World’s highest ski area closes - Patrick Thorne
Monday April 20, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

Chacaltaya was established 70 years ago in 1939 and operated a fast and "extremely difficult to ride" cable tow - it involves chucking a hook over a speeding cable.

The base is reached by a remarkable road, heroically built in the 1930s by the Bolivians up to the closest ski area to La Paz, their capital.

The cable tow!The man in charge of construction died in an avalanche in 1945 - which the locals believe was an act of vengeance by the snow gods and is given as the reason why there's been no new ski areas in Bolivia since. 

Apart from being the world’s highest ski area it was famous for being the most northerly South American ski area, the closest 'proper' ski area to the equator anywhere in the world and the oldest and fastest lift in South America. 

The lifts of Mérida in Venezuela are in fact further north and closer to the equator but there are no actual dedicated ski lifts or ski runs there. 

Chacaltaya operated only at weekends in the Southern Hemisphere's 'warm season' - which is, uniquely, the Southern Hemisphere's summer and the same period as the Northern Hemisphere's winter because conditions are too hard, icy and dry in the Southern Hemisphere's winter.

The world’s highest ski area is now Jade Dragon Ski Mountain in Yunnan Province, China, which was first accessed by a new gondola only ten years ago in 1999.

The gondola reaches 4516m and last year the resort introduced a surface tow at the top of the mountain creating a basic ski area above the gondola.

It is not officially permitted to ski down the mountain from the gondola although this has been achieved by ski writer Jimmy Petterson when researching his book, Skiing Around The World.

Jade Dragon sells altitude sickness tablets and oxygen bags to visitors who need them.

Patrick Thorne works for www.skiinfo.com, the web site with snow reports from around the world.

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