Las Leñas

Las Leñas is a large ski resort in the Andes mountains of Mendoza province in western Argentina. Las Leñas is the top ski area of Argentina and it attracts a huge number of international skiiers who come to take advantage of the June through October "summer ski season" of the southern hemisphere and some of the world's most challenging terrain.

Understand
Las Leñas is one of the top ski resorts in South America and is Argentina's largest resort. It is famous for its vast areas of off-piste skiing and its Marte lift that provides access to extremely challenging terrain with steep chutes and enormous bowls. Although the resort does not offer heli-skiing, it does offer cat-skiing for those well-heeled skiiers seeking challenging virgin conditions.

The base lodge sits at an elevation of 2,240 meters (7,350 feet) above mean sea level and the mountain rises up to a peak elevation of 3,430 m (11,253 ft). The vertical drop is 1,190 meters (3,904 ft). The resort provides 14 lifts servicing 27 runs covering an area of 2.3 km^2. The longest continuous ski run is 7 km (4 miles). Because of the high elevation, all of the trails and skiiable terrain are above the tree line: there are no wooded trails at Las Leñas.

Ski runs close to the main lodge (primarily easy and intermediate terrain) are lighted for night skiing. Most lifts, including all of those servicing difficult and expert runs shut down at 5pm, but lifts close to the main lodge operate until 10pm.

The resort has hosted a number of prestigious international winter sports events, including the Winter Pan-American Games in 1990 and the Alpine Skiing World Cup on several occasions. (Unfortunately for the home-team crowd, no Argentinian skiier won medals in any of these events, American and Canadian skiiers dominated the Pan American Games and Swiss and Austrian skiiers dominated the Alpine Skiing World Cup).

During the warm weather months of November through May, the resort offers other mountain activities including mountain biking, horse riding, and climbing.

Ski school
A wide range of instructional programs are offered with instructors who speak English, French, German and other languages in addition to Spanish. The learn-to-ski packages provide group instruction together with equipment rentals and lift access at a discounted price. Instruction is also available for experienced skiiers who want to be learn to handle more difficult terrain as well as specialized instruction for advanced skiiers.

The ski school includes daycare services for infants so that young parents can get out on the slopes for quality snow time. The program, called Baby Leñas is for infants from 2 to 18 months. Another program called Mini Leñas offers supervised activities for kids from 18 months to 3 years of age. After age 3, the kids are ready to get out on the mountain with ski and snowboarding lessons.

Kids instructional programs are offered for children ages 3 and up, with classes divided by age and skill level (beginner, intermidiate, or advanced). Skiing or snowboarding is taught. Separate classes are offered for the 13-17 year old adolscents. Families can opt for a quasi-private "group" lesson in which they constitute the entire group. (Up to 6 skiiers.)

Half-day and full-day classes are offered for adults, divided by skill levels. Advanced skiiers may want to consider an advanced class such as the personalized off-piste class that provides personalized instruction for 1 or 2 people.

The ski school can also arrange half-day or full-day snow-cat expeditions.

Beginner and intermediate terrain
The easiest area for beginning (or less confident) skiiers is the wide, gentle slopes near the Poma lifts close to the ski village.

Expert terrain
35% of the resort's marked ski runs are classified as "expert" terrain with a number of chairlifts serving primarily black (expert) level runs. Most famous is the Marte double chair lift which serves only expert terrain, including the massive bowl lying directly beneath the lift. The Marte chair lift has a reputation for being temperamental and is often closed.

Off-piste skiing is hugely popular at Las Leñas with hundreds of chutes, bowls and jumps. Many expert skiiers consider Las Leñas to have some of the best advanced skiing in the world. There is so much variation that you can ski different runs all week without crossing your previous tracks.

Beacause some of the chutes end at cliffs, it is important to know where you are and to have a way down the mountain that is within the capabilities of your experience and equipment. Guide services can be arranged at the lodge and having a certified guide with local knowledge is an important safety precaution. Be aware that the resort requires helmets to be used.

Get in
The closest town to Las Leñas is the small city of Malargüe, which is 50 miles (80 km) from the ski area. The nearest large city is Mendoza. Tke closest city with scheduled commercial flights is San Rafael. Getting to the ski areas of Las Leñas will involve finding transportation to one or more of those locations. International travelers can arrive via Buenos Aires or Santiago and from there, connect to regional flights or bus routes to Malargue, San Rafael or Mendoza.

During the ski season, the resort offers charter bus service and plane flights from buenos Aires to nearby cities with bus transfers to the ski resort. This is by far the easiest (and often cheapest) way to arrive. See the official resort web site for details.

By air
See the Getting in sections of Malargüe, San Rafael, or Mendoza. From Buenos Aires (Aeroparque), Aerolineas Argentinas offers direct flights to the San Rafael airport. It is a 2-hour drive from San Rafael to Las Leñas.

By bus
From Buenos Aires it is a 12-hour bus ride to San Rafael or Melargue via the Iselin bus company. During the ski season, the Las Leñas ski resort charters first-class sleeper buses that go direct from Buenos Aires to the ski resort.

In the San Rafael bus terminal, you can catch direct to Las Lenas offered by the Iselin bus company. The bus trip takes up to 3 hours.

By car
You can rent a car or drive your own vehicle to Las Leñas. The trip will take about 11 hours from Buenos Aires. Be aware that you will be driving in hazardous conditions that may include steep, narrow, twisty mountain roads and that are likely to be covered in snow and ice during the ski season (duh!) Transportation authorities require snow chains to be used on many local roadways including RP-222 (the main road into Las Lenas).

Get around
Most of the places are clustered close to each other in the ski village, which is generally easy to get around by walking. Most hotels and restaurants provide free ground transportation. Shuttle buses run between different points. On the mountain, you'll get around on skis or chairlifts. If you drive to the resort, a parking lot is available near the main ski lodge.

Do



 * ski
 * snowboard
 * cat ski
 * spa

Buy
There is a small shopping center that includes a bank, ski-related shops, chocolate shops, souvenir shops, and a supermarket.

Eat
Most hotel have on-site restaurants and commonly sell lodging packages that include breakfast and dinner. As a result, there are relatively few standalone restaurants in the ski village area.

Sleep




Go next

 * Malargüe
 * Mendoza
 * Portillo