UK blog

     As per the advice of our resident digital media manager, the talented yet peculiar S.W., I've opted to paste each of my UK posts here on the Portillo blog instead of just submitting the link. Due to my arrangement with the Ski Club Great Britain, however, there will be a delay of some days between the posts. Anyways, below is what I wrote for the Ski Club last Friday:

     Hotel Portillo’s timeless living room, warm and dry, is an easy hide out on days such as this, when visibility is bad and the wind is worse. Outside these long windows there is only white. The present storm, which began late Friday night, is supposed to run through until early this week. If everything goes to plan, I won’t get another lake view until next week…. The timing isn’t spectacular (Saturday is the only “busy” day in reception) and the wariest of guests have already checked-out. But for those happy skiers who have chosen to stay, the whiteout is but another gift in what has been an auspicious week at Hotel Portillo.

     Snow levels were so meager at the season’s beginning that opening day was postponed until late June. The first few weeks of July looked to confirm the worst: another year of below average snowpack. As a measure of last resort, ancient Incan snow rituals were almost added to the nightly activities. Yet the snow gods preempted our desperate petitions, delivering the first blow in mid-July. Since then Portillo has been blessed, some may say cursed, with new snow every weekend. This week that rate has doubled, and our current guests will have battled weather upon both arrival and departure.

     Yet with great sacrifice comes great reward, says the ski bum philosopher. Getting to Portillo last Saturday was messy and complicated. The obvious reward, ironically, of deep powder was precisely that which compelled the sacrificial travel effort. The less obvious - nightly wine tastings. That’s right, the dangling fruit, Chile’s finest wines, for all to enjoy – you just had to get there first! Portillo’s 10th annual week, easily one of the hotel’s more popular events, ended on Sunday, and as always, was a huge success. The daily sign-up list is always swarmed with thirty names by one o’clock. People are rarely left out, but the anticipation is enough that signing up becomes an urgent affair. Everyone loves wine week.

     So wine and snow have characterized these past seven days. The nights were livelier than usual, even with people running on tired legs. As I sit here, watching more snow fall, I chuckle at the thought of guests, fresh off tonight’s tasting, taking face shots in the morning. Through plumes of powder, their wine-stained smiles will surely testify to a good week of skiing and drinking in Portillo!