At the moment, the plan is to go for two weeks, likely Aug 27 to September 9rd, 2012.  In the past, we have found these two weeks to be the best as it is just after the South American [Brazilian] holiday weeks and yet the snow conditions are often akin to late February, early March here in Whistler; in other words, pretty good for snow cover and still a good chance of skiing in powder some days.

We generally set up the trip to include, hotels with dinners & breakfasts, lift tickets, guides/interpreters and ground transfers and from time to time guided instruction as required.  All travellers will be responsible to organize their own airline tickets, buy their lunches, and, take care of bar bills and tips where applicable.  Typically, the flight to Santiago is overnight from North America and you arrive there in the early morning, not too bad at all and you arrive on the Eastern time zone, EST.

From Canada or Australia/NZ, your international flight is to Santiago [SCL] and then skiing at Valle Nevado's 3 areas for the first taste of skiing in Chile. From there, we fly to Mendoza City, 1 hour east by air from Santiago and then spend a leisurely day driving through the wine country before arriving at Las Lenas, Argentina, the Whistler of South America. Following a return flight to Santiago, we board our flights for home on the last day.

Monday, Aug 27 - Arrive in Santiago [SCL] in AM, leisurely city tour o/n in Santiago

Tuesday Aug 28 - transfer on to Valle Nevado, ski 4 days including La Parva and El Colorado Ski Areas

 Saturday September 1 - Fly to Mendoza City followed by a motor coach tour through wine country to Las Lenas Ski Area

Sunday - Friday - Ski Las Lenas 

Saturday September 8 - leisurely ride back to Mendoza City

MDL - Fly to Santiago in PM followed by evening flights home

If this sounds like something that you'd be interested in, or, because it is so early in the process, you'd like to give me some input into what you'd like to experience and be part of the customization, let me know your thoughts. If you'd like to be put on the mailing list for further updates as they become available, email me and I can do that too.