Snowshoeing in the Ordesa Valley

Snowshoeing in OrdesaOrdesa has had lots of snow this winter and you can snowshoe straight from the Pardera car park where there’s several feet of snow. The valley looks beautiful in the snow and I’ve been over there a couple of times in the past few weeks – one time with Anna and Isabel and the other with a group of student journalists from the States.

Anna and Isabel snowshoeing in Ordesa

Anna and Isabel snowshoeing

Isabel loves playing in the snow although as she was waist deep in places she was soon carried by Dad in the rucksack.

On my second visit with the journalists from Alpine Living magazine we got great views of this Sarrios (or Chamois) in the snow – he wasn’t far off and didn’t seem bothered by us. Had quite a fluffy winter coat with lovely colours.

Chamois (or Sarrios in Aragonese) in Ordesa

Chamois (or Sarrios in Aragonese) in Ordesa

The waterfalls were flowing quite fast however as not much sun gets this deep in the canyon lots ice and icicles flanked them making them look really beautiful.

Cascada del estrecho

Cascada del estrecho

The journalists were from Alpine Living magazine which is a great project. As part of their final year studies about 20 students from Alabama university have come to Spain and are visiting diffent areas and writing articles for and issue of Alpine Living. I showed them round Ordesa and we had a good day snowshoeing.

The guys from Alpine Living magazine

Torla's church with the snowy cliffs of Ordesa behind

Torla's church with the snowy cliffs of Ordesa behind

I don’t get to Ordesa much in the winter and it was great to see the valley in the winter.

The higher level paths have a lot of snow and all paths except for the valley floor up to Refugio Gorz are closed including the Faja de Pelay and Faja Racon. I suspect it could be as late as June for some of the paths to open this year with the amount of snow around.

Isabel in Ordesa

Isabel in Ordesa

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