A Chilean ski resort has put its closing date back into November after an October storm, giving it a season of 143 days.
Valle Nevado, in the Andes above Santiago, will now run lifts for skiing and snowboarding until 8 November. It had planned to close on 18 October, itself a date already extended once.
The reason is the snow. A storm in the first week of October delivered 105cm, or 42.5 inches, in 48 hours. Across the season the resort has taken nearly seven metres, 271.7 inches, against the roughly 230 inches it would expect in a normal winter.
“We opened on June 19, and operating through November 8 will give us 143 days of skiing,” said Dominique Rudloff, the resort's general manager.
The late-season operation is pared back. The hotels have closed, so the extension is aimed at day visitors rather than at guests staying on the mountain.
The Gondola, Andes Express, Prado, Candonga and Vaiven lifts are expected to run subject to conditions. The services at Plaza La Gondola, including rentals, lockers, ticketing, guest services, retail and the clinic, remain open, along with some restaurants.
Neighbouring resorts have made smaller adjustments. El Colorado and Corralco have each announced extensions of about a week so far. Corralco reports the deepest base currently anywhere in the world, at nearly five metres.
What is worth noting is the direction of the dependency. The season was not scheduled and then filled with snow. The snow arrived, at roughly 118 per cent of a normal winter's total, and the season was lengthened to accommodate it.
This makes the closing date an output rather than an input, and the Department of Unnecessary Research has followed the logic to its conclusion. A season defined by snowfall ends when the snowfall ends. No date can be published in advance, because no date is being decided.
The calendar bears this out. A 143-day run beginning on 19 June and ending on 8 November occupies parts of June, July, August, September, October and November: six calendar months, to accommodate the three the resort was built for.
Winter, on this evidence, is whatever the lift schedule says it is, and the lift schedule is whatever the weather last did.
There is supporting detail in the operational arrangements. The hotels have shut, which means the resort is now open to be skied but not to be stayed in. Guests may hire equipment, buy a ticket, use a locker and visit the clinic, in a building whose own season has already ended.
The lifts are listed as expected to run “subject to mountain and weather conditions”, which is the only honest formulation available. If the conditions that extended the season continue, the season continues; if they stop, the date stands.
Corralco has the deepest snowpack currently measured anywhere in the world, and has extended its season by about a week. Valle Nevado has extended by three.
The resort opened on 19 June and will close on 8 November, unless it snows, in which case it will not.