adventure & travel

SpotCheck | Sierra Nevada

Snow with a sea view in Europe's southernmost ski resort

by Lea Hartl • 04/20/2016

Ski down until the snow runs out and then climb back up... — Ride down until the snow runs out and then climb up again.

LH

Clarisse Pauer

For most people living in the Alps, Andalusia is probably not on the list of must-visit ski spots. You actually feel a bit strange when you drag your ski bag towards a Spanish budget airline in late spring and are eyed critically by beach holidaymakers.

The view of the Sierra Nevada from the airplane window is all the more reassuring: a reasonably stately, reasonably white mountain range rises out of the brownish surrounding countryside. Not exactly the Himalayas, but definitely enough for a turn or two.

The ski resort

The highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada is the 3482-metre-high Mulhacén and the ski resort also reaches a considerable altitude of 3300 meters. The lift drops you off just below the second highest peak, the Pico del Veleta. Veleta means weather vane or wind vane, in the sense of the figures that indicate the wind direction on roofs. The reason for the name is easy to guess: Anraum sticks to the rocks and many slopes are blown away so smooth as glass that ice skates would be the more appropriate sports equipment.

The wind and temperature-induced ice slabs of the Sierra are legendary. These are not the harmless, "Oops, that was hard" slabs of ice that we know from the Alps, but are in fact amazingly solid ice that no longer has much to do with a rideable surface. Accordingly, everyone here, whether winter hiker, climber or ski tourer, naturally always takes crampons and ice axe with them. Avalanche equipment tends to be regarded as a superfluous luxury. Ski touring is generally an exotic sport compared to the apparently very popular activity of walking with crampons. This is practiced both in the form of walking on the ski slope and in a more technical form in steep, icy gullies in the backcountry.

Powder days are said to have already occurred, but it makes much more sense to speculate on firn in the Sierra. We found this relatively late (mid-April) in a generally rather poor season, still in sufficient quantity and very good quality. The slabs of ice shone brightly in the sun and were easy for us to avoid. The ski resort is of the rather large, somewhat chaotic variety and opens up a lot of easily accessible, easily visible, mostly open, medium-steep terrain.

Touring options

The ski resort is also generally the best starting point for touring. Theoretically, there are a few other access roads, but in spring at least, you can only get to the snow by car from the ski resort. The usual procedure is then: take the lift or climb up close to the ski resort, ski down into one of the valleys on the other side until the snow runs out and then climb back to the ski resort and ski down to the starting point. Even in the side valleys that are accessible in this way, the terrain tends to be open and moderately steep, although there are a few more challenging ski variations.

There is one hut in the sierra that is open in winter, as well as a few others that are not open, which would generally be suitable for ski tours or a traverse. During our visit, the snow conditions were pretty poor, so we didn't do any of these activities.

View into space

The Sierra has a long tradition as a research location for astronomers and there are several old and newer observatories in the middle of the ski resort, as well as one of the largest and most sensitive radio telescopes in the world. The latter in particular dominates the scenery with its huge dish. If you manage to look past the alien-looking telescope, the view of the surrounding countryside of Granada opens up behind it. From the highest point of the ski resort, you can see the sea to the south and the infamous greenhouses of El Ejido. This "Mar del Plástico" is where a large proportion of the cheap vegetables that you find in supermarkets in this country come from. On clear days, the view stretches as far as the Moroccan coast and the High Atlas.

If you are looking for something, you will also find steeper terrain.

LH

Clarisse Pauer

So is it worth traveling from the Alps to southern Spain to ski?

From a purely technical skiing point of view, this is debatable. Of course, the area is beautiful and there are some decent mountains to climb and ski - but the special attraction lies above all in the overall package of Andalusia. If you want, you can have an après-ski beer on the beach and then jump into the sea to cool off. In the early evening, you can stroll through the streets of Granada, surrounded by a light breeze and the scent of blossoming orange trees mingling with the smell of marijuana smoke. Later, of course, it's time for a tapa, preferably in one of the many good, cheap and numerous tapas bars (local knowledge is an advantage). The anxious Alpine dweller sometimes wonders how the landlords earn money with the concept "I'll just give you a sandwich/couscous vegetables/steamed mussels with shrimp garnish" with your cheap beer, but such thoughts give way to deep southern relaxation after the second caña at the latest.

If it doesn't seem plausible to use a ski trip as an excuse to eat tapas, we recommend a climbing trip.

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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