Cerro Catedral

Patagonia’s flagship ski mountain

Cerro Catedral is a mountain 19 km from San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina, inside the Nahuel Huapi National Park. The ski complex on its slopes is one of the most important in the country, and it is popular as much for the views over Lake Nahuel Huapi as for the skiing itself.

The skiing

Our stats list 120 km of skiing served by 38 lifts between 1,030 m and 2,100 m, a vertical of 1,070 m. The Wikipedia figures are more conservative, giving 48 km of ski runs across a skiable area of 6 km2, so the two sources measure different things; the safe reading is a large mountain with a moderate network of marked runs. What is not in doubt is the lift capacity: 35,000 skiers per hour, which for a resort of this size means the system is built to move crowds quickly. With 38 lifts, the modern lift system is one of the resort’s listed strengths.

The top station at 2,100 m is not especially high, so snow reliability depends on the winter rather than altitude; the season runs from June to October, the southern-hemisphere winter. No difficulty breakdown is provided, but 1,070 m of vertical gives real descents for intermediates and above. For a mountain with 38 lifts the network is also dense, roughly one lift for every 3 km even on the more generous piste figure, so getting around is easy, and the après-ski listed among its strengths starts close to the lifts at the hotels and hostels of the base.

Base, huts and après

Hotels and hostels cluster at the foot of the mountain, so it is possible to stay at the base rather than commuting from Bariloche. Higher up, Refugio Lynch is a hut on one of the summits used by hikers in summer, and Refugio Frey, with a camping area beside the Tonček lagoon near the Torre Principal, the highest point of Catedral, serves trekkers and rock climbers once the snow has gone. Après-ski is listed as one of the resort’s strengths, and the lake views make even the lift rides worthwhile.

The mountain has a competitive pedigree too: on 27 August 2005 it hosted the first South American Ski Mountaineering Championship, together with the final race of the 2005 South American Ski Mountaineering Cup and the second International Open of ski mountaineering.

Getting there

Bariloche airport is roughly 25 km away as the crow flies, and the town of Bariloche is 19 km from the mountain. No official website is held in our data.