Heaven for skiers
TO the skiing enthusiast, Cerro Catedral is the ultimate Southern Hemisphere challenge.
Since 1938, some of the world's most accomplished skiers have been drawn to these action-packed ski fields near Bariloche in Patagonia.
Even to advanced skiers, some of the runs are heart-stoppers. Several are frequented only by extremists and a quarter of all the descents at Catedral are out of bounds to novices and intermediates.
The total vertical drop is just over 1,000 metres from the 2,050-m summit and many of the gradients are more than 50 per cent.
The ski area covers 70 kilometres of named trails together with 15 km of Nordic trails. A 25-seat cable ascends three km from base station in less than 10 minutes and from there the mountain is served by nine chair-lifts and 17 drag lifts.
Snow is consistent from July to late September and the view from the Pedra del Condor Restaurant near the summit is breathtaking.
Catedral offers every facility imaginable, from luxury hotels and ski villages - there are more than 24,000 tourist beds - to a cosmopolitan corps of instructors and off-piste mountain guides and many restaurants and bars, assuring a thriving apres ski scene and a nursery for babies.
But Argentina's 'powder capital' is the easy-going Las Lenas up in the Mendoza wine country. Its legendary 1,230 m vertical run goes through some of the most challenging chutes anywhere.
World Cup races have been staged at the resort every year since it opened in 1985.
Las Lenas is arguably the best powder resort in South America, making it popular with snow boarders and mono-skiers.
As at Catedral, apres ski at Las Lenas is a lively mix of bars, nightclubs and hotel cabaret within the self-contained ski village.
Argentina's third biggest ski area is Chapelco, which is above the beautiful lakeside city of San Martin de los Andes.
Near Bariloche and Catedral and running along a narrow glacial valley, there are steep faces and powder bowls for experts and fun mogul-fields for intermediates.
