Up to Ski

At Argentina's Andean resort of San Carlos de Bariloche, snow came late this year, but when it finally fell, it was a skier's dream--3-ft. base. 2 in. of powder, and fresh snow at night to top it off. Last week the biggest crowds in history were strapping skis together in Buenos Aires and bracing themselves for a clattery two days on the train or six hours on a plane for their share of Christies. In Bolivia, young skiers jammed into the two lodges at the three-mile-high Chacaltaya ski area. But nowhere was the Andes ski boom growing faster than in Chile, as the crowds bundled aboard trains, buses, open trucks and even motor scooters, bound for the ski towns that dot the western Andes for 700 miles. By season's end an estimated 17,000 skiers will have made the trip up and down the snow-buried Andes and spent millions along the way.

Too Far Out. Chilean towns, from Farellones to Villarrica, share the boom. Yet the new look of the mountains is most exciting at Portillo, the big resort built by the government in 1947 and then almost written off as a total failure. The idea was to provide a setting like something out of an old Sonja Henie film. The international set. though, was not about to travel to the bottom of the world, board a chuffy little train and travel for five hours to the edge of nowhere.

The only ones who loved the place were the few real skiers who gloried in the 18 runs wiggling down the slopes of a snow bowl filled with a loft. base and topped by 8 ft. of powder or corn snow. First a few, then by the dozen, top skiers showed up: onetime U.S. Champion Ralph Miller set a world speed record by schussing Garganta run at 109.9 m.p.h.

Wine at the Bottom. As the word got around, Chileans themselves started up to Portillo for a crack at its runs, such as the famed Juncal--down a 40DEG drop, to an iced-over stream and a snow bridge. At the lower stretches, where Chilean ski troopers were training, skiers could count on a swig of fine sparkling wine at the army post.

To lure the run-of-the-slope skiers who are making skiing a big business the world over (TIME, Feb. 9), Portillo went under new management this year. The base-broadening plan was developed by Ace Chilean Skier Sergio Navarrete, 32, heir to a steel fortune. In partnership with Landowner Jorge Petrinovitch and the Grace Line. Sergio rented Portillo from the government.

The deal came too late to refurbish the shabby hotel for this season, but Navarrete brought in Topflight Instructor Peter Estin and his ski-school teachers from Vermont's Sugarbush, got Panagra airline (50% Grace-owned) to set a ski-excursion round-trip fare of $420 (regular rate: $678) from Miami, and arranged an inexpensive ($2.50 a day) equipment-rental service in Santiago. Throwing up partitions at Portillo, he figures to expand capacity to 500, with $150,000 worth of ski lifts to haul them all. Even before remodeling and expansion, news of the new Portillo passed around so fast that Navarrete found himself with a season-long full house--plus an overflow that helped flood ski towns all along the Andes.

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