I owe this sub an apology as I took a great trip out to SLT this season and haven't had a chance to write about it yet. I'm putting together an edit of my trip, but that's even farther out. So, I started out with a couple of days at Vail and Keystone. Vail was an utter disaster in early January, so we decided to go to Keystone for day 2 instead and it was much better. It was my first real day of the season, so I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest extent. Really, these two days were about getting my wife to enjoy her first ski experience of her life. Vail almost ruined it for me (she loved the Village though obviously), but Keystone was a total 180 and saved hope for future family vacations.
Next, my crew headed to Kirkwood for 4 days. I've never quite experienced conditions like those. There was tons of precipitation (1-2 inches by most calculations IIRC), but with temps hovering right at freezing, the base was soaking wet. The peak was awesome and I took on The Wall several times. Kirkwood is a crazy mountain with not the best tree skiing but the cliffs were amazing, and I'm not typically the cliff jumping type. At Kirkwood though, there's not much of a choice as the best terrain involves hucking a variety of challenging cliffs (most of the 5-10 feet variety). Kirkwood is definitely a locals mountain though and the infrastructure could really use a boost. Can't have it all I guess.
After that, we spent the weekend taking on Heavenly. Sadly, the backside bowls were closed and conditions were very spring like. Conditions also kept a lot of traverses and trails closed, so getting around the mountain was agonizingly confusing. We had multiple team meetup points blown because you thought you were on track to arrive on time only to have the map flipped on you completely with closed trails. Nevertheless, Heavenly was a good time with lots of good apres.
BUT! The reason I'm posting now is I've got the itch to travel to South America and take on Chile/Argentina. Has anyone had any experience there? My family is from Argentina, so I started looking there first, but it seems like some of the Chilean mountains are a lot easier logistically. My understanding is that there are several excellent mountains 2-3 hours away by car from Santiago (namely the Parvo/Colorado/Valle Nevado trifecta). Whereas to get to Las Lenas or Bariloche in Argentina, you almost certainly have to take a flight from Buenos Aires to Malargue and still drive to Bariloche. If you have been there, can you please fill me in what logistics was like in terms of safety, convenience, price, etc. How long did it take to get from Santiago to the mountains? Also, I'd be curious about accommodations there (ritzy resort or hostels or both?) and nightlife. Cost of food. TIA!!