By Liam Gallagher

Does your soul feel the South pull yet? It's almost time to go. Sure there's still some riding to be had here in the Northern Hemisphere -- Mammoth and Kirkwood are both open this weekend and there's the glaciers in the Northwest -- but, it's real winter in South America and that's where you belong.

Just so you know: Portillo got pummeled with an early season storm (see photo) that left almost five feet in the upper elevations. That was about a week ago and unfortunately it looks like the temps are well above freezing at resorts in both Chile and Argentina right now. But, it's still early in the season. And, on the bright side, a few spots have really good bases built up.

El Colorado in Chile is claiming a "total a la fecha" of 234 cm or 92 inches and no doubt doing the best, with all that snow settling down to a 5-6 foot base. Las Lenas looks like the place to be in Argentina. They're reporting a 40-inch base at the bottom of the mountain and 60-85 inches up top.

Across the country, Cerro Catedral (click "Parte Diario") is laying claim to a 28-inch base up top, but nothing down low. Thing is, that place gets dumped on like Mt. Baker and it could be on after just one storm. And lastly, Valle Nevado is only reporting a 16-inch base across the entire mountain, but there's still a bunch of lifts open.

If you're trying to make it down there this summer check out Onthesnow.com's Destination South America page. It's got some good info, but take the snow reports with a grain of salt. You're better off checking out the mountain's Web sites themselves. And know that: not all have English versions, so you might have to explore a little. Here's hoping you end up exploring a lot.