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Picos de Europa Ski Tour

"The Picos de Europa in northern Spain is one of the wildest mountain ranges in Europe, with limestone walls up to 700m high and caves and gorges a mile deep. With a very reliable snowpack and technical ski mountaineering of the highest quality, the area is still largely untouched by mass tourism and provides a great venue for true adventure skiing. "
  
5 days
Inter - Adv
4:1
Dates: 20 - 24 Feb '12
Price: £625
Ski Ability: 3-5
Fitness: 3+
Experience: Previous multiday ski touring experience required. Axe and crampon experience needed. You must to be able to safely do kick turns when skinning on steep, frozen spring snow and know how to use harscheisen.
Included: Guiding Fees and Expenses.
Other Costs: Accommodation, food, travel and uplift during the tour ~ £300
 
Summary
This is an off the beaten track destination, offering steep ski mountaineering of very high quality, usually in spring snow conditions. Wildlife encounters are very common in the area.
We start with day tours before making a multiday traverse of the range, which will involve a night in an unguarded hut.
Recent Trip Reports - Feb 2009, Feb 2010, Mar 2011
Course Base
We base ourselves at a traditional 'Hotel Rurale' at the edge of the Picos. This gives easy access to both the northern and southern sectors of the range in order to make best use of weather and snow conditions.
 
Sample Itinerary
Subject to weather and snow conditions, the plan for the week is as follows:-
picos de europa ski tour itinerary
Day 0 - Sun Sun Evening - meet at Bilbao airport, travel to Picos de Europa.
Days 1-5 Mon-Fri
Ski touring in the Picos. Starting first with day tours, we then move on to make a multiday traverse of the range. Possible outings and circuits include:

Some summits involve boot tracking or cramponing to reach the highest point and a night will be spent in an unguarded hut during the week. The scenery and wildlife in the area are outstanding.
Day 6 - Sat
AM Return to Bilbao, PM flights home.
picos de europa ski tour
 
Food and Accommodation
The tour price includes cost of guiding & instruction only, with all food and accommodation costs being paid for seperately. We usually stay at a very friendly Hotel Rurale and eat out locally each evening - just let us know if you'd like to stay here and we'll make the booking. You are however free to stay wherever you want during the trip (there are a variety of other hotels and accommodation options in the region - we can supply furthur information if required). A night is also spent in an unguarded mountain hut during the week. Your guide will arrange food and cooking kit etc for this part of the trip.
 
Travel
Full travel details are provided with your joining instructions. Easyjet run flights from Stansted to Bilbao, which are very cheap at this time of year. From Bilbao, your guide will have a car for group transport during the week.
 
Ability and Experience

You need to be a good off piste skier, able to ski confidently and in control on slopes of up to 35-40dg (see ski ability level 3-5) with previous multiday ski tours already under your belt. This is a big touring week which involves 6-8 hr days and 900 - 1400m of climb each day, so you can expect to be skinning for 3-5 hrs a day (see fitness level 3+).

Due to the nature of the terrain, your skinning skills also need to be up to scratch - ie you need to be able to safely perform uphill kick turns on 35dg slopes and also have some experience of skinning with harscheisen on in order to join this tour.
 
Equipment
We will supply you with a full kit list. You are responsible for bringing personal clothing, a rucsac and ski mountaineering skis, boots and kit (hire of mountaineering kit and avalanche safety equipment is available, but touring skis and boots are not available to hire locally - so you must bring these out with you).  We are delighted to be working on this tour with Backcountry UK, who provide excellent service and advice as a leading retailer of ski mountaineering equipment in the UK.
 
     
 
 
 
         
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