SAM Magazine—Tres Valles, Chile, May 10, 2024—Durango, Colo.-based Mountain Capital Partners (MCP), which already owns Valle Nevado ski resort in Chile’s Tres Valles, has entered an agreement to acquire the adjacent La Parva Ski Resort. 

Upon closing of the acquisition, MCP would own two of the three resorts in Tres Valles. The third, El Colorado, is the closest to the Chilean capital, Santiago. 

MCP became majority owner of Valle Nevado in 2023.

“Valle Nevado and La Parva represent some of the best ski resort brands in South America,” said MCP managing partner James Coleman in a press statement. “Together, with these two world-class resorts, we are committed to creating the largest and best lift-served resort in the world.

“While there have been many who have said this merger would never happen, there have been visionaries who dreamed about bringing these resorts together, and today, that day has come,” he added. “Thanks to the incredible support of this community and our team of employees, we’re proud to be the ones to formally join Valle Nevado and La Parva.”

MCP plans to leave the existing management and staff in place at La Parva as it did with Valle Nevado. Coleman said investments at La Parva will prioritize new lifts, adding snowmaking, and developing more trails.

La Parva has 14 lifts, 40 named trails and more than 3,000 feet of vertical, with access to over 200,000 acres of heli-skiing terrain, along with a Bavarian-style ski village and trails and lifts that interconnect with Valle Nevado. 

Tres Valles has the largest amount of lift-served skiable terrain in the Southern Hemisphere. The two Chilean resorts are the first international properties in the MCP portfolio, which includes Colorado’s Purgatory Resort; Arizona Snowbowl; Brian Head Resort and Nordic Valley Ski Resort in Utah; Lee Canyon in Nevada; New Mexico’s Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort, Pajarito Mountain Ski Area, and Sandia Peak Ski Area; and Willamette Pass Resort in Oregon.

—Reported by Bob Curley