Skiing in the Andes!

Last weekend I went skiing for the first time in about 5 years... in the Andes!  I went with a couple of friends from my program to El Colorado ski resort, which is about an hour out of Santiago.  We got up super early and took the metro to the ski rental place, where we got our skis/snowboards and a ride up to the mountain.  It was absolutely beautiful, and I forgot how much fun skiing is!  All of us were at about the same mediocre level of skiing, so we were all able to keep up with each other.

El Colorado looks out on Santiago, so we would've been able to see the city if there wasn't so much smog!  It gets worse as the day goes on, but when I would look at the city from the mountain all I could see was a giant basin of black haze.  Gross!  But it was so nice to be in the fresh air.

In front of the smog! :

Riding the ski lift:

The whole group after a long day of skiing:

I would love to go again, but the snow is almost all melted from the mountains!  Even though I just went last weekend, it's obvious that most of the snow is gone.  I was lucky to have gone when I did, though--the first Friday of off-season at a student discount=$30 for an entire day's lift ticket (with no lines!) at the most popular ski resort in Chile!