Review of Termas de Chillan aka Nevados de Chillan

Regular readers: please excuse this interruption to our regular round-the-world programming. If you're not planning on skiing or snowbarding in South America, please ignore this post. If you're looking for options for some Southern Hemisphere skiing, however, please read this warning about Nevados de Chillan aka Termas de Chillan!

Normally we wouldn't be so outspoken about a resort, but our week in Nevados de Chillan was expensive and also disappointing. Although our hotel staff looked after us well and we enjoyed some good hikes, our intention had been to snowboard - something we did very little of in Nevados de Chillan. Hopefully this warning will persuade a few other winter-sports enthusiasts to go somewhere else and avoid losing as much money as we have.

Valle Nevado. Go here instead.

Nevados de Chillan, known as Termas de Chillan before 2010, is a ski resort in Southern Chile which should have a lot going for it. It has the longest run in South America, at 13km, as well as stunning scenery and great snow. This is what attracted us to the resort. Unfortunately we've discovered that disputes between two competing resort companies have left the town in a state of disarray and disorganisation.

Many Chilean skiers and snowboarders seem to be aware of the situation and are avoiding this resort this year, but few foreigners are aware of the resorts problems.

Ski-in, ski-out accommodation at the resort is astronomically expensive - prices are the same as Chile's other (already super expensive) resorts, for example Valle Nevado, even though very little of the resort is actually operating at the moment. This means that most tourists (including ourselves) stay about 10km down in valley in the muddy little town of Las Truncas.

UPDATE: From Las Truncas, there is a single bus to the slopes, taking passengers up once in the morning and down once in the afternoon. The other option is to hitch-hike (I'm told it's fairly easy) otherwise you'll need to budget about $25 per person per day for a taxi to the slopes.

You'll need to purchase your lift pass daily and the prices are astronomical. There are no weekly deals. Monday to Wednesday is $40 per person per day. Thursday through to Sunday cost $60 pppd. This is on-par with- or is more expensive than top-class European resorts like Val D'isere. To put this in perspective, Val D'isere has something like 95 lifts. Chillan has 10, although only 1 chair and 2 drag lifts on the baby slopes were operating when we were there.

No piste maps. I'm serious. The resort will not provide any trail maps for the piste. Someone did offer to sell us a piste map for $10, but they'd run out of stock. These are free and easy to obtain at every other resort I've ever been to. UPDATE: The resort has now updated it's website and has a piste map available online.

Food & drink prices are astronomical. At the base station - not even up on the slopes - expect to pay $20 for a Hamburger or similar junk food (the only options). We payed $6 each for two coffees and they were some of the worst coffees I've had. They were served as a polystyrene cup of hot water with a sachet of nescafe instant for us to mix in ourselves. No milk. This wasn't a nice cozy restaurant either. This was a freezing cold, draughty wooden box of a cafeteria with a small stove in the corner around which everyone was jostling for space for a little warmth. (It was the only restauarant option, however)

Terrible facilities. Take the toilets at the base station: they have no doors. None. Not outside and not on the cubicles. If you're unfortunate enough to need a -erm- number 2, you'll have to go about your business while you watch the world go by - and the world watches you go. Kate tells me that the woman's toilets had a door on the outside but also not on the cubicles.

The lifts are slooooooow. It's well known that the resort has some of the slowest lifts around. And the hard wooden slat benches of the chairlift get oh-so-cold while the chair inches its way up the mountain.

The lifts to shut down in any weather. Any snow, fog or wind and lifts will be shut down. On the days we tried to snowboard it was snowing, but the conditions didn't seem bad, yet only one chairlift and two drag-lifts were operating. Don't expect a discount on your lift pass, however. It'll still cost you $60. The operational chairlift takes about 10 minutes to get you to the top of a very easy blue run which takes about 4 minutes to ride. We feel that the management company was using the excuse of the weather to close the resort when there weren't enough skiers on the slopes to make it worth their while. Several local residents shared our feelings on this.

The resort is deliberately misleading skiers and snowboarders about their operational status. We telephoned in the morning to find out about conditions and were told that all lifts were running. $30 worth of taxis later, we discovered that only one was. Staff at our hotel told us that, on the phone, the resort always say that all lifts are operating, no matter whether they actually are or not. We've also been told that online status shows all lifts running when they're not. Worse: many of the attractions are currently not running at all during the 2010 season: for example, the snowpark, and some of the lifts are closed, including the lift which services the resorts primary attraction: the Tres Marias run (the longest run in South America - but only if you can manage to traverse the slope to it!)

Disputes between two companies are driving this ski resort into the ground. We were told that the reason the lifts are not operating is due to the disputes between two companies - Termas de Chillan and Nevados de Chillan. Termas de Chillan were operating the concession for the ski resort until this year when it was given to Nevados de Chillan. This changeover has left some of the lifts out of operation.

