Hannah (who many of our guests will have met guiding here over the past two summers) and her partner Ken have been over for New Years doing some snow shoeing and trying their hand at ski touring. Snow conditions aren’t great at the moment and we’ve not had a huge quantity of snow but they still have had some great days out.

Snowshoeing towards the Col des Arazures

The area around Portalet is always a good bet when the snow’s not so good and there are a whole load of peaks that you can do from there – it’s like a winter playground!

It was Ken’s first taste of ski touring and he’s caught the bug already! You can read more about Hannah and Ken’s adventures on their excellent Apple Mountaineering blog.

At the peak of Cuyaralet with Pico Anayet in the background

The area around Col de Portalet is a winter playground with lots of excellent routes for snowshoeing, ski touring and for the younger ones some fantastic sledging! It’s quite high and well protected from the wind so it’s snow sure even in times when there’s not too much of the white stuff around.

Took Dave up to the peak of Cuyaralet (2286m) which is just into France – the route actually starts from the border post. The weather forescast wasn’t great making Cuyaralet a good choice of peak as it’s not a long day and nav back to the road is nice and easy in case of a white out!

Dave enjoying some powder on the way down

Wrapped up against the cold

The weather was pretty chilly as we set out and dark clouds were threatening so we hurried up at quite a pace, both of us well wrapped up against the cold.

It’s a fairly gradual ascent to start with and then gets steeper as you get closer to the summit.

There were quite a few ski tourers out – it’s a popular route for beginners as it’s not too steep.

Snow conditions weren’t great for skiing though and they looked to be having a hard time on the way down.

The summit gave nice views into the valley of Canal Roya and across to Pico Anayet but the weather looked to be closing in so we only spent a few minutes on the peak before heading down.

Starting on the steeper section

In fact as we made our way down the weather cleared up and there was quite a bit of blue sky above. No longer in such a hurry we had a picnic and then played around in some powder for a while before heading back to the car.

The peak of Cuyaralet in the centre bathed in sunshine now we're on the way down!

There are plenty of other good routes in the area – Canal Roya and Peak l’Iou are another two of my favourites.

The Dolmen at Aguas Tuertas

Last week went snowshoeing to an area called Aguas Tuertas (twisted waters) with the Sabiñanigo mountain club – a beautiful area that I’d not visited before. Lying between the valleys of Hecho and Canfranc it’s a large flat col that a stream meanders through giving the area it’s name.

Snowshoeing alongside the stream at Aguas Tuertas

You can approach Aguas Tuertas from either the Aspe Valley in France or from the Valle de Hecho which is where we started from. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day – more like spring than winter. The area’s not that high and there wasn’t that much snow underfoot – in reality snowshoes weren’t really that necessary.

Heading off from the Valle de Hecho

It wasn’t a very strenuous route but was very pretty and it’s great practise for my Spanish walking with the club (who are very patient with me!).

A dolmen stands at the col in a fabulous location and although it’s only small most people say it’s the prettiest in the region. It’s dated back to 3000 BC and legends say the dolmen is home to the spirits of the region that control access across the pass.

Lovely views across the plain of Aguas Tuertas

The peaks above Valle de Hecho

Great day out in the hills and good to explore a new area.

Fabien snowshoeing near Astun

It’s been snowing heavily in the Pyrenees for over a week now but the weather cleared on Friday and Saturday and it was time to dig the snowshoes out of the back of the cupboard for the first snowshoe outing of the season.The ski resort of Astun was our destination on Friday afternoon and we walked up to Col de Moines on the French border. Great views over the resort to Pico Aspe with the sun setting behind.

The ski resort of Astun with Pico Aspe behind

On Saturday we visited Ibon de Estanés – an area I’d not visited before. It was an unexpectedly wild and beautiful area. Our route took us through woods to a wide plateau called Aguas Tuertas perfect for snowshoeing. Fabulous snow covered mountians rose above us.

Aguas Tuertas and the peak of Secús

As we passed over a low hill we disturbed a large herd of Sarrios (Pyrenean Chamois). There must have been 25 or even 30 grazing on a grassy patch. We were fairly close but they soon sped off at a pace that made us feel like snails!

Sarrios or Pyrenean Chamois

There was a fair amount of snow but wew were a bit lower than the day before and took our snowshoes on and off several times during the day. We took a circular route back past Ibones de Estanés nestled just on the Spanish side of the border. The route down was quite exciting and had there been much more snow would have been impassable. It started with a nice traverse on a narrow path across a cliff face.

Descending from Ibon de Estanés

For the final section there was a set of ‘escalera’ marked on the map – this translates to stairs but we weren’t quite sure what to expect. When we got there we found exactly that – a nice set of steps!

The 'escalera' at Ibones de Estanés

Great day – beautiful weather and whetted my appetite for more snow snowshoeing. The snow’s continuing this week and the mountains around Biescas all have white peaks. Formigal and Panticosa ski resorts are expecting to open on the 27th November and that looks possible with the good base of snow they’ve already got and the forecast for the next week. Can’t wait!

Snowshoeing from the Corefablo Pass

Snow conditions are fabulous at Formigal and the Pyrennes in general at the moment. Last Sunday Fabien and I went snowshoeing from the Cotefablo pass. Interestingly the ridge we walked along is said to be the border of the weather systems with east of the ridge being in the mediterranean weather system and west the atlantic. Today both sides had lovely sunny weather and we had superb views of Monte Perdido and the Ordesa Valley. We headed for a peak called Pico de Toronzue which isn’t particularly high at 2268m but the ridge has plenty of ‘undulations’ so the total height gain ended up at 1100m.

A snow covered Ordesa Valley and Monte Perdido

Great views over the Ordesa National Park from the summit. In the photo above you can see the twin peaks of Gabieto on the left and to the right Las Treseroles – Cilindro, Monte Perdido and Anisclo. The cliffs are the north cliffs of the Ordesa valley.

On the way down we passed these two guys trying out some antique snowshoes – the shoes were older than the owners! They reckoned they were working OK though.

Antique snowshoes

Great day and when we’d finished the sun was still shining so we headed round to Formigal, skinned up a blue and then Fabien took me down some horrible icy off piste black to finish off my legs for teh day!