Skimo - Basic course

SKIMO: 1 WEEK BASIC PROGRAM

Enter a new way to enjoy the mountains in winter. The white Pyrenees beneath your feet are waiting for you. Take advantage of the continuity in learning to advance firmly in your skills.

Discover in five days the basics of ski touring, through routes that gradually increase their technique and difficulty.

Learn how to progress on untreated snow, the different techniques of ascent and descent. Discover the safety tools and their protocol (