When to Ski in South America?

Needless to say, the South American ski season is during the southern hemisphere winter. The ski season begins in mid-June and runs to October, and backcountry touring can extend another month beyond this.

For the prime time to snowboard or ski in South America with respect to snow quality, your best bet is mid July to early September. Sometimes June is epic, with big dumps and cold winter temperatures that provide great snow quality. However on average, many South American ski seasons don’t have an adequate snow base for off-piste skiing and snowboarding until mid July.

Some like to ski in South America in late August and early September, with the hope of a mega dump of snow associated with the legend of Santa Rosa. There may be some myth associated with these legendary Argentine snow storms (although it has happened many winters) whereby the ferocious Santa Rosa storms occur up to five days earlier than or five days later than the Santa Rosa festival of Lima, which is celebrated on the 30th of August each year.

From early to mid September, the temperatures start rising and you typically get a mix of powder snow or slush, and with some melt-freeze cycles there is the potential for some lovely corn snow.

Backcountry ski touring and splitboarding opportunities continue on until mid to late October and spring time is often a nice time to head up the volcanoes when there are more fine weather days.

Snow aside, when considering when to ski in South America, avoid the two middle weeks of July because the ski resorts are usually feral. It’s South American school holidays so the ski resorts are busy, there are usually lift queues, and prices for lodging and lift tickets are hiked up.

When Are South American Ski Tours?

Guided multi-resort South American ski tours run from late July to early September for fixed date group tours. Backcountry hut trips and volcano ski touring trips continue into September and October. See the South America ski tours schedule for more information.