Valle Nevado (''Snowy Valley'' in the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...

) is a ski resort located on the El Plomo foothills in the

Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, at 46 km to the east of

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, the capital of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Founded in 1988 by French entrepreneurs, it includes housing facilities along with around 900

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

of skiing area.

History

The construction of the site began in 1987 and was completed the following year. This French-Chilean project was inspired by similar European resorts, especially

Les Arcs Les Arcs () is a ski resort located in Savoie, France, in the Tarentaise Valley town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Initially created by Robert Blanc and Roger Godino, it is a part of the huge Paradiski system which is under ownership by Compagnie de ...

in France. In 2001 the resort opened the first

detachable chairlift A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope (called a ''haul rope'') that is strung between two (or ...

in the region, gaining a significant advantage on its competitors. From 2008 to 2010 important building projects have been realised in order to offer more housing to the tourists. One of the biggest among these projects is the construction of two buildings named Valle de los Condores. The last year also sees the installation of additional chairlifts and a ski lift, and the opening of several new slopes.
Valle Nevado Ski Resort
ref> opened the first mountain cable car in Chile in 2013.

Geography

Climate

Due to its elevation, Valle Nevado has an

Alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of ...

(''Dsc'', according to the Köppen climate classification, bordering on ''Csc'' and ''ET''), with a

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

characteristic (dry summers) and an average annual precipitation of . Summers are chilly and dry, while winters are cold and

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

y. File:Top Andes express lift.jpg, Top of Andes Express detachable chairlift File:Valle nevado gondola.jpg, Valle Nevado Gondola File:Valle nevado eclipse run.jpg, Valle Nevado eclipse run

References

External links

{{coord, -33.356687, -70.249468, display=title Ski areas and resorts in Chile