Tucked into the Andes Mountains in Chile, Ski Portillo is a place where time stands still. With no town and limited rooms, there's not much to do besides ski – which is exactly the point.

For many, a modern-day ski resort might include towering peaks cloaked in fluffy snow, high-tech lift lines, luxurious hotels with fabulous spas, buzzing apres-ski bars and shops filled with the latest in cold-weather fashion. These days, top mountain destinations are bustling winter wonderlands that cater as much to non-skiers as they do to powder hounds. But tucked away in the Chilean Andes is Ski Portillo, a remote, all-inclusive resort that's only open during the South American winter. There's little to do but ski – and for its devoted fans, that's exactly the point.

Spread across 5 sq km and home to 35 trails serviced by 14 lifts (including several drag lifts), Portillo was the first ski resort in South America. While it is not as massive as what you'll find in the Rockies or Alps, its off-piste terrain and advanced-level challenges have made it a bucket list destination. Just as important is the atmosphere: Portillo feels frozen in time – in the best way.

While other resorts have aggressively modernised, Portillo has held fast to its old-school charm. Getting here requires a two-hour drive north-east from Santiago on the same narrow mountain highway as transport trucks. The bright yellow hotel – where visitors gather for meals and barside revelry – has barely changed. Overnight capacity has only grown ever-so-slightly to 450 since it opened. There's no town to hang out in, and not much for non-skiers to do.

Launched by the Chilean government in 1949, Portillo's modern era began in the 1960s when Bob Purcell, a New York finance hotshot, won it at auction (he was the sole bidder). He then asked his nephew Henry, then 26 and making his way up at Hilton Hotels, to become its general manager. Skiing in the area goes back even further: Norwegian engineers traversed the mountains on skis in the 1880s while working on the railway linking Chile to the Argentine city of Mendoza on the other side of the Andes. After its completion in 1910, locals would ride the train – as if it were a ski lift – before skiing back down the peaks. That railway is long gone, but Portillo, equipped with real ski lifts now, is still going strong, with the Purcells still at the helm.

According to Ellen Guidera Purcell, Henry's wife and a key figure in Portillo's day-to-day operations, the early days mostly involved the Purcells inviting their famous friends here for ski parties. "The parties were an omen of the future," Guidera said. "Because Portillo has continued not only as a place for beautiful skiing but also as a place for good times with family and friends, a place of happy dinners, parties, bar dancing and making memories."

Carolina Mendoza, a retired business owner, first visited Portillo in the mid-1970s........

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