Nothing beats ski touring up and down a mountain (skijoring) with man's best friend, in my case our husky, named "Khumbu"! Spain's Sierra Nevada mountains offer many opportunities for backcountry skiing with or without our four legged friends.
The mountain side above Puente Palo looked bare. The thaw had devastated the snowpack. But we know a small valley (barrancillo) that holds snow well so set off to find it hoping for some good skijoring with Khumbu. Traversing into the upper forest area west of Puente Palo we came across the start of Barranco Prado Quinto. And it was full of snow!
Khumbu, our husky looking not impresses by the lack of snow
We skinned up the initial wide snow slopes and it took some time to calm Khumbu down, as he preferred the rich animal smells of the lush vegetation rather than the boring (non-smelly) snow. He does respond well to "left" and "right" commands however and soon he realised that the snow was to be the way of ascent.
The valley narrowed and so did our ribbon of skiable snow. At one point I had to take off skis for a short section of a few metres. This led onto the big, open snowfields above. We completed our ascent to the small sub peak on the south ridge of Cerrillo Redondo named on the map, "Piedras de Los Pajaros" (Rocks of the Birds). It certainly felt like it and we had good views over the southern Sierra Nevada and Alpujarras as we ate our lunch. At 2500m we had ascended 600m on skis.
Now Khumbu, as I mentioned above, is a siberian husky. We don't normally let him loose as he has a tendency to chase things. Cats, mountain goats, anything that runs really. It was with great trepidation that I released him from his harness. I needn't have been worried. As soon as my skis started moving downhill he was away plunging through the softening snows. Great to see him enjoy it so much.
Skijoring with a husky
After an ascent of over 2 hours we made it back down again in just 7 minutes. Exhilarating stuff, which has much to recommend it if you are a dog lover who enjoys his skiing.
If you have a dog and want some tips on Skijoring in Spain please give us a call and we shall be pleased to help. Alternatively if you want to enjoy the backcountry ski touring delights of the Sierra Nevada, then we run day and multi day tours from December through to the end of May.