Some hotel staff told me that they're worried about the resort being around in a few years time, as they're not getting any repeat business. After all, who in their right mind would return to a resort with so many problems? We arrived at the beginning of high season and there were hardly any visitors (we were the only guests at our lodge)

All in all, our experience at Nevados de Chillan / Termas de Chillan has been one of the most expensive weeks of snowboarding we've had, yet it's also the one with the worst service, worst resort management and worst facilities. To be fair, things might have been better had the weather been better but the bad weather merely brought out the worst in the resort. Having said that, we've spent weeks in European resorts where we've had far worse weather but have had much more access to the slopes and a infinitely better experience overall.

After this experience, we decided to go to Valle Nevado instead. Our experience at this resort couldn't have been more different: Valle Nevado was professionally run and felt like a proper resort, and even though it was expensive, it was good value for money. If you're looking at heading to the southern hemisphere to ski, avoid Termas de Chillan.

Liz

How disappointing, to say the least!
Travgirl

Valle Nevado is indeed an outstanding resort — and they're offering a deal right now for North Americans from July 30 to Aug. 27: buy 5 nights and get 2 free. The week beginning Aug. 27 also has a deal where the 2nd person sharing a double room only pays 50%. Check it out — it's going to snow tomorrow!
CWP

mmmm…. I'm guessing that you haven't been to CHILE much… and don't know what the hell your talking about… Las Trancas is an amazing place.. The mountains there are amazing as well…. Is the resort overpriced? Yes! I agree… but you don't know about mountain weather or snowboarding so please avoid writing about it… you also are most likely from England or Australia which….produce the biggest whiners in the world.
http://newdigate.me/ Andrew Newdigate

I agree, the mountains around Termas are incredible. Since the resort couldn't be bothered to open more than one lift for our entire time in Termas, I hiked to Shangri-La Refuge in snow-shoes and was amazed at how beautiful the area is. The thing is that it doesn't matter how beautiful the mountains are when you're on a snowboarding holiday but can't snowboard them since the resort can't get it's act together and open a few lifts.

Regarding Las Trancas, we stayed in amazing accommodation and enjoyed great food there and had no problems with the town itself, only the resort up the mountain.

I've been snowboarding for 8 years and have been to dozens of resorts in Austria, Switzerland, France, the States and several in Chile. I may not be a pro and I've never done “a season” anywhere, and I don't claim to be an expert snowboarder. I do, however, know enough to say that Termas de Chillan – as I experienced it in July 2010 – is far-and-away the worst ski resort I've ever been to.

Snowboarding is always expensive, but when you're paying so much, you should at least be able to expect a few things, for example:

* A piste-map. If you pay $60 for a lift pass, you should at least be able to see where you can ride.
* A decent restaurant. And no, a cold, draughty box selling greasy $20 burgers doesn't count.
* Resort staff not to blatantly lie to you over the phone about the state of the lifts (assuring you that they're all open when only one is).
* And at the very least, a door when you're on the toilet

Yet, I got none of these at Termas.

I've also spoken to many Chilean skiers and boarders who've said pretty much the same thing – that Termas should be avoided until they sort their act out. This includes people living in Las Trancas.

Luckily we managed to spend some time in Valle Nevado and El Colarado afterwards and were blown away by how good these resorts were – so please don't think that this is an attack on Chilean snowboarding – only one terribly managed resort.
http://www.snoventures.com SR

Well said CWP, (apart from the bit about English being whiners!) I was already making assumptions about the author, my guess was Australian.
I spent 3 seasons in Termas when I had an open choice of all Chilean and Argentinean resorts. One of my top 5 resorts in terms of the quality of skiing and snowboarding and my favourite of over 150 I have been to in 15 countries. Go figure!
I will be back there this year.

Too many inconsistencies and comments that are factually incorrect in this report to take it seriously..
Food prices massively incorrect, unless you exclude the much much cheaper options.
Base station is not where the very basic toilets are.
Las Trancas (stayed there a week and not sure of the name) is not a muddy little town. If LT's paved road was muddy why would you need snow shoes to get to the Shangri La refugio?
Expensive ski trip yet stayed at a hotel in Las Trancas.
Termas has some of the cheapest skiing of anywhere in the Americas
There is a regular public bus every day to the resort.
Hotels on the mountain include ski passes.
One hotel in Las Trancas includes free return transfers each day to the mountain.
Local drivers are very friendly and if they have space many of them will pick you up – In 3 months I only got the bus up one day and never had to get it back down even with only 5 cars in the car park.
Termas is getting a lot of repeat business.
Hotel guests get trail maps – but each hotel is competing as the contract has recently changed and there is a lot to sort out, so they are trying not to help each others guests. – yes this is causing issues but not on the scale implied.
Tres Marias – there is a cat track from the lower lift to get you there, although I guess without the initiative to download a trail map that would be difficult to find without asking someone.
“Blown away by El Colorado” enough said.

