Where is Mallin Alto?

Mallin Alto is on a family owned cattle ranch, complete with gauchos, where the land for grazing the cows extends well into the mountains. The base of the mountain is located only 23 km south from San Carlos de Bariloche (which is home to Cerro Catedral Ski Resort) in Patagonia Argentina, yet the lodge feels a world away! The refugio enjoys a remote location deep in the mountains up at 1,650 metres of elevation. It can only be accessed via a heavy duty 4WD vehicle and then snowmobile or oversnow vehicle.

Flights

Bariloche has a major airport, with lots of flights originating from Buenos Aires, either the Ezeiza Airport (EZE) or the Jorge Newbery Airport aka Aeroparque (AEP). You can look at Skyscanner for flight routes to Buenos Aires and onto Bariloche. Where possible, try to fly in and out of the same Buenos Aires airport, because the transfer across the city between the two airports can be painful.

Bariloche also receives direct flights from Santiago de Chile a couple of times a week and direct flights from São Paulo/Guarulhos.

Travel From Bariloche to Mallin Alto

The staff will pick you up from the Bariloche airport or your Bariloche hotel. The initial part of the trip is in a 4WD vehicle. After passing the land owner’s little shack the real adventure begins as the vehicle heads over rugged tracks, river crossings, and plenty of other fun bumpy 4WDing challenges. The staff drive to the snowline and then you’ll be transported up to the top of the mountain to the refugio via an oversnow vehicle, which is usually a covered UTV (utility terrain vehicle) that has a little heating.

The trip from Bariloche to Mallin Alto takes about 3 hours depending on conditions.

Mallin Alto Snow & Terrain

Terrain

The Mallin Alto tenure has more than 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of grazing land for the cows, although only about 30 percent of the area has been well explored for skiing and snowboarding. The terrain is mostly in the alpine or sub-alpine and ranges from elevations of about 1,500m to 2,000m. Sometimes when a big cold storm hits the area, tree skiing amongst the old growth forest is also a possibility.

The runs are mostly open bowls or wide faces with pitches of 25-35 degrees, so it’s well suited to advanced riders as well as strong intermediate riders who have experience with off-piste snow conditions. Runs are often approximately 200 to 250 metres of vertical, and 15 to 20 descents may be made each day. Typically the skiing/snowboarding may go for half a day, and the amount of vertical covered is approximately 3,500 to 4,000 metres, and is dependent on weather and snow conditions, and the ability, speed and preference of the group.

Sled Skiing & Riding

Unlike snowcat skiing, you’ll get up the hill quickly. Mostly the ascents are done with snowmobiles, and depending on guest preference this can be done with the guest sitting on the seat, or by riding half-standing next to the driver. An ATV may also be used depending on snow conditions, weights and preferences, and it offers a slightly slower less adrenaline-fuelled ascent.

Snow

Like anywhere in South America, the quality and quantity of the snow is somewhat variable and can range from sublime to OK. Mallin Alto sometimes gets big cold dumps, whilst at the other end of the spectrum it also gets dry and/or warm spells.

The top elevations are similar to that of Cerro Catedral, yet it’s location in a dry steppe transition area leads to it being a little colder than in Bariloche.

The terrain has plenty of different aspects so the guides can play with wind loaded slopes, shady aspects or solar aspects depending on the conditions.

Season

Snowstorms tend to start in mid May and the Mallin Alto season commences in early June and continues until late October. Cold powder conditions are best from mid-June through to August, whilst September brings a combination of powder and spring skiing, and October brings mild temperatures, longer skiing days and the potential for corn snow.

Mallin Alto Booking Terms & Conditions

Deposit and full payment

• Deposit is 50% of the cost of the trip
• The remaining balance is due one month prior to departure
• Payments can be made via direct bank transfer to a USA account or via Visa Card, Master Card or American Express
• Credit card payments attract a surcharge of 5%

Cancellation Policy

• 30% cancellation fee for cancellations made more than 3 months before the start of the trip
• 50% cancellation fee for cancellations made between 1-3 months prior to trip departure
• There is no refund for cancellations made less than one month prior to departure. 

Cancellation by Mallin Alto
In these 6 years we never cancelled a program due to bad weather or complications with the route....however in the unforeseeable circumstance that a trip had to be cancelled, Mallin Alto would provide a full refund for the cost of the tour; however, Mallin Alto is not responsible for any additional expenses incurred in preparing for the tour (i.e., airline tickets, equipment purchase or rental, hotel reservations).

Mallin Alto Sled Skiing

Mallin Alto is a magical experience. It’s the complete antithesis of the Cerro Catedral Ski Resort, with its busy slopes and frenzied lift lines. At Mallin Alto you can completely disconnect from it all, time doesn’t really matter, and there’s no competition for fresh lines.

