destination
The edges of my skis dig into the 40-degree slope. Torn between awe and fear, I survey my next move. A spec足 tacular high-alpine valley set amid the highest peaks of the Andes lies before me, a stark duotone of granite walls and snow warmed by a brilliant sun in a lapis lazuli sky. But above, jagged rock walls funnel chutes pregnant with a foot of new powder directly onto my precarious perch, and an avalanche is the last thing I want to face.
chile mignon When the slopes go dry in North America, head for Portillo.
By Roger Toll
I push ahead, carefully traverse a field of rock outcroppings and emerge at the top of a vast, treeless snowfield. At the bottom of the steep pitch, 2,500 vertical feet below, I spot the base of the lift that will take me back to the resort. One-two, one-two, I intone like a mantra, setting the rhythm in my head that will guide my turns in the powder, then push off with a loud whoop that echoes Photos by Jonathan Selkowitz Sky March 2003
39
destination
A
fter years of fantasizing about it, I am finally skiing the Andes in Chile. In fact, I am at Portillo, the blueblood pinnacle of South American ski resorts, just two-and-a-half hours from the Chilean capital of Santiago and two miles from the country’s 10,000foot-high border with Argentina. The tiny resort with a worldwide reputation sits at the mouth of a valley beside the emerald Lake of the Incas. The valley’s walls, fluted with bands of snow like Chinese brush paintings, rise to craggy peaks that soar to 19,000 feet. From the next valley over rises Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet the tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere. Without trees, it is hard to gauge the enormity of scale other than by realizing that the small dots on the slopes are actually skiers. Portillo’s hotel, a canary-yellow, seven-story building, seems dwarfed at the center of all this grandeur. As it has room for only 450 guests and there’s virtually no day traffic, you can be sure there are never more than 400 people skiing at any one time. (By contrast, Vail, Colorado, has days with as many as 18,000 skiers.) Groomed runs flow down both sides of the valley and meet at the hotel. High above the intermediate slopes and farther along the valley are the steep, expert snowfields that give Portillo its fame. Skiers reach them via the two equally legendary va et vient lifts, designed expressly for Portillo in the 1960s to provide access to this avalanche-prone terrain. The simple contraption yanks five skiers at a time up an ever-steepening slope at a fearsome pace, an experience not unlike water-skiing uphill behind a fast boat on a choppy sea. It is a Draconian but practical test: If you can stay on your skis on the way up, you are a good enough skier to get down. The Chilean government built
40
Sky March 2003
the hotel and launched the fledgling ski area in 1949. After struggling with the ailing enterprise for a decade, the government sold it to Dick Aldrich and Robert Purcell, U.S. businessmen active in South American affairs. Neither of them knew anything about running
ski teams, which come to Portillo during their summers to train prior to the opening of professional skiing’s World Cup tour. Ski giants Hermann Maier and Stephan Eberharter and Austria’s other dominant athletes were just leaving as I arrived, and guests recounted
either a hotel or a ski area, so they persuaded Purcell’s brother Henry, who was a graduate of the hotel school at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and had a few years at Hilton Hotels under his belt, to join them. Henry Purcell jumped at the chance to do something exotic. The trio of partners decided that the key to success would be worldwide recognition, so they set about convincing the International Federation of Skiing to host races at Portillo. Their efforts paid off when they snagged the prestigious Alpine World Championships in 1966, which put Portillo on the international ski map, where it has remained to this day. The resort is currently owned by Henry Purcell, and its pedigree among serious skiers is enhanced by its close relationship with the U.S. and Austrian
enthusiastic stories about sharing beers with them and watching them train. But they were not the only A-team skiers in town. I took a run with pro fessional free skier Chris Davenport, winner of Aspen, Colorado’s grueling 24-hour ski race in 1998. I shared a lift
There is no village here. Outside of the resort, there are no other restaurants or shops, no luxurious spa, no fancy boutiques, and no nightclubs. That is not Portillo. Sky March 2003
41
destination
Portillo is like a club, easygoing, elegant and burnished with age. It has the appealing simplicity of an Old World inn. with last year’s North American speedskiing record holder, John Hembel, then watched him quickly put a gaping distance between himself and other skiers as I followed his tracks down the slope. And all week long, I marveled at the exploits of several of the world’s best free-style skiers, who jumped off rock faces and swept gracefully down narrow couloirs in a week-long photographic competition. While Portillo may dish up everything a world-class skier wants, its intermediate terrain is small relative to the sizable acreage of groomed corduroy that large U.S. resorts offer skiers. Also, there is no village here. Outside of the resort, there are no other restaurants or shops, no luxurious spa, no fancy
