An avalanche swept through the area around Laguna del Inca on Saturday, 17 October 2026, near the Portillo ski centre in the Andes of central Chile. Chile's national police said the snow carried the seven people involved into a lagoon. The regional delegate for Valparaíso, Manuel Millones, put the time of the slide at about 14:45 local time and initially said four people had died, with four more injured, one of them seriously. Later reports citing the national disaster agency Senapred put the death toll at at least three and the number of injured at four. The injured were taken to a health centre in the city of Los Andes, roughly 80 kilometres from Santiago.
Media reports cited by the authorities say all the victims are Chilean citizens who took part in an unauthorised outing into a closed sector. Millones told the 24 Horas channel that the group went to the site on its own and was not made up of guests from the Portillo ski centre, whose season closed on 12 October. The hotel at the resort had no guests that weekend. The group was climbing in snow-covered mountains near Laguna del Inca, a high-altitude lake at about 2,800 metres, when the slide hit. Millones also described the condition of some of those hurt in direct terms.
“There are people in an extremely critical situation.”
Senapred had issued an early preventive alert for weather events across the Andes, especially the commune of Los Andes, yet the alert did not bar people from open-air activity there. Christian Cardemil, the agency's director for Valparaíso, said the ski centre was not operating that weekend. He called on residents to keep the alerts in force in mind wherever they go, and he warned that the combined effect of several variables can create risks even when access to a place is not blocked.
“We have to understand the impact that the different variables have when they converge, and potential risks that will not necessarily prevent access to the place.”
Los Andes mayor Manuel Rivera said snow depth at Portillo had reached nine to ten metres, a level he described as a record high. The excursion took place in the early afternoon, when meltwater runs fastest after temperatures rise. The slide came after a hot day that added to a large accumulation of snow on the slopes.
Rivera told the TVN channel that human negligence lay behind the accident. In his account, visitors stayed in a restricted zone despite warnings, and they chose a time when the snowmelt was at its strongest. Those statements place the responsibility on the people who entered the area rather than on the resort, which was closed for the season. The number of dead and injured reported so far reflects the figures available on Saturday, 17 October, and the status of the one person described as seriously hurt has not been updated in the reports reviewed here.
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The avalanche struck near the Portillo ski centre in the Chilean Andes on Saturday, 17 October, leaving at least three dead and four injured. Authorities say the victims were on an unauthorised outing in a closed area.
AI text based on reports by Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bloomberg Business, Der Tagesspiegel and other publishers. Published .