Winter Skills Training in Spain’s Sierra Nevada

Winter Skills Training in Spain’s Sierra Nevada with Sierra Nevada Guides

Winter Skills Course - Mulhacen Summit, 3482m

The Sierra Nevada has the highest mountain in mainland Spain, Mulhacen 3482m. Although it is Europe’s most southerly major mountain chain, it usually has a good covering of snow from December through to March with winter mountaineering  and skiing possible from late November until early May.

This year Sierra Nevada Guides are running a week of winter mountain skills training from 31^st January until 7^th February. 3 nights spent in a hotel and 4 at the Refugio Poqueira at 2500m. The week is being led by Andy Say, Executive Secretary (Chief Officer) of Mountain Training England, assisted by Sierra Nevada Guides.

Winter Skills Course - Descending Steep Ground

Although weather dependent, the proposed itinerary is as follows:

Saturday 31st

Arrive at Malaga Airport

Depart for Lanjaron, optional lunch at Salobrenea (beach bar 10 Euro’s).

Arrive Hotel Alcadima, tour of Lanjaron.

Evening session: Safety and Equipment.

Sunday 1st

Depart hotel around 9am.

Puento Palo for introduction to walking with crampons, snow shoes and ice axe breaking techniques.

Back to hotel for debrief and session discussion re: ascending to Refugio Poqueira.

Winter Skills Course - Learning the ropes!

Monday 2nd

Depart hotel with gear and clothes for 4 nights, 9am.

Walk from Capileira to Refugio Poqueira.

Evening session: Navigation and Route Planning.

Tuesday 3rd

Navigation Practice,  Use of Avalanch Tranceivers,  Building Snow Shelters.

Evening session: Mountain Weather

Wednesday 4th

Putting it into Practice 1 – Rio Seco / Rio Mulhacen

Winter Skills Course - Near Mulhacen's summit

Thursday 5th

Putting it into Practice 2 – A winter ascent of Mulhacen 3482m.

Friday 6^th

Walk out from Refugio to Capileira.  Hotel

Saturday 7^th

Depart for Malaga Airport and Home.

The Cost £825 includes full board accommodation, airport pick up and drop off and tuition throughout the week. You will need your own ice axe and crampons (we have some spares) and winter clothing. We will provide helmets, ropes, snowshoes and tranceivers.  Oh yes, you will also need some beer money!

Full details of the course are on the Sierra Nevada Guides website.

Sierra Nevada Guides are a company of International Mountain Leaders based in Spain's Sierra Nevada.

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.