Valle Nevado: the REAL Largest South American Ski Resort?

The largest ski resort in South America is Cerro Catedral in Argentina. The second largest is Valle Nevado in Chile. However, Valle Nevado is connected to two other ski resorts: La Parva and El Colorado. Each is independently operated on a separate lift pass, but what if you buy each pass and ski or snowboard them all as one resort? Combined, they have 7000 skiable acres, more than twice the size of Cerro Catedral at 3000 skiable acres and almost as many as Park City, Utah, the largest resort in the U.S. Some points to consider: 1) Passes: If you have the Ikon Pass, Valle Nevado is included. You will only have to buy passes for La Parva and El Colorado. You can do this online in advance for a discount, but you will still have to visit the ticket office at each resort to pick up the pass if you don't already have one that you can reload online. If you have the Power Pass, Valle Nevado and La Parva are both included. You only need to buy a pass for El Colorado. 2) Cost-Benefit: The chairlifts and surface lifts are generally older and slower. So the time spent getting up the mountain can eat up the time that you have to enjoy all of the terrain you paid to be able to access. One solution is to ski or snowboard only two resorts on a given day. Another is not to spend time on a sit down lunch. Bring something to eat on the chairlift. 3) Timing: The best time to ski or snowboard the combined resorts is a weekday because the wait time at chairlifts can be significantly lower. 4) Surface Lifts: If you don't like surface lifts like T-bars and button lifts, you may want to consider whether it's worth it for you to buy passes for all three resorts, as they all have many surface lifts.