42
Sky March 2003
boutiques, and no nightclubs. That is not Portillo. Instead, there is charm, personality, tremendous skiing, a magnificent setting and the warm, caring service of a longtime staff. When a child grows cranky at a nearby table, I watch a waiter slide over with a big smile, scoop up the child and whisk him into the kitchen, while his parents hardly take notice. The child re-emerges five minutes later, happy and laughing, clearly enchanted with the attention, and certainly a cookie or two as well. Portillo is like a club, easygoing, elegant and burnished with age. It has the appealing simplicity of an Old World inn. Life ticks by slowly at a Latin American pace, and guests return each year for the same week, stay in the same room and sit at the same table. There is no need to rush to the slopes for first tracks in fresh powder, for the powder lasts all day. Skiing is leisurely, and meals in the wood-paneled dining room punctuate the routine: a big breakfast, a three-course lunch around 1, tea and cakes at 5, and dinner at 8:30 or 9:45 that evening. The dining
room is entrusted to the solicitous maitre d’hotel, Don Juan, who has been watching over guests and an army of waiters and busboys with the attention of a lioness observing her kittens since 1968. If something is missing on a table, Don Juan is setting things right before the guests notice. After tea each afternoon, I tend to gravitate to the steamy outdoor pool and watch the peaks turn rose in the evening alpenglow while talking with Brazilian, Argentinian or Chilean visitors, invariably curious to discuss politics and culture with an American. One evening, I get a massage from Carmen, one of several masseuses who have been tending to Portillo skiers’ sore backs for decades. There is something
Summering on the WHEN TO GO Skiing might be winding down in the Northern Hemisphere this month, but to fend off withdrawal, look into booking your “summer” trip to Chile. Ski weeks at Portillo begin June 14 and end October 4; high season is July 19 to August 2. booking Stays are offered by the week: Saturday to Saturday, including accommodations, meals and daily lift tickets. Guests in the main hotel pay US$910– US$1,885 per person for a double room, US$1,550– US$3,275 for a suite. Rates for the student-friendly, dormitory-style Octagon and Inca lodges include ski school lessons: A week at
Octagon is US$620–US$1,100, with meals in the hotel dining room; a week at Inca is US$390–US$450, with meals in the cafeteria. Extras Car service from Santiago’s airport is available through Portillo. The ski school is staffed with elite American and European ski instructors, and a range of lessons and coaching are available, with the six-day clinics a popular option. Information Call the reservations office in Santiago (56-2-263-0606) or its toll-free number (800829-5325), send e-mail to reservas@skiportillo.com or info@skiportillo.com, or visit www.skiportillo.
for everyone before dinner: stationary bikes and treadmills, yoga and stretch classes, movies, and a popular game room with ping-pong and pool tables, foosball and video games. The hotel bar usually gets rolling by 7 or 8. Henry Purcell, his wife, Ellen, and their son Miguel (who is the general manager) watch over their resort with the attention and hospitality of the proverbial Swiss hotelier, and are friendly presences at cocktails, at meals and on the slopes. Every Sunday evening, the first night of the typical seven-night stay, the Purcells give a welcome party in the hotel’s baronial, wood-paneled living room. With hors d’oeuvres–laden tables and waiters circulating with trays of beer, wine, scotch and that beguiling cocktail of the Andes, the pisco sour, it feels more like a large Christmas party at a friend’s home. When I run into the Purcells at the center of a convivial group greeting longtime guests, we agree to get together later in the week for a few runs. On my last day, I meet Henry for lunch at Tío Bob’s (named for Henry’s brother Robert), a charming stone cabin on a promontory high above the hotel with spectacular views of the shimmering lake and peaks. It reminds me of those high-mountain huts that serve lunches to skiers in the Alps. A fire is roaring in the fireplace as we tuck into our delicious chicken, fish and vegetables grilled over an open fire, followed by a chocolate mousse. It’s thrilling to sit here, amid the craggy splendor of the valley, and remember that it’s August and friends back home are sweating under the sun of a hot summer while I delightedly cheat the inexorability of the seasons. “Portillo offers a total experience,” Henry says as we finish our dessert. “Life is leisurely and lends itself to making friends. Nobody gets up very early, meals are social events and dinner is late. We have not changed much over the years, and that’s how our guests like Sky March 2003
43