Cerro Bayo Ski and Snowboard Terrain

Cerro Bayo skiing in-bounds is somewhat petite, so it only offers limited variety for beginner, intermediate and advanced riders. Whilst the terrain might be small, the views are substantial, especially from the aptly named Panoramico and Los Lagos runs.

The lower part of the resort is primarily for access and egress and features an intermediate slope that runs up the guts of the resort. The resort may or may not groom this slope and snow quality may be poor, so don’t feel ashamed to download the gondola at the end of the day.

The novice area is located mid-mountain, as are various other tree-lined intermediates runs, whilst the upper elevations of the Cerro Bayo ski resort are above the tree line and consist of a few steep bowls.

For powder hounds, the real fun of Cerro Bayo is in the off-piste areas where there are hectares of interesting lines.

Cerro Bayo Lifts

Cerro Bayo has 16 lifts in its fleet which consists of 2 gondolas, 6 double chairs, 4 magic carpets, 2 T-bars, and 3 other surface lifts. The lift infrastructure is dated and even the gondolas which aren’t that old, look and act ancient.

Rather than one long gondola with a mid-station, the resort has 2 separate gondolas that run consecutively, probably because the oft-windy conditions prevent the top gondola (Telecabina Cumbre) from running. And there are other times when the top gondola doesn’t run for reasons that are not apparent! Queues to the top gondola can be bad, especially if there are minimal cabins attached.

TC Jean Pierre, the lower gondola, is often used by sightseers so queues can be horrendous, and if the snow quality down low is not very good you might only use the gondola for mid-mountain access.

The beginners’ area has a mix of drag lifts and magic carpets. Elsewhere are fixed grip double chairs, most with safety bars and foot rests. The chairs run painfully slowly, with the exception of Los Lagos which may require some skills to get on. El Bosque is a popular chair and it often gets queues, and watching the ski school participants jump into the priority queue can be rather infuriating.

Cerro Bayo has a reputation of not opening up all the lifts (not just the top gondola) if it’s not particularly busy. They obviously haven’t realised that perhaps more people would visit on weekdays if they ran all the lifts!

Lift Tickets

Lift ticket prices are similar to Cerro Catedral and Chapelco, which seems like extortion when you consider the lack of infrastructure that Bayo has on offer in comparison to the other two nearby ski resorts.

You can purchase lift tickets with a credit card, but as is often the case for internationals, you’ll be asked for your passport number.

If you’re made of gold you can buy a Gold Pass which offers priority lift access (which would be a god send!) along with a host of other benefits such as VIP parking, wine and snacks, a mountain guide, and someone to put your boots on for you if you like! We’d love to tell you that purchasing this would be worthwhile to skip the lift queues, but we don’t know how much it costs because the resort can’t advertise them online because the peso is too unstable! 

Cerro Bayo Snow

As is common with all South America ski resorts, the snow conditions vary dramatically, and as to expected, the quality and quantity of snow varies across the vertical of the ski resort. The base area elevation is only 260 metres higher than the town of Villa Angostura, and is at a similar elevation to the base of Cerro Catedral. Subsequently it suffers from rain and the snow cover is often marginal. Cerro Bayo has a few snow making guns, but Argentina ski resorts don’t seem to be particularly skillful at making artificial snow.

The reliability of snow is much better at the higher elevations, although the summit is a little lower than Chapelco and significantly lower than the top of Cerro Catedral ski resort. To Cerro Bayo’s advantage, much of the terrain is south facing, and the snow quality in Los Lagos area is often particularly tasty. We’ve managed to score Cerro Bayo when the powder has been delightfully dry and great for the ego.

Beginner Ski and Snowboard Terrain

The novice area is located mid-mountain in a dedicated area where learners can progress their skills without hoons whizzing past. The very mellow slope is serviced by surface tows and magic carpets.

First-timers will need to download the gondola to return to the base. More confident beginners can head down via the very long Panoramica trail that weaves its way around the back of the mountain where it boasts the gorgeous views of the lake.

Cerro Bayo Skiing & Boarding for Intermediates

Intermediates have 75% of the trails considering that the red runs are not steep enough to be “advanced”, but the ski resort is small, so intermediates don’t really have a huge range to choose from. Many of the intermediate runs off the Bosque and La Salita chairs are short, and the main run that goes down to the base may have inadequate snow cover.

Confident intermediates and low-end advanced riders can get into the trees around the Bosque lift. The glades are mellow but steep enough to get momentum, and the tall trees are beautifully spaced and they don’t have any low branches. A tree skiing dream!

Terrain Park

Cerro Bayo has a small terrain park. One part is for beginners with little jumps and table tops. There are also two lines of hits for more experienced shredders including jumps.

Advanced Skiing and Snowboarding – On-Piste

Officially, there is only one black piste run at Cerro Bayo. Los Lagos is marked as a piste run and as the name suggests, provides great views of the lake. Los Lagos is also an off-piste area, and the lines between piste skiing and off-piste skiing in the open zones are very blurred at Cerro Bayo.

Off-Piste Skiing Cerro Bayo

The lines are also blurred between what’s off-piste terrain and backcountry, in more of a European fashion. Some of the “off-piste” terrain is inside the resort boundaries but is not patrolled or adequately avalanche controlled and should be treated like the backcountry. Even Los Lagos is very avalanche prone, especially when the cornice breaks away, and a big avalanche took out the building at the base of the lift some years ago.

Easy off-piste includes the cruisy tree skiing off the Bosque chair, and you can drop into this region higher from off the Lenga chair for some bowl skiing or steeper tighter trees.

The Los Lagos double chair and the Lenga chair provide short but very sweet lines to the skiers’ left of the chair/s. Skiers’ right of the lift borders more towards expert terrain due to the pitch of the slope near the ridge (albeit only briefly steep), and if you leap off the cornice that typically forms, it definitely becomes expert terrain.

Other easy off-piste lines are the open zones between Cornisa and Del Sargento, off the top gondola.

Closer in towards the gondola is some superbly challenging backcountry type terrain, so only go in there with the right gear and plenty of idea. It was previously hike-to sidecountry terrain and it still is when the gondola is (frequently) closed, which obviously leads to fresh tracks lasting much longer. As this terrain is above the treeline, you see what you get. There are advanced lines in open bowls, and lines through rock features that range from expert to extreme, in part depending on the snow cover. Closer in, there are various trees, and when the tide is low there are various creeks, so navigate with caution.

When conditions permit, this area is the piece de resistance of Cerro Bayo and you may want a guide to help with route finding and safety factors.

When there is plenty of snow cover, extreme skiers can hit the zone below the beginners’ poma line and head down the front side of the mountain to the Panoramica trail. The terrain is littered with small cliffs and it’s steep.

Cerro Bayo Backcountry

Cerro Bayo has some other nice backcountry over the back that hooks around into Los Lagos area. Having a guide is quite helpful, especially for egress management, and some of the multi-resort tours of Patagonia head into the Cerro Bayo sidecountry and backcountry.

Cerro Bayo Ski Season

The Cerro Bayo ski season typically starts in late June or early July and runs until late September to early October. The best snow is usually from the middle of July to the end of August, and you also want to visit during this time because otherwise the resort may start closing lifts if it’s not busy enough.