Los Penitentes
Los Penitentes is a ski area in Argentina, at about 2,977 m. Its mapped area is about 2.8 km across, with 12 marked runs and 5 lifts (about 10 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 300 cm of snowfall a season, 482nd (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 9th in Argentina. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2026 (664 cm), brought more than 4 times as much as the leanest, 2019 (134 cm). Snowfall days average −2.7 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 2nd of 13 in Argentina.
Elevation of the ski area’s centre point, taken from a digital elevation model. It is not the base-to-summit range.
We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified.
Score breakdown
Powder Score v1.0.0
7-day outlook
| Date | Snow | Temp | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| ❄️ 7 Oct | 19.5 | -7 / 2.2 | 6.2 |
| ❄️ 8 Oct | 2.5 | -12.3 / 0.4 | 8.3 |
| ❄️ 9 Oct | 7.4 | -9.2 / 0.3 | 8 |
| 🌨️ 10 Oct | 3.4 | -10.5 / 3.3 | 7.7 |
| 🌨️ 11 Oct | 0.8 | -5.1 / 2.7 | 5.8 |
| ❄️ 12 Oct | 2.1 | -7.8 / 0.4 | 5.5 |
| ❄️ 13 Oct | 5.9 | -8.1 / -1 | 6.9 |
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Run map
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
Only 14% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift2
- T-bar1
- Rope tow1
- Drag lift1
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score deliberately excludes how much snow falls — it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind. Snowing a lot and snowing well are different things.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Puquios | 5.3 km | 314 cm | 430 |
| Ski Portillo | 27 km | 326 cm | 378 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in June. September brings 79% of July’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Argentina (61%). For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: September brings 45 cm, less than the median of 56 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 300 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019 with 134 cm; the biggest was 2026 with 664 cm (5.0 times as much).
Snowfall each winter (June–September total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
More places to look
Guides covering Argentina
- Which Famous Ski Resorts Actually Get the Most Snow? 24 Names, Measured Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.
- Nevados de Chillán: South America's Snowiest Ski Area, and Why Its Snow Is Wet Nevados de Chillán gets 752 cm a season, 3rd of the 3,069 ski areas we measure and the most in South America by a distance. Its snow falls at an average of +0.3 °C, which is the catch, and its winters run from 188 cm to 1,121 cm.
- In the Andes, Height Does Not Buy You More Snow. It Buys You Snow Instead of Rain. In South America the low ski areas get more snow than the high ones — 387 cm against 307 cm in the middle of each group. Then look at the rain: 2% of winter days against 30%. Volcán Osorno sees rain on 65%. Los Penitentes sees it on 1%.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52