Winter Mountain Skills Course

Winter Mountain Skills Course

Sierra Nevada Guides run a series of winter skills events in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains each winter. The aim is to give mountain walkers the breath of skills and experience necessary to tackle “non technical” mountains. i.e. mountains that can be ascended without the need for ropes and climbing ability.

Winter Skills, Learning the Ropes!

Winter Skills, Building Snow Shelters

These courses cover the following topics:

Walking with crampons;

Walking with snowshoes;

How to use an ice axe to cut steps and to arrest you if you fall down a slope;

Navigation and route planning;

Building emergency shelters and snowholes;

The use of a rope in emergency situations;

The use of avalanche tranceivers;           

Mountain weather;            and

Snowpack analysis.

Winter Skills, Ice Axe Arrest

Because for most people, the course is a holiday we consider it important to make it fun and to have some mountain objectives. For the week long course we aim to ascend mainland Spain’s highest mountain, Mulhacen 3482m from the Refugio Poqueira. The week long course spends 3 nights in a hotel and 4 nights at the Refugio.

The course is headed by Andy Say (IML and MIC) the Chief Officer of Mountain Training England and staffed and supported by IML’s from Sierra Nevada Guides.

For 2015 we are running from 31^st January to 7^th February.  Cost £825, this includes airport pick ups from Malaga Airport, a week of full board accommodation and tuition. All you need to provide are your flights, personal equipment and beer money!

Sierra Nevada Guides will provide any ropes, snowshoes, helmets, tranceivers and snow shovels, though you are welcome to provide your own.

Sierra Nevada Guides

Winter Skills - Relaxation!!

You can read more about walking in the Sierra Nevada mountains in our article winter on UK Hill Walking.

Sierra Nevada Mountain Rescue

Helicopter landing at the Refugio Poqueira in winter

Spain does not have a volunteer mountain rescue service, however a dramatic rescue of 2 climbers from the north face of Mulhacen on Monday 17th March demonstrates that if you do get into difficulties in the mountains, rescue is possible.

The 2 climbers had left the Refugio Poqueira to climb the rugged north face of mainland Spain's highest mountain where winter conditions include snow, ice and often high winds.  When they had not returned by late evening, the guardian at the refuge informed the Guardia Civil, who had managed to contact the climbers on their mobile phone to ensure they were safe, but belayed on the mountain face. The following morning a rescue helicopter managed to find them and help them down.

Although a difficult situation to be in, it is very comforting to know that our friends at the Refugio Poqueira are vigilant when asking where we are going and the Guardia Civil have skilled mountaineers able to undertake a rescue should this be needed.

Sierra Nevada Mountains in Winter (taken by Refugio Poqueira)

You can read more about the rescue in El Mundo, including a great video clip of the rescue.

The Refugio Poqueira publishes regular updates on conditions in the mountains during the winter months.

Winter Mountain Skills with Sierra Nevada Guides

Winter Mountain Skills with Sierra Nevada Guides

There has been plenty of snow this year in the Sierra Nevada so we have not had to travel far to find good venues for winter skills training.  We have even enjoyed being  snowed in at our mountain house with clients staying so it was a case of putting on snowshoes and snowshoeing from the front door!

Martin Coaching Sally how to use Snowshoes

The Sierra Nevada is in fact a good venue for winter skills training and can be described as being like Cairngorm with altitude.  Strong winds and cold being a problem for those being caught unawares. Like all winter mountaineering, good navigation skills are called for along with a knowledge of weather and snow conditions. Unlike Scotland though, the Spanish maps are not so good, especially as they do not show the many rocky outcrops that it would be so easy to walk over in poor visibility for the unsuspecting novice or person on a first visit.

Approaching the Poqueira Refuge in poor conditions

Last week Sierra Nevada Guides had some clients wanting to learn winter mountaineering skills so we headed off up to the Poqueira Refuge 2500m on snow shoes from near Hoya del Portillo. This is not a difficult walk in normal conditions, taking around two hours in summer.  However with strong winds blowing snow across our faces and with deep snow and poor visibility it took us almost five hours using snow shoes the whole way. Navigation was difficult and needed discipline to know where we were at all times. A good learning experience for our clients and valuable practice.   About 2Km before reaching the hut we had to cross a steep snow gully and icy hill side. This provided an ideal venue for showing how an ice axe works and steps are cut.  However the snow shoes were more than adequate for the slopes and we were soon at the Refuge.

We were the only people staying in the Refuge that night and the guardian seeing us approach had the fire lit and was waiting with hot drinks.  In fact we were treated like royalty!

Leaving the Poqueira Refuge on a perfect morning

Snowshoeing up to the ridge in perfect snow conditions

The following day started with bright sunshine though there was a strong northerly wind.  We decided to take an exposed ridge as our return route but as we were heading south, had the wind on our backs. Once on the ridge, the bright sunshine gave way to thick mist.  Seeing the mist approach and wanting to make things easy I gave a demonstration of how to put a grid reference into a GPS (a 13 figure grid reference on the Spanish Map!) and get the GPS to lead us along the ridge to Puerto Molino and the start of a good broad path.

Following the ridge back to Puerto Molino

On reaching Hoya del Portillo we found that the snow was melting at 2100m so we took off our snow shoes walking the last 1Km along the dirt track road. Beer was found in the village of Capaleira to celebrate a great trip!






Mike, Jane and Martin who run Sierra Nevada Guides are all qualified International Mountain Leaders and the only British qualified guides working in Spain's Sierra Nevada. 

There is much useful information about Spain's Sierra Nevada on the Sierra Nevada Guides website.