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Winter returns to Formigal

1st April 2010, by Wendy King

Take your pick of the powder

It was the first day of April today, but it could have been January this morning. There was fresh snow on the ground, lots of new powder on the mountain and a fiercely cold wind blowing. And I have just enjoyed some of the best snow quality of my trips this season. To top it off, the skies gradually cleared to reveal some Spanish sun – marvellous.

No fooling: this is sunny Formigal on 1 April 2010

We awoke to another 10-15cm of fresh, grippy powder on the slopes, possibly more in the sheltered freeride bowls which were in great conditions for first tracks. And there is excellent ‘between the pistes’ skiing around here. We started at the Sextas base – the closest lift station and lodge to the resort, with a plan to explore the Tres Hombres area first. It has Formigal’s only wooded area too, so a little more sheltered from the icy blast.

An eight-seat chair whisks you up from Sextas. This morning there were the inevitable holiday queues, but they moved speedily through and we did not have to wait longer than 10 minutes (not bad for Easter weekend and the only lift serving the slopes properly from this base). Given the notable increase in visitors by lunchtime the ski area was not at all crowded by Alpine standards; in fact, apart from the nursery slopes and resort runs, the pistes rarely felt too busy. There is plenty of space to spread out here.

Wendy chooses her line

We took a long away-from-the-lifts red, past a pretty valley and a new Indian teepee – proving a hit with the kids when we stopped for a brief look. The final section goes through the trees and back to the base station, which does mean another ride on the busy eight-pack to get back up to the main lifts. But it had to be the best run of the day in terms of snow quality: plenty of squeaky fresh snow. Below here it was firmer, and wind-scoured. We gradually moved across the mountain, having a ball riding the various red runs and one or two blacks that are marked down through the freeride zones. To avoid continuous runs back to base, we did laps of the upper lifts.

We thought that an early lunch would be appropriate given the crowds around all the base stations, and wanted to try the table-service Italian tratoria up the mountain at Cantal. Only problem was that the restaurants don’t open for food before 12.30pm; it was either a fast food option at the base lodge or wait. We waited. It was worth it though to sit in relaxed surroundings overlooking the slopes.

The base lodges are modelled on the North American idea: a self-contained building of skier amenities and self-service dining. Rather like on my Slovenian trip in January, most families were opting for the fast food snacks.

We spent the afternoon on the high runs of the second sector Sarrios, where three steep and long draglifts serve similar terrain. You get splendid views from the top of these lifts. In contrast to the morning, the wind suddenly dropped and the strong sunshine made it feel much warmer by 2pm. We were soon skiing through softer and very lumpy snow up top. It was hard work and not without one or two face-plants along the way. Lower down the inevitable sugary slush began to form on the home runs. Making our way back to base we followed a short, interesting black that really is of red gradient, but which followed a natural half-pipe in its lower section – all good fun in the soft snow.

By now most people were heading back to Sextas on a wide, gentle blue run that is also used as the new toboggan run in the evenings. To avoid them we opted for another short black – mistake: it was heavily chopped and sticky. But there was a welcome beer with our name on it at the end. The new Marchica bar is modelled on an Austrian après-ski venue, and was pretty lively when we arrived. A couple of dancing girls appeared for a while too, though this may have been just for the holiday weekend.

Tomorrow (Good Friday) we will explore the other end of the ski area, taking the ski ‘ratrack’ (snow cat) ride to access one or two high pistes, before making our way back to France and a flight home on Saturday. Looks like a proper sunny day in prospect; suncream at the ready …

Kids love the teepee and fresh powder snow [(c) wjk]

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