Skiing: Sierra Nevada

One of the things that I wanted to do while living in Europe was to go skiing. I even brought my ski jacket with me! When I was here last, I went skiing in Austria. I had thought about going back, but then my Dean of Students told me about the Sierra Nevada Mountain range in Andalusia. Since I was planning on going to Granada with Emma for our mid-February Puente, I just had to go (Sierra Nevada's are right next to Granada). And I am so, so glad I did.

I took an overnight bus to Granada so that I could get an early start on the mountain. I waited in the bus station for about two hours, before taking a bus to the Sierra Nevada Ski Station. Even though I passed out on the bus to the Sierra Nevadas, it was not enough sleep, so I also fell promptly asleep on the way up the mountain.

I had researched in advance, yet it took me longer than I expected to get everything together, so I was extra glad I arrived early. I had reserved ski equipment at Pascual Ski. They were really friendly and had everything I needed since I didn't have any of my own gear! I was surprised by how hard it was for me to find a place to rent not only skis, poles and boots, but also accessories like gloves, pants, a helmet and goggles. Thankfully, Pascual Ski had it all and was affordable (you can see it in the picture above. It's the place with a red banner and white text).

I was surprised that in the main square, Pradollano, there wasn't much snow. It was quite strange to me. The snow line was right where the plaza was, so you could look up the mountain and see there was snow...but there was nothing in the plaza where you get on the lift to go up the mountain.

Getting the ski pass took longer because there were these automatic booths where it looked like you could buy tickets. People kept going into them so I thought I might as well do self serve and go in the shorter line. However...after I wasn't sure if I had bought a ticket or not. I found out I hadn't so I had to wait in the long line anyways with all of my ski gear. It was fine, as it didn't take really more than 15-20 minutes considering it was a holiday. I just wish the instructions for the booth had worked (there was even an English option so I know I followed the right instructions).

Once I had all of that, I was off! It was a beautiful day for skiing! There wasn't fresh powder, but the runs had been groomed. At first, I was a little nervous about skiing as I hadn't in over a year. As per usual, I started on the easy runs to warm myself up. WOW. Those lines were LONG. I understand now why people don't like going to popular ski resorts during peak season. I know I waited in one line for almost 45 minutes! Thankfully, the lifts for the harder runs were further away from the easy runs and they were much shorter. I got on those within 5-10 minutes. Honestly, it took longer for me to sit on the lift and get to the top than to wait in line!

I had an amazing day skiing in Spain at the Sierra Nevada Ski park. I am so glad I went. After so long, I didn't even wipe out! I was only going to stick to the medium runs...then I decided I'd try a hard run and it was great! What was also really nice was that the hard runs were basically empty, so I had the whole slope to myself and I didn't have to worry about running into anybody! It really was an amazing experience and so much fun!

Around 3:30 I took my last run all the way down the mountain instead of taking the lift down. The lifts closed around 4:00 and my bus was at 4:30, so timing wise everything really worked out well. On my way out, I got the BEST cup of fresh squeezed orange juice in my life. I may have also been dehydrated, but I still think I would have thought it was the best even if I wasn't as thirsty as I had been.

When I got onto the bus, I realized that I definitely got sunburnt on my cheeks! If my hair is any indication, I really did have a great, great skiing day. It really worked out perfectly because I also got back to the hostel and checked in before Emma even arrived! I also expected to be really sore over the next few days, as I usually am after not skiing in so long and intensely using muscles that I don't normally work so hard...yet I ended up being fine!

I know when I came to Spain I didn't expect to find good skiing...I really thought I'd head to another country for it. However, now I know and I will definitely recommend the Sierra Nevada to anyone who loves skiing or snowboarding and will be traveling in Spain in the winter months.