We spent a few days at Cerro Bayo during a great storm and we had a phenomenal time and saw the best of Bayo, along with its shortcomings with its lifts. At the start of the snowstorm a few of the lifts were on and off wind hold and there wasn’t a lot of base, so tree skiing wasn’t possible initially except at the very top of the trees, and the presence of some trees in the sub-alpine made for some nice storm skiing.

Los Lagos was fun initially on the powder mornings, although it got ripped up very quickly with ski instructors not on the job but using their priority access to get up there early. We also had plenty of fun in the off-piste zones accessed from a left traverse off the Lenga lift and barely anyone was going in there, possibly because the egress was a bit marginal.

On our last day the weather was slightly kinder and the top gondola opened up and we could access some of the higher terrain, which was impressive and the turns were super sweet. Freshies lasted a while, in part due to the poor lift efficiency (see below).

It was certainly busier at Bayo since our previous visits. Some link this to the paved 7 Lakes road and the change of Ruta 40, or it may have been a hangover from Covid times and more skiers and non-skiers wanting to travel.

On the really stormy day, lift lines weren’t too bad except for Bosque which was a bottle neck disaster. The frustration of waiting was made worse by the really slow speed of the lift, that it frequently stopped, and that so many ski school pupils were getting priority access.

Lift queues to the top gondola were ridiculous. They were putting 4 people in a gondola supposedly for 6, and there were very few cabins so it took more than a minute between release of cabins. The waits were loooooong.

You can see how we rate Bayo on various categories on the South America ski resort ratings.
See our video here

We managed to score another powder day at Cerro Bayo where the resort was rather devoid of skiers and snowboarders. Line after line of powder… awesome! And the variety of skiing both open alpine terrain and some trees was a bonus.

The new gondola seemed to be more for the pedestrian tourists. The resort had the bottom gondola running at a snail’s pace so we didn’t bother going on the gondola again after the initial ride to access the mid-mountain area. The top gondola wasn’t running, possibly because there were a couple of breaths of wind (!!) and/or a couple of clouds, and it took them awhile to get the Lenga chair open too despite it not being particularly windy.

Whilst Cerro Bayo is reasonably small (and probably not worthy of a week-long trip), it still amazes us that many people flock to Catedral and Chapelco and circumvent Bayo. This is obviously of huge benefit to us powder hounds that seek fresh powder.

See the Cerro Bayo overview page for more on our thoughts of the pros and cons, and also see the South American ski resorts ratings to see how it stacks up.
See our video here

Cerro Bayo definitely wins the award amongst the South American ski resorts for the most wow factor when it comes to the vistas. The proximity of the ski resort to the gorgeous lake and the forest and alpine areas provide stupendous views. I thought the views of lakes from some of the New Zealand ski resorts were impressive, but Cerro Bayo almost makes New Zealand look plain.

We saw the snow conditions at both ends of the spectrum. One day there was almost no snow at the base and a few days later it was an amazing powder day where the snow was deep, dry and very yummy. That’s skiing in the southern hemisphere for you!

The terrain for advanced and expert riders at Cerro Bayo is impressive and varied. Some of tree skiing is nicely pitched and spaced, whilst some of the tree skiing is bordering on extreme. Los Lagos is a very fun area and then there’s the sidecountry which offers an abundance of fresh lines. Another huge plus for Cerro Bayo is that it’s not busy relative to Cerro Catedral and Cerro Chapelco, so you can enjoy freshies for hours instead of minutes.

Cons of Cerro Bayo: limited terrain for intermediates; lift tickets are pricey considering the lack of modern lifts (although it’s still cheap relative to North America, Europe and Australasia); and they sometimes close lifts for no good reason.

Another huge pro for Cerro Bayo is its proximity to Villa la Angostura which is debatably the most beautiful place on earth!

For more detailed ratings of Cerro Bayo and to see how it compares to other ski resorts around the world, see our powderhounds resort ratings.
See our video here