El Colorado Ski Resort Review

El Colorado Ski Resort in Chile is part of the Tres Valles (Three Valleys) of the Andes along with Valle Nevado and La Parva. Unlike the adjoining ski resorts that receive all the attention, El Colorado Chile is not a glitzy resort and is considered more of an affordable locals’ ski area.

Pros and Cons of El Colorado Chile

El Colorado shares the Tres Valles pros and cons and also has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Pros 

• El Colorado Chile is great for beginners and intermediates.
• Centro de Ski El Colorado has terrain parks that are impressive by South American standards.
• The price of a ski vacation at El Colorado won’t burn as big a hole in your pocket, relative to Valle Nevado and La Parva.
• Unlike at La Parva and Valle Nevado, there is some flexibility regarding the timing and duration of your stay.
• El Colorado Ski Resort is connected to the Farellones slopes and the village, which provides some great nightlife.
• El Colorado provides the best access to the gnarly Santa Terasita slackcountry terrain that is accessed via the lifts and road.
• Other than international ski racers it’s not frequented by many gringos compared to Valle Nevado, so you get more of an authentic Chilean experience.

Cons

• There is not much in-bounds terrain for advanced and expert riders.
• El Colorado gets a little less snow than its adjoining ski resorts.
• El Colorado doesn’t provide the same dramatic views compared to Valle Nevado and La Parva. The presence of lots of wind fences also detracts from the vistas at El Colorado.
• El Colorado Ski Resort has old school lifts.
• Most of El Colorado lodging is apartments, so it is expensive for those travelling solo or in pairs/couple.

Pro or Con Depending on Your Perspective

• El Colorado is very well suited to families considering the mellow slopes and the ski-in ski-out lodging, although it’s generally not ideal for international visitors who don’t speak fluent Spanish because group lessons are not in English and there’s no child care.

El Colorado Ski and Snowboard Terrain

Centro de Ski El Colorado is made up of two ski areas (El Colorado and Farellones) which are on the one lift ticket and sit above two interconnected villages; Villa Colorado and Villa Farellones. The main ski area is El Colorado, whilst Farellones is really only for beginners and tubing enthusiasts and as access for those staying down in the Farellones village.

The interconnected Farellones and El Colorado make up a treeless ski area with 113 piste, which makes it sounds much bigger than it is. It has 1,295 acres/524 hectares spread across 1,090 metres/3,576ft of vertical.

With 19 lifts, El Colorado prides itself on having more lifts than La Parva and Valle Nevado, but the sub-standard quality of the chair lifts and predominance of quad-burning surface lifts should not be a source of pride for the resort!

The mountain has a cone-shaped peak with wide open areas that fan out from the top. There are lots of runs that are well suited to beginners and there is an abundance of fantastic fall line groomed runs for intermediates, although many of the runs provide a feeling of déjà vu. For advanced riders there is a small area on the eastern side of the ski resort with steep pitches and a few chutes for advanced riders. This is a bit of fun, but on a powder day every man and his dog heads for this area and fresh tracks disappear very quickly. The real joy for experts and powder hounds can be found outside the resort boundaries. You’ll want to have a guide unless you have extensive route finding and avalanche expertise. Backcountry guiding (and road pick-ups) are included on some multi-day Tres Valles ski/snowboard tours.

El Colorado Snow

El Colorado’s motto is “the Capital of Snow” yet the resort’s self-proclaimed forte may be an exaggeration. El Colorado Ski Resort used to cite 5 metres of snow annually back in 2010. Now some sources cite 7 metres of snow, whilst others report that the snow volumes are declining and the resort doesn’t mention an official statistic, so who really knows. The presence of the many many wind fences are indicative of issues the resort at keeping the snow on the slopes, instead of donating snow to Valle Nevado.

The ski terrain wraps almost 360 degrees around the mountain, so snow quality varies significantly depending on the aspect.

Where is El Colorado Chile?

El Colorado is located 56km/35 miles east of Santiago Chile and only 44km from Las Condes area of Santiago. El Colorado sits above the Farellones village (5km by road), and is bordered by La Parva and Valle Nevado on either side.

The drive from Santiago to El Colorado takes about 1.5 hours in good conditions, but there are many variables that can impact on the drive time. The drive up to Farellones can be a little challenging because it has many switchbacks, and due to the volume of traffic, there are restrictions at times on weekends regarding one-way traffic. If you don’t want to self-drive, there are private transfers that can be organized by your lodging or as part of a ski package, or transport is included on guided tours.

Tres Valles - Interconnected Ski Resorts

Farellones and El Colorado are interconnected via the slopes with La Parva and Valle Nevado, and it’s possible for strong intermediate riders and above to ski or snowboard between the three resorts, although sometimes the required lift connections are closed due to weather or avalanche conditions. The combined areas of Tres Valles are very large (but small compared to 3 Valles in France!) and provide a lot of terrain variety.

It's possible to purchase a multi-resort pass at the ticket window, but they are pretty expensive and not that much cheaper than buying two separate lift tickets. Subsequently some visitors who want to sample another resort head there by road. If staying at El Colorado, it’s easy to access La Parva by road and ski back to El Colorado without having to buy two lift tickets. If staying at El Colorado and you want to ski at Valle Nevado without buying a multi-resort pass, you need two-way transport and it’s a time consuming drive.

El Colorado Lodging

The village of El Colorado is medium sized and has a small number of restaurants, ski rental shops, and a couple of other shops.

El Colorado lodging is generally in the form of apartments, some of which are ski-in ski-out. Many of the properties are not particularly contemporary, but one of advantages of staying at El Colorado is that the duration of your stay can be flexible, unlike La Parva and Valle Nevado where a week-long stay or mini week is often required. El Colorado accommodations are not as expensive as at La Parva or Valle Nevado, but the quality is not necessarily in the same league either.

The other option is to stay in Farellones lodging where there are more options for accommodation type (hotels, lodges, backpackers) and the lodging generally provides better value for money. The village of Farellones is connected to the main El Colorado ski area by a couple of surface tows.