The Highest Ski Resort Ever Built Is Now An Abandoned Snowless Wasteland

Chacaltaya, Bolivia was once home to the highest ski resort in the world. Today the site is nothing more than a deserted pile of rocks. The ski resort was located about 10 miles north of La Paz, Bolivia on an 18,000-year-old glacier that is now gone.

Chacaltaya Ski Resort sat higher than the North Base Camp of Mount Everest, reaching 17,519 feet above sea level. It help the world record as the highest ski resort for decades, and the restaurant at the resort is still often recognized as the highest restaurant in the world.

Scientists at the Mount Chacaltaya Laboratory starting releasing some stark predictions for the fate of the glacier in the 1990s. The scientists projected that the Chacaltaya Glacier would be completely melted by 2015. They were wrong. By 2009, the 18,000-year-old glacier had completely melted.

The area still sees occasional snow, sometimes enough to ski. (2005)

Location of Chacaltaya, Bolivia

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