San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina – Despite ash rain from the erupting Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic complex in Chile, officials at Cerro Catedral ski resort near Bariloche are still planning to start the ski season as scheduled on June 17.

“We are still waiting, by the moment things continue normally and the opening is still on for the 17th,” Catedral Alta Patagonia spokesperson Sofía Ruiz Guiñazú said on Wednesday.

Chilean authorities have indicated that volcanic activity has decreased since this past weekend’s start of the eruption, and snow is now falling on the mountains surrounding Bariloche.

“Now we don´t have ash falling,” Ruiz Guiñazú added. “A lot of snow fell during the last hours, like 30 cm in the upper part of the mountain. We remain calm and optimistic that things are going to change quickly.”

The volcano along the border between Chile and Argentina, 620 miles south of Santiago, began a massive eruption on Saturday for the first time since 1960, sending ash six miles into the sky. The ash plume drifted as far east as Argentina’s Atlantic coastline before circling back across Chile over the weekend. Officials evacuated some 4,000 residents near the volcano, fearing the spread of toxic fumes and flash floods.

Airborne ash canceled all flights between Buenos Aires and the ski resorts of Bariloche, Esquel and Chapelco over the weekend. These flights have yet to resume, although some flights departing Bariloche later today remain scheduled.