Portillo

Portillo sits at 2,880 metres beside the Laguna del Inca on the road to the Argentine border, and it is one of the oldest ski resorts in South America - the hotel dates from 1949 and there is essentially nothing else there, no village and no other accommodation, so the resort operates on weekly packages. It held the first world alpine skiing championships in the southern hemisphere in 1966, and the Kilometro Lanzado slope above it was used through the 1960s and 1970s for world speed skiing records, with several set on it. Northern hemisphere national teams train here in their summer.

History

Portillo began in 1908 as a station on the Transandine Railway, then under construction, and a few years after the line opened in 1910 skiers began using it. Plans for a ski area were drawn up in the 1930s, building started in 1942 and the resort opened in 1949; avalanches destroyed several lifts in 1965, they were rebuilt in time for the Alpine World Ski Championships of August 1966, where Jean-Claude Killy won the downhill and the combined, and national teams from the northern hemisphere have trained here in their summers since (Wikipedia, Portillo, Chile).

What you'll find

• A yellow hotel alone at 2,880 metres - no village around it.
• The Laguna del Inca below - frozen through the season.
• World championships in 1966 - the first in the southern hemisphere.
• A speed record slope - the Kilometro Lanzado above the resort.

When to go

June to September. Several days, since it sells by the week.

Things to know

Accommodation is essentially the hotel and it sells weekly packages - dropping in is not the model, though day tickets exist. The road can close in storms, stranding people. There is nothing else to do at 2,880 metres if the weather shuts the mountain.

Nearby

The Cristo Redentor pass to Argentina is above; Los Andes is down the valley.

Key facts