Portillo, Chile
Portillo is a ski resort in the Andes mountains of Chile. Located in the Valparaíso Region, it is from Los Andes, the nearest city, and by vehicle from Santiago. Its hotel sits at an elevation of above sea level.
Ski Portillo has 35 named runs and 14 lifts. The lowest lift loads at, and the highest reaches, yielding a vertical drop of.
The summit of the mountain climbs to. Nearby peaks include Los Tres Hermanos at and La Paraya at. Aconcagua, the highest mountain in both the Western Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, is nearby at, which exceeds any peak outside the Himalayas, Karakoram, Pamir and Tien Shan of Asia.
History
Plans to build the ski area were drawn up in the 1930s. Construction began in 1942 and the ski area was opened in 1949. Several of the ski lifts on the west side of the valley were destroyed by avalanches in 1965 and were rebuilt in time for Portillo to host the Alpine World Ski Championships in August 1966. Those championships marked the emergence of Jean-Claude Killy, who won gold medals in the downhill and combined events. Portillo has since become one of the principal destinations for ski racers to train during the Northern Hemisphere summer and hosts the national ski teams of Austria, Italy, and the United States.It is owned and operated by the Purcell family who have a chain of hotels in Chile, most noticeably the Tierra Hotels including Tierra Atacama in San Pedro de Atacama.