Pros

• Staying way up deep in the mountains is pretty special. The views are phenomenal and the refugio very charming.
• The food and beverage offerings are delightful, especially when you consider the remote location and that everything is cooked with a wood stove. Some meals include ranch produced meats cooked the Argentine way, which adds to the cultural experience.
• Mallin Alto is a boutique experience that only caters to a small number of guests. With a large staff to guest ratio, the service is attentive, and the team have a beautiful enthusiasm for what they do.
• Heading up the hill on a snowmobile is fast and plenty of fun and a great way to get fresh tracks.
• The snow conditions tend to be better than those at Cerro Catedral, and obviously you don’t have to share the powder with thousands of people, just a handful.

Pro or Con Depending on Your Perspective

• The ascents are fast and you can get in plenty of runs. The skiing and snowboarding may only go for a half day, leaving plenty of time for relaxation and enjoying the lodge. If you want to chase an abundance of vertical all day or shred the extreme gnar, you may not feel adequately satisfied.
• Whilst the experience now includes lots of pampered elements, the trip is still suited to those with an adventurous spirit. For example, getting there is a fun adventure with the bumpy drive, slippery tracks and river crossings, yet princesses may not enjoy it.
• The experience doesn’t come cheaply, but considering it’s a boutique experience where often there are more staff than guests, and you realise the logistics of the remote mountain location, plus all those fresh lines of snow, you see the value in it.
• The program for each day is very relaxed and you’ll have to get into the Argentina culture and go with the flow.

 

August 2023
We rate Mallin Alto as being one of our top 10 skiing experiences, so it must have been pretty special! Staying way up in a remote part of the mountains, in unique lodging with beautiful food, phenomenal views, great skiing, and delightful people was truly magnificent and a definite highlight of our ski trip to South America! It was amazing and a special way to disconnect from the world.

Mallin Alto has evolved so much in the 7 years since we last visited. It used to be a wild trip that was high on the adventure spectrum and included a bit of roughing it. Now it still has enough adventure, a little bit of wild, and lots of luxuries thrown in.

Back then, the machine wasn’t too well oiled and the refugio was like glamping. There was one stand-alone dome tent with plastic windows, other guests slept in the mezzanine level above the kitchen, the dining area was tiny, and there was one communal bathroom. Now the handmade lodge has expanded a lot and it’s become rather glam but remained very rustic. It has been a labour of love for Kao and plenty of love has gone into it. The dome tents have large glass windows and are fully integrated with the main building, so they’re not really “tents” anymore and the guest rooms have ensuite bathrooms that have views. The upstairs dining area was somewhat new and the large downstairs dining area and bar were brand new. The views from both were impressive and we have no idea how they got those large windows up there (they didn’t use a helicopter). The food and beverage offerings used to be good and now they’re really impressive. Miguel the chef (who looks just like George Clooney) created masterpieces and entertained the guests with his showmanship, whilst Kao the owner was truly in charge of making sure everyone had a fun time. Overall, the lodging was superb!

Whilst the 4WD drive to get to the snowline was still a bumpy adventure, the on-snow transport has become very comfortable. Rather than sitting on the back of a snowmobile, they now have a UTV with a heater and covered sides.

We’d come from Cerro Catedral where it had been raining and we were worried that the snow at Mallin Alto would be naff considering that both areas are reasonably close and at a similar elevation. However it had been snowing up at Mallin Alto, which apparently is quite common because its location deeper into the mountains provides a bit of a fridge effect. It got colder over the next couple of days and we had a reset each night, mostly from fresh snow plus some wind to provide some extra powder. It wasn’t knee deep powder, but we felt pretty lucky to have lovely boot-deep fresh lines on every run. Most of the terrain consisted of fun open bowls of about 30-35 degrees that usually mellowed out before the snowmobile pick-up.

The guiding was good without being exceptional. Generally the guide +/- the owner on a sled would cut a slope initially, and then on subsequent runs on the same slope the guide would stay at the top and observe from above which seemed appropriate. In addition to slope testing, a snow pit was dug on a couple of occasions. The safety factors were there but they weren't always really obvious to guests.  

The snowcat rating doesn’t apply but the snowmobiles were great and an efficient way to get up the hill that provided adrenaline for those that sought it, or the ATV was a comfortable ascent.

On the face of it, the sled skiing may seem a little expensive. However once there we could see the value associated with it, especially considering how special and remote the setting was, and the high staff to guest ratio. The value became more apparent too after staying at Cerro Catedral where a hotel stay with meh accommodation, lift passes, and food prices had sky rocketed. Mallin Alto costs about the equivalent of cat skiing in Canada and is significantly cheaper than heli skiing in South America. It’s pretty special!