Las Araucarias (Formerly Llaima)

This is skiing at its most elemental: a modest centre clinging to the western slopes of Volcán Llaima, one of Chile's most active volcanoes, deep in Araucanía near the town of Cherquenco. The surrounding forests of araucaria, the emblematic monkey-puzzle trees, give the setting a primeval beauty found almost nowhere else in the ski world. Infrastructure is deliberately simple, drawing travellers who want solitude, raw scenery and a sense of adventure over polish and nightlife. Snow arrives with the cold, wet fronts of the Andean winter, so conditions can be changeable and the volcano's exposure sometimes forces closures in bad weather. As a Southern-Hemisphere resort it operates through the austral winter, broadly June to September.