A gray-blue morning peels away from Santiago as the road climbs into the Andes and the city shrinks behind you. Snow edges the highway, then thickens into a bright field where cable cars dot the ridgeline and the wind seems to play with your breath. Farellones arrives first—a cluster of wooden cabins and a snowpark where tubing, sledding, and short zip-line runs punctuate the slope traffic—then the van continues higher, depositing you at Valle Nevado’s alpine bowl at 3,333 meters, where ridgelines funnel wind and light into dramatic, readable lines.