Off-Piste Skiing in the Andes, Chile
In the Andean ski resorts near Santiago, Chile, such as Portillo and Valle Nevado, adventurous tourists often venture beyond the safety of marked pistes. Disregarding clear warnings, they ski or snowboard into unpatrolled backcountry terrain without essential avalanche safety gear, transceivers, or professional guides. This reckless behavior frequently triggers catastrophic slab avalanches in the region’s notoriously unstable snowpack. When a slide occurs, victims are buried rapidly under tons of snow, leading to swift suffocation and death. Rescue in these remote, high-altitude zones is often too late, turning an illicit off-piste run into an immediate and fatal trap.
Off-piste rules and beacons save lives in the Andes – licensed pilots and gear save them in Ölüdeniz. Flip the page to tourists choosing unregulated paragliding outfits for that viral aerial view, paying the price when stalls, tangles, or misjudged landings send them spiraling down…
