Argentina has about 14 ski resorts dotted along the Andes with three major ski regions: the ski resorts near Mendoza; the Lakes District and Patagonia ski areas in the south; and Ushuaia way down south.
Las Leñas is renowned for its steep terrain and adrenalin pumping double-black diamond chutes. It definitely has something for everyone, it has become a mecca for extreme skiing and snowboarding. Las Leñas has easy back-country access as well as cat skiing and heli skiing tours.
The Las Leñas lifted terrain reaches altitudes of nearly 3,340 meters (11,253ft) with a base elevation of 2,240m (7,394ft) making this the highest ski field in Argentina. The annual snowfall at Las Leñas is around 6 meters (250 inches) and the powder is renowned for being pretty good. Las Lenas is trendy and the nightlife is vibrant, so if partying is your thing you can dance the night away.
Las Lenas ski resort is massive and on a fine day you can ski forever. The resort cites the size statistic as 17,500 hectares (39,000 acres) and it’s hard to know where they consider the ski resort terrain starts and stops.
What’s clear though is that a huge proportion of the stat includes off-piste un-patrolled expert terrain that is serviced by the Marte chairlift at the top (which is frequently closed). If you exclude all that off-piste area, Las Lenas ski area is rather small with only 29 piste. Las Lenas skiing is particularly good for families because it’s easy to keep track of the little powder puppies.
The resort also has the impressive statistic of a 1,200 vertical metre drop, but once again if you exclude the Marte area, the vertical shrinks to only 530 metres. LL has 14 lifts; one fixed grip quad chair, 6 double chairs and 7 surface lifts. The lift names have a gods/outer space/astro theme, although perhaps a few of the lifts could have names like slow, ancient and museum!
The piste statistics are green (15%), blue (45%), red (35%) and black (5%), so the ski area is very well suited to intermediates who want to either rip or cruise on the corduroy, although the quality of the grooming is not as good as what you’d find at most North American ski resorts. And in case you have partied too hard and missed most of the day’s skiing, there’s always night skiing on intermediate runs on some evenings.
Las Lenas ski resort sits on the international highway between Santiago in Chile and Mendoza, 183km west of Mendoza and only 25km from the Chile border. Penitentes is a mid-sized ski resort that’s good to visit for a day or two of skiing or snowboarding if driving between Las Lenas and Portillo.
