind. And if your skis slide out of the packed tracks going up the mountain, you have to ski back and try again.

And as with North American ski resorts, the growing number of aggressive snowboarders is starting to make traditional skiing look like a quaint activity.

But those problems are minor. Runs at the three resorts are varied, the vistas extend for 50 miles and the sky is that deep blue only witnessed at high elevations.

Go on a weekday when schools are in session and lift waits will be practically nonexistent. Moreover, you'll hear more languages among your fellow skiers than at the United Nations. Joining the reserved, polite Chileans are smartly clad Europeans, confident Argentines and boisterous Brazilians.

Learn the basics of Spanish before you go. Chileans will appreciate the effort you make and it will ease your communication travails.

As usual for me, my fractured Spanish became part of the adventure.

On a quad chair lift, we found ourselves with two young Chileans who said they attended a private school and were out of class for the day. Emboldened by my success in some basic conversation about educational matters, I inquired about how much snow had fallen in the past few days.

At least that's what I thought I had asked. But my question produced quizzical looks.

My son Jon leaned over to share the truth with me.

"Dad, you just asked them how many new skies had fallen."

I had used cielo (sky) instead of nieve (snow).

Oh.

Hotels and gear

If you're staying overnight, Valle has accommodations beginning at about $100 a night.

The hotels are clean, modern and - a bit lonely. There are no quaint shops, rustic streets or throbbing clubs. The Valle Nevado lodge and hotel complex is the only development at Valle.

Reservations can be made via the Internet and ski conditions at other South American resorts also can be checked via the Internet. Even factoring in the usual fibbing about snow conditions, the Internet sites are well-organized sources for information, much of it in English.

Regardless of conditions, rather than lugging skis, boots and poles to another continent, it's worth considering renting gear.

South American ski resorts have rental shops; we rented our gear from Skitotal in Santiago, which also operates van services to the mountains. Skitotal even rents one-piece ski suits so you also can leave your ski clothes at home.