Epic day! 2x800m in POWDER, pines, steep peaks and endless slopes! February, 27th 2013

This is what splitboard is made for...

Round one: from the tunnel at 1300 - cabana deth Pontet - snowy point at 2000m

Its not the Rocky mountains, its the Pyrinees...

Utah...??

Colorado...?!

Good place to take a break after such a good descent...

Local wild animals...There is a deer!!

 

Round 2: from the tunnel - endless forest - Tuc Hornos qt. 2200m....

This was a off day at work so I had to make the most of it. Nobody where climbing up peaks (high risk of avalanche), but there were plenty of skiprints made by locals going to the good and safe slopes...

I was nearly a couple of hours just skining up through the forest. Althoug I had a map, I wasn´t sure where this skiprint was taking me. But such a marked path must go to a good place...Together with the tiredness sometimes made it difficult when I just kept going up through a close forest.....

    

But as I though locals knew where they were going....The forest opened up above 1900m...

My aim was Tuc de Hornos. There was just 200m left but nobody had gone any further from this coll. It looked quite risky to do it on my own so I made the wise decision of snowboarding down...

Up the is the coll...These turns are priceless...And I assure you there were many of them from 2200m to 1700m.

Endless slope...By that time I had acumulated +1600m and my legs were sore...

From 1700 skiprints went into a tube which took me to the path 10mins away my car...

I havent been yet to the Rockies....but I guess it must be something close to this day....ja-ja

Tuc de Beret, 2590m February, 23th 2013

 Friends came last weekend. As it could not be other way, that weekend was the greatest one in all winter with stellar sunny days to enjoy the snowpack. I missed it!  Anyways...

Despite the "alarm situation" that media hasnt stopped talking about I knew weather in the Pyriness would not be that bad except for the sharp drop in temperatures. I wanted to go the best place with the information given .Yesterday night there was a change to better in eastern pyrinees forecast but where I really wanted to go was: Aran. Most weather forecast gave Sun too. It appeared to be that in Aran weather goes on its own.

I got Viella snowing. I didnt make the same mistakes that 2 weekends ago so I waited some time and then I saw how sky started to clear up in some parts. Finally, Aran was giving me a whirl although I had to change the mountain.

There was -13ºC when I left my car with my skies on as I am getting used to. I am going to a peak which is quite close to Beret. Actually the first 300m are in the ski area.

Its possible to avoid easily to have to skin up on the pistes. The terrain is very open so I stayed away from the pistes.

It was cloudy and foggy sometimes.

There it is. I am alone although I saw a man descencing while I was going up. He told me he declined going any higher from here because of the fog. I think I was lucky.

I kept going. 

And summit. It was foggy right when I took the pic. As you can see, the day was extremely cool. My eyebrows, eyelash and woolen hat are frozen. I estimate that temperature up there was between -18ºC and -20ºC based on the -13ºC at 1800m. Not counting the moderate wind sometimes blew...Guess the wind chill!!

And God weather gave me the best time to go down. I think he knows I loved this too much so....he was kind!

Shame I dont have a GoPro...It was one of those descents in which each turn raises a "cloud" of snow in front of oneself and you pass through it....

Happiness!!!

                                                      I wasnt deep but fast and light...

I am not the only mad...Another guy tracking up alone. We crossed a couple of words....Too cold to talk!!

The lonely pair of pine trees.

At 2200 I reached the ski area but I went down searching for the scattered forest I went up through.

Well It was disappointing to see how it was sunny all day long in Puigmal area....but at least I ended up doing something here again with fabulous snow. 

Tossa Plana de LLes, 2918m February, 10th 2013

Today was a proof of faith after the snowy day I enjoyed/suffered yesterday in Aran when Sun was even suppose to shine in the morning.

I was not going to go skiing today, but for some reason -maybe universal balance- I motivated myself when I was trying to sleep in saturday´s night.

Weather forecast predicted again just cloudy sky. But really, what would weather be like? Today´s forecast was more accurate and yes...I finally managed to enjoy a sunny day with the big amount of snow fallen in the last weeks.

I went to Cerdanya for first time in my life. I have always heard abour this part of the eastern Pyrinees. The peak chosen was the second highest peak in Cerdanya, just after Carlit and above Puigmal for a few meters.

I started at 1950 from Lles ski nordic resort. Consider that all the route is south face....Beatiful pine woods loaded of snow. Deep snow in the whole trail as it used to be in Alps.

I had to deal with the deep snow on my own sometimes.

Then I got the trail again. there were a great deal of people tracking up. Coming from the valley, sometimes clouds reduced visibility.

I was almost there....

Last meters to the summit....Calling it as "plana" makes all sense! 

Sono pronto per scendere!! (2918m)

The snow was impressive! Great powder in the endless slope of this peak...This was, by the way, one of the longest slope I ever rided straight....Nearly 1000m of just descending straight an so making the most of the descent...

And it keeped going...(2700m)

....and going...(2400)

...and going...(2200)

...and going...Sierra del Cadi at the background

...and going...(2000m)...

Then one piste would take me in 40min to the car. This was what i could call a "descent-effective" peak...All the way down from 2918m to 1975m...

Era Cauva, 1800m February, 9th 2013

Weather forecast failed...It was snowing almost all day long but still good visibility. When I arrived in Viella sky was pretty grey so I decided to go to the ski resort since I didnt see any car parked where the track to this mountain started. 

So I paid 47€ and despite the uncertain weather I enjoyed 3h riding through the pine forest of the bottom of the resort. Then I saw Sun shinng in some part, but not in the resort where looked even worse -no longer visibility in the forest. At this point I had to make a decision: either stay in the resort or try back country in the "sunny" area. I chose the second one, even having paid the skipass....

I left the cark in Hotel la Tuca in Viella and went up on a track. It was 13pm so i was quite pressed for time. The amount of snow was astonishing. I started at 950m and everything was buried under the snow.

As Í went higher the forest turned into pines mainly. There was so much snow that the track I followed cutted down the dirty road, so all the ascent was mainly through a beatiful forest.

At 1500, the forest got open...

I keeped going up whereas some skiers were going down. By that time the snowfall was getting heavier and heavier...and it was 3pm. I dediced to stop going up. It was getting to late, and the last thing I wanted was to get lost in the middle of the forest at night under the snowfall.

I enjoyed fresh deep snow....Best conditions! At least it wasnt foggy so visibility was good enough!

The forest was magical under the moderate snowfall...

At 1400m I took the dirty road again.Its difficult to believe cars come up here. I splitted the board up so I let myself slide all the way down.

I arrived at the car. I made a good decision going back. With this weather conditions it was dark at 5pm.