Has anyone skied in Sierra Nevada?

Sorry to post this in the French section :oops:, but there isn`t a section for Spain!
[there is now - Admin 8) ]

I`m looking at booking for Sierra Nevada in 2010 ( I always book a chalet for 10-15 people a year in advance!) and was wandering if anyone has any experience of this resort? I know it is at a high altitude, has a good snow record and is meant to be the sunniest ski resort in Europe, but that`s about all i know. I don`t know anyone who`s been, and independant advice is always better than the biased chalet owner/tour operator advice!

Any info with regards to personal experiences, resort size, accessability, apres ski etc etc much apriciated.

Rob

Yes we were there in 1989 when the whole resort got devastated by a 3 day white out, never been skiing anywhere where the walls were soaked because of the amount of snow coming at the hotel walls. For 3 days we had no idea where we were, it was weird! - and scary!!

Needless to say the sun came out, and please beware, this is a high resort and extreme weather, so you will need a high sunblock!! I severely burned my face by putting on the wrong factor. When the wind blows, it can get a bit hairy (both on and off the lifts!)

We stayed at the Nevasur at the top of the village, which was OK but a hike down each day. The hotels are strangely named, but most were very nice. The resort lacked any atmosphere but this may have changed now (a lot can happen in 20 years!).

The skiing was up on an area called Borreguilles, which was nice but limited because of the damage to ski lifts (never seen a ski lift pylon bent before!!) and the ski school was good fun!

I remember it was a cheap option, and although not really an alpine atmosphere, it was a good week. As I said it was 1989 and things may have altered.

@admin - I'm sure I mentioned the lack of a Spain forum some while ago...

Anyway, yes I've been up there, and it's a great resort. A lot of the runs can get a little hard packed if there's been no snow for some time, and there can be long gaps between dumps, but they have a lot of canons and usually keep at least a good minimum set of runs in a good condition.

Accessability is easy, it's about 20 minutes drive from the city of Granada, with huge amounts of parking at the top. If you're staying in town there's a lift down from some of the outermost apartments to the centre, so access to the main lifts is pretty good all over.

The main gondola up to the skiing area can be a bit of a bottleneck first thing in the morning - you basically have to go up to the top of that, and then more lifts spread out from there. But here's a tip: when you see the queue for the gondola, go past it and round to the right - there's a chair lift hidden away there which a lot of people seem to ignore or not know about, and which has much shorter queues - and it doesn't take much longer to get up to the top.

As for apres-ski there's the usual stuff, the Spanish like to party as much as anyone.

I'm actually going there for the day tomorrow, so if I think of anything else while I'm there, I'll give you an update.

Cheers

HDB

Huge amounts of snow this year :D I wonder if the next season can be as good?

I have been there five times now just for short stays whilst I was at Uni out there. It is a great resort, but can be a bit unpredictable snow wise although having said that this year they have had a lot (more than a lot of traditional resorts). There is an awesome off piste bowl on the right hand side as you look up the mountain with a great wind lip to drop off.

I went up there last week. Normally Euro 40 for a day pass, 36 for half day, more than I am used to paying, it was only slightly cheaper for end of season. And you have to pay fairly high car park charges. Lots of nice lifts. Soft spring snow lower down, I am not a great skiier and took a couple of heavy falls (which I put down to my poor weight transfer skill creating more problems in the soft spring snow than in easier snow).

I hired skis at a restaurant on the way for Euro20, the skis were called Dynamic, all round carvers, so far as I could judge heavy and poor quality. Maybe the hire places at the resort are better.

In my mind the fact they offer you poor skis went with the fact it is not a skiing area, very different from the Alps where the locals pretty much all know their stuff when it comes to winter sports. Sierra Nevada was full of beginners, and full of locals giving skiing a go for an odd day. There must be lots of new skiiers as the resort was reporting unprecedented custom, and at the weekend the news said the only road in had been closed owing to excess traffic.

There were a few half-way decent skiiers, and very few really good skiiers. Baby slopes were full, difficult slopes empty. My impression was that most of the snowboarders were real beginners going fairly slowly (rather than the kind which bugs me in the Alps, ie. guys whose speed and confidence look like they are accelerating ahead of their skill). I went down a short and relatively easy black, marked 'Very Difficult'. It was at the limit of my skill, but the nice thing was it was deserted, so pretty safe.

It was the brightest, warmest, most burning sun I hvae ever seen in the snow. I have a bit a phobia against sun glasses and tinted goggles, but in this case they were essential, so I bought a pair for Euro10 from one of the many north African hawkers you also find on the beaches in that part of the world.

The resort's main webite seems to be Spanish only, the 'idiomas' ('langauges') button does not seem to work. Spain is generally a country where you cannot rely on people knowing English, even in tourist places or the areas where there are a lot of British immigrants. For example in the ski hire place the guy showed willing with 'thank you' but could not speak any English at all. There are however many British-run businesses of all kinds catering mainly for British customers, including in skiing.

Innsbrucker thanks for the promotion of "ye olde" Alps skiing tradition, but in Norway they claim they invented skiing as well.

Sierra Nevada has the same number of beginners as any resort close to a city, Granada, which has a very cosmopolite herd od turists and foreign/local students.
I suppose that in Innsbruck you don´t get pounds for pennies, well in Sierra Nevada is the same: cheap hire, cheap skis???. Although I seriously doubt about your sapience on ski equipment as, this for you despectively noted, "Dynamic" is a well known French brand.
There were many English speaking skiers&families when I went 2 years ago during Feruary white weeks/Carnival.
:lol:Another contradiction; for a place, you say, not used to skiing, how on earth there was such a traffic jam? They don´t ski, do they?

I agree, not the cheapest skipass and long weekend queues at the bottom.
Go as i did on 21st April 2001, ][b]WONDERFUL,SUNNY, NOT POPULATEDpistes[/b] ; no wonder it was formerly known as SolyNieve. :)
From Fuengirola(Málaga) to Sierra Nevada just 90 min drive, not later than 6:30 pm back to a late beach hit. Moreover, if you stay on the "[b]Costa Tropical"[/b] or East [b]Costa del Sol[/b] is just a jiffy.

Back to the ski,February 2007, by that time there had been a 4 year gap in my skiing activity and I was 5 stones heavier :oops: and the conditions on first day were dreadful: Foggy,snow sprinkling,windy. I hired a One2One ski instructor, [b][b]"Ricky"[/b[/b]] from [b]TELEMARK Ski hire&Ski School[/b] ) to get me off rust and Good Lord he did it!!
Next day a complete change,a SOL ESPLÉNDIDO. Ricky was engaged so I got "the Boss"(Jose Antonio??) of Telemark who being Sunday and noticing that I was again well polished, took me to the routes and slopes free from the weekenders frenzy.
One of my best skiing days, you know, one of those that everything goes right and as I say "is the snow that gets tired, not you".
Then, yes the stranded traffic down to Granada Airport but we got a canny plan following locals through the old road to Granada town: we saved 30 minutes.

We arrived on thursday night with Ryanair, missed the first day Friday: Sunny but Windy day so pistes closed and headed to Granada for sightseeing&shopping&tapas and at 3 pm hit the motorway for the Almuñecar coast resort and back in Granada at 9 pm ready for [b]"cena" and fiesta.[/b]
[b]Weekend 2 day Ski breaks possible, go to the Sur!![/b]

I am not buying it based on whats been said so far