I am sorry to hear of your poor experience at Termas but to dress up a report whilst you are obviously still very bitter or perhaps having a bad day is unfair on the local workers that rely on this for their work in this developing World country. That is why they are concerned about the future of Termas.

Viva Termas!
SnowForLife

I agree with you bro, but the muddy little town is called Las Trancas
pow!

I have just spent one month snowboarding at Termas (just left today) so have a few comments about this post. When I arrived from Aus, hoping to do the season at Termas, was totally disappointed by the initial response and vibe about the mountain. The disorganisation, inflexibility and politics surrounding this resort really puts a damper on the experience.

To start with the season pass is approx $1200 USD!!! extremely expensive for the services they provide. The only decent lift operating for the whole of 2010 season is the Don Otto (unless you're a beginner then you get 1 more). The Otto allows access to most of the mountains terrain, but not to the beginning of the 13km Tres Marias – which is so boasted about by the management. The ONLY other option at the top of the mountain is a 400m or so Tbar which is pretty much pointless.

Still standing are the frames for 3 other lifts, which are simply not operating because of managment politics. This made me sick to my stomach when we made the 3.5 hr trek to the volcan on a powder day… only to be trekking right next to a dormant lift which would have taken us most of the way.

Agreed the toilets are terrible… most days they dont have toilet paper… but there were cheapish food options – 2 empanadas for $5. Splurged on a hamburger one day though only to be thouroughly dissappointed. Mountain staff were generally nice, but I would not stay at teh Gran Hotel if you paid me. Seriously bad service for a ritzy 5 star hotel.

As for transport there is a local bus from Chillan that goes up to Las Termas once per morning and once per afternoon at 4pm. I caught this most days and had no trouble hitching up and down when we missed the bus!

Now to the off piste terrain – the resorts star quality. On a powder day it is amazing… natural bowls, hidden valleys, smooth cruisy slopes and crazy drops of cliffs… its all there only a short trek away and theres usually enough snow to make it unreal. The powder runs are long and so many were 'the best run of my life!' The only thing to crush your mood is when you get to the bottom and have to take one or two painfully slow lifts back to the top to do it all again.

On the note of terrain, this is not the place if you like piste runs… I think there are maybe 3 that are well groomed, and they are so quick and boring, its hardly worth your time. If the higher lifts were open I'm sure this mountain would be great for all.

My advice, keep an eye on this resort… its got so much potential to be great… but just doesnt have its sh*t together right now. Lets hope something changes in the next few years… and if it does ill be back there in a heartbeat.
Jeff

Hey SR,

Thanks for posting some truth. I cannot imagine something that is so far from reality as this post. I am sure there is some managerial issues in Chillan, but really, what resort doesn't have issues.

There is nothing muddy about Las Trancas. Its surprisingly nice. Also, there is a public bus everyday but hitchhiking is amazingly easy. I've spend multiple years in Chillan and have hitched form Las Trancas pretty much every day I skied without issue.

I will admit the snow park is something of a myth, as it has never been as big as its claimed to be, but every hill in South America has these sorts of issues.

Ultimately, it comes down to terrain and snow – both of which Chillan has in spades. There are few places as fun to ride.
http://newdigate.me/ Andrew Newdigate

Thank you to everyone for the comments (positive and negative). I would like to clear a few things up.

1) Las Trancas is not a bad town, but, having no pavements and only a few paved roads other than the main road means that it is definitely muddy. At least it was when I was there. Snow was churned up along the pavements and dirt roads by cars making it muddy. Simple as that. Still, there is a great choice of accommodation in the town: my gripe is not with Las Trancas, only with the resort of Termas up the mountain.

2) When I enquired with staff at the lift-pass office, I was told that the bus was only for resort staff, not visitors. This was confirmed by the staff at my hotel. However, from the comments I've received on this blog, it appears this information was wrong. I will update the post regarding the bus.

3) Obviously the resort has been one of the best in South America in previous years. I am not disputing that: all the problems I experienced at Termas appear to have started in 2010. Please don't write and tell me that I'm wrong based on your experiences at Termas in past years. Things have changed. But hopefully they'll will return to normal soon.

Thanks
Andrew
http://www.snoventures.com Snowrat

Hi Jeff
You also to managed to unlock some of the secrets of Chillan from first hand experience then! Right now many people are flocking there as the best place to ride in Chile with the best terrain and conditions. I work in the industry and have been getting some great feedback from this season.
Red Bull are there right now along with some ski teams and the World's #1 female snowboarder will be there with other similarly experienced riders and skiers.
It surprises me how people can get there and miss the beauty of this mountain. Even the author's follow up comments are as bad..

“Las Trancas is not a bad town, but, having no pavements and only a few paved roads other than the main road means that it is definitely muddy. At least it was when I was there. Snow was churned up along the pavements”

I have ridden over 150 resorts in 15 countries and Chillan is my favourite. I'll be back there next week and am looking forward to it so much.

Viva El Independiente Republica de Las Trancas!
http://www.hotellolanyc.com/ Times Square Hotel

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