Disputes over the sense and access to the practice of skiing in Bariloche (1999-2013)

Snow and skiing are icons of Bariloche and are present in an Argentine imaginary that considers that all its inhabitants have access to the practice of skiing. However, the historical evolution with a past of oppressions, discretionary investments, and national centralism, accentuated by the leading participation of National Parks as from 1934, comprised material and symbolic dispositions which excluded most of the local population from skiing. The evidence gathered in this study indicates that although the practice of skiing in Bariloche was established mainly for a high or medium-high social sector, over time, many proposals emerged to promote access to skiing for broader social sectors, encouraging the appropriation of practices, meanings, and the natural surroundings from a local territory perception.