From the Beach to Snow In the Spanish Pyrenees
14th February 2025 | Rod Frazer - Where Stags Roar
Last modified on February 18th, 2025
PlanetSKI reporters Rod Frazer and his wife Di have been on a road trip to the Med. They chucked the paddleboards and the skis in the car, and decided to follow their noses.
Whilst we were soaking up the winter sun on the beach at Roses on the Costa Brava, I had a wee look at Googlemaps to see how far away the nearest ski resort was.
I was excited to see that it was less than 2 hours up the road, we could be skiing at Vallter in the eastern Pyrenees.
The next morning we set off on what turned out to be a bonnie drive from the coast heading for the horizon of very blue skies and white capped mountains.
The final section of the road was comedy-small to reach the various car parks servicing this wee ski area.
We were pleasantly surprised to cruise past the first few car parks and drive right up to the main hub and park at 2160 metres.
Vallter 2000 January 2025 – Image © Dianne Frazer
We looked up the hill amazed to see lots of inviting looking pristine corduroy.
Surprising considering that it was mid morning.
We went to enquire at the lift pass office, assuming that there was a delayed opening, but to our delight discovered we had the ski area virtually to ourselves and a Day Ticket was under 30 euros!
We jumped on the main chair, which took us up beyond the treeline to 2500 metres.
Vallter 2000 January 2025 – Image © Dianne Frazer
We had a few different options of undulating blues and reds to lap on, and literally did more or less have the place to ourselves apart from two small ski group classes that we occasionally passed.
I won’t lie, we felt pretty privileged to be up there.
Rod Frazer in Vallter 2000 January 2025 – Image © Dianne Frazer
Rod Frazer in Vallter 2000 January 2025 – Image © Dianne Frazer
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There’s a cosy restaurant at the top with stunning panoramic views of the Valle de Camprodon and all the way down to the Bay of Roses and the Med’.
Vallter 2000 January 2025 – Image © Dianne Frazer
Needless to say we were the only patrons, and the chef came out to serve us – we had good craic with him telling us about the night-time special dinners they do, serviced by a resort piste-basher, and he proudly insisted on taking us into his kitchen to see the specialities he was preparing!
Amazingly he told us that the resort wasn’t even very busy at the weekends.
This far east in the Pyrenees it appears that they don’t have a huge amount of precipitation, so all of the runs that we skied were a mix of cannoned and natural snow, but the rest of the hill, despite
recent snow, wasn’t open.
They also cannon the superb beginner areas, which were extensive, with a really nice progression available for learners.
The snow quality and piste prep’ was second to none on all of the main runs, and we even had a couple of freshies off the side on some pockets of wind-blow.
This is not the kind of ski-bore resort with tedious bragging rights about how much altitude and number of runs have been ticked off.
If that’s your bag, then head west to the Grandvalira in Andorra, however we had great fun, on the quietest hill I’ve ever skied, and we’ll definitely be back during our next winter-sun road trip to the Med.
Rod Frazer in Vallter 2000 January 2025 – Image © Dianne Frazer
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