Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Nips and tucks

29th June 2010, by Wendy King

Port-Ainé

How do you best squeeze over 1,000 resorts into a limited page directory? And how do you decide which of those resorts really merits a longer write-up? Tough call, and one we face most years as we juggle the main chapters around to include new ones or promote others. It’s easy to write lots of copy, harder to prune it, harder still to summarise in four lines the key elements of a resort when your readers report so enthusiastically about a place. All part of producing a resort guide.

But it was reading about tiny Pejo’s (near Passo Tonale) new cable car that got me thinking about all the ‘forgotten’ places we list, and remembering a resort I stumbled upon years ago in the Pyrenees. It was summer; I was trekking the Spanish mountains and spotted signs for a ski area. Neat little place, with fast chairs and a hotel on the slopes. While it may have been deserted in August, you could imagine the broad bowl covered in powder; the wide slopes giving gentle cruising around the base station. Spanish families filling the snow garden. And great turns between the stubby Pyrenean trees. The place? Port-Ainé - purpose-built in 1986 and quite modern, yet high in a splendid Pyrenees national park region. Its place on the Spanish side involves more effort to reach; then there’s the long, precipitous mountain road to nearly 2000m. But what a view when you get there.

I wonder how many British skiers venture to places like this; remote as they are from the main hubs? It would only gain modest stars for extent, but for queues it likely would do quite well. Maybe I’ll find my way back to Port-Ainé to ski one day, “because it’s there” [as Mallory said of Everest]

And I wonder how many readers delve into the directory pages, and pick somewhere different? Next time you open a copy of the book, have a read; you could find yourself on the slopes of Klippitztörl (I randomly opened my copy there!).

Which brings me back to editing our resorts. Our first batches of chapters are being finalised this week, and I always feel proud when viewing the pages. Another edition is on its way shortly ... It’s even more special, when you realise ‘I wrote that bit and it’s about to go to print!’ Eeek.

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