Los Penitentes

The summer gateway to Aconcagua [1], 165 kilometers from the city of Mendoza [2], Los Penitentes is an accessible winter resort at a base altitude of 2,580 meters.

Covering 300 hectares, Los Penitentes has 28 separate runs totaling 25.5 kilometers; lift tickets range US$27–41 per day, depending on the time of the season. Many people, however, buy multiday tickets and contract full packages at the resort or other hotels in town. For more details, contact Los Penitentes (tel. 0261/428-3601, www.penitentes.com [3]).

For details on Aconcagua-based sights and activities, see Parque Provincial Aconcagua [1].

Affiliated with Mendoza’s Campo Base Hostel, the Hostel Refugio Penitentes (tel. 0261/429-0707, www.penitentes.com.ar [4]), just west of the YPF gas station, is open all year; summer rates range US$9–11 pp dorm, but ski season rates with half board are the best value in town.

Penitentes’s best accommodations, the 50-room Hotel Ayelén (RN 7 Km 165, tel. 02624/42-0229 or 420230, www.ayelen.net [5], US$43/59 s/d inpenitentes.com.ar, summer US$80 s, US$97 d) also has a restaurant, but the spacious rooms have limited views. Accommodations include shuttle service to and from the park entrance, and they also offer other excursions in the vicinity.

Nearby, under the same management, Hostería Ayelén (tel. 0261/427-1123 or 0261/427-1283, US$1228–38 pp) is a cheaper but still very good alternative with accommodations in doubles, quadruples, and sextuples with private baths; it also has an inexpensive pizzeria.