Colorado gets roughly 14 million skier visits a season, but when the Northern Hemisphere slope season winds down, the Andes are just getting started. Chile's Tres Valles, a trio of ski areas east of Santiago, has quietly become the Southern Hemisphere's most talked-about ski destination — and recent ownership shake-ups have made it easier than ever to actually ski it all.
The story starts in 2024, when US operator Mountain Capital Partners — already running resorts across Utah, New Mexico and Colorado — bought major stakes in Valle Nevado and La Parva, giving it control of most of the Tres Valles terrain. A plan to absorb the third area, beginner-friendly El Colorado, stalled when Chile's competition authority, the Fiscalía Nacional Económica, raised concerns. But even the partial takeover delivered something new: the Power Pass, a shared lift ticket covering 10 days of interconnected skiing across the two MCP-run resorts. Just note that El Colorado still requires a separate pass. There's even talk the three areas could eventually be linked like France's Les Trois Vallées, the largest ski area on the planet.
So what do you get on the snow? Roughly 5,000 acres of combined terrain and hundreds of marked runs. Valle Nevado is the biggest of the three at nearly 2,000 acres, praised by Ski Mag for its grooming and open off-piste feel, though it leans on some dated drag lifts. La Parva, with around 2,000 acres and 40-plus slopes, is the upscale corner — think jet-set crowd rather than ski-lodge scruff. El Colorado, closest to Santiago, is where beginners learn on nursery slopes at the mountain's base, and it also hosts South America's biggest snow park, complete with ramps and rails.
The logistics are refreshingly simple for an international ski trip. You fly into Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL), drive or shuttle east into the mountains, and you can be at the lifts in under two hours if traffic behaves. Few major ski regions in the world sit that close to a capital airport.
Why should it be on your list? If you live in North America or Europe, Tres Valles flips the calendar: prime skiing happens June to September, your summer. That makes it a smart add-on to a wider Chile trip — Santiago is a genuine city break with wine country nearby — or the fix for skiers who simply can't wait until December. If your goal is maxing out days on snow across the year, this is the highest-leverage trip on the map: 5,000 acres, varied terrain from nursery slopes to big-mountain bowls, and a lift system that's getting more connected by the year. Watch this space as MCP's integration plans develop.
