Spain in-depth: Adventure
Ski in Spain
Ski in spain
In Spain, on top of being a sun and beach country, you can do an infinity of outdoor activities, and given all the existing mountains in the country, skiing in Spain is a very popular sport during the winter. You can find around 30 ski stations throughout Spain, with beautiful installations regarding ski lifts, T-bars and hotels that are at walking distance from the slopes which will all contribute to making your skiing vacation in Spain unforgettable.
The Pyrenees is where you will find half of the Spanish ski stations, divided in between the Aragon and Catalan Pyrenees, on top of the Andorra ski stations. In the majority of these ski stations you have signaled courses for the practice of cross country skiing or areas for snowboards and freestyling.
Starting with the 10 ski stations of the Aragon Pyrenees: Astún, Candanchú, Cerler, Formigal, and Panticosa. Where, on top of the kilometers and kilometers of slopes, you’ll find the fabulous Candanchu cross country course with more the 15 kilometers of designated slopes.
On another hand, you’ll find another 10 ski stations in the Catalan Pyrenees: Astún, Formigal, Cerler and Panticosa in Huesca, Baqueira Beret, Boí Taull, Espot, Tavascán, Port Ainé, and Port del Comte in Lerida, La Molina y la Masella in Lerida and Vall de Nuria and Vallter 2000 in Gerona. Where the peaks of Boí Taüll stand out with a base of 2020meters and an altitude to up to 2751 meters, where the quality of the snow is fabulous, the scenery incomparable and with no large crowds.
In the Cantabrian mountain chain, you’ll have most of the ski stations at low level and of smaller size. You’ll find two in Asturias (Pajares and Fuentes de invierno), three in León (San Isidro, Leitariegos and el Morredero) Alto Campoo in Cantabria, Lunada in Burgos and Manzaneda in Orense.
There are also four ski stations in the Iberian system: highlighting Valdezcaray in the north of the Demanda Mountains and the Peaks of Urbion as more regular stations regarding skiable days, the contribution of artificial snow in the rest of the stations makes skiing easier in Javalambre and Valdelinares in Teruel.
In the Central System you’ll find two ski stations in the Madrid Mountains, one in Navacerrada and another in Valdesqui, the Pinilla in Segovia and the Covatilla in Salamanca. Being so close to the capital there are a lot of crowds and parking problems which is why we recommend getting up early during peak season.
Lastly, one of the most famous ski stations in Spain is near Granada, Sierra Nevada is in the penibetic system, about 30 kilometers away from Granada and with the title of being the most southern ski station of Europe, with more than 100km of snow on more than 100 slopes suitable for different levels and only a few kilometers away from Almuñecar beach, where you can do other sports like scuba diving and sailing and you can always go bar hopping in Granada if there is wind or bad weather.
You can’t forget that skiing is an activity that is performed in direct contact with nature so it is important to take into account the weather, being aware of the forecasts and to always comply with basic security measures when you’re on the mountain, the ski lifts, the slopes and to always wear adequate skiing equipment that is in good shape to avoid hurting yourself and others.
