For those of us dwelling in the Northern Hemisphere, the heat has been exhausting. So exhausting that we’ve recently been staring at Southern Hemisphere snow totals with pipe-dreams of a last minute escape to colder temps.
Related: The Unofficial Guide To Portillo, Chile
So far the snow season in the Southern Hemisphere has been split east-2-west. Currently Oceania (New Zealand & Australia) are hosting decent snow totals for this point in the season while South America got its first taste of winter this past week. Unfortunately, they need more and things are currently low-tide in the land of pisco, malbec, and carne (*See more below).
If the lottery is feeling generous today, we’d book our trip to Queenstown and hit up The Remarkables and Coronet Peak. That said, Portillo is making a late run with a 24hr total of 21″ just this past Thursday. As far as the Andes are concerned, things can turn around in a jiffy.
The Top 12 Deepest Snowpacks In The Southern Hemisphere [7/7/19]
(*Base depth totals drawn from each resort’s individual website)
- Mt Ruapehu [Turoa], New Zealand — 61″
- Remarkables, New Zealand — 45″
- Mt Lyford, New Zealand — 41″
- Ohau Snowfield, New Zealand — 39″
- Cardrona, New Zealand — 36″
- Mt Hutt, New Zealand — 35″
- Hamner Springs, New Zealand — 35″
- Valle Nevado, Chile — 35″
- Coronet Peak, New Zealand — 31″
- Treble Cone, New Zealand — 31″
- Perisher, Australia — 30″
- Thredo, Australia — 30″
- Falls Creek, Australia — 30″
- Charlotte Pass, Australia — 30″
Argentina/Chile Snow Report
It wasn’t the best early season in South American ski history but thanks to a late appearance by Ullr, the snow has returned to the slopes of the Andes this past week. Portillo and Valle Nevado (*included above) are easily offering up the best skiing in South America. Expect Argentina to get some more snow late into the week.
- Ski Portillo, Chile — 18-79″ (*UNOFFICIAL)
- Cerro Castor, Argentina — 24″
- Las Lenas — 22″
- Cerro Catedral — 17″
Also Read: TOP 10 Ski Resorts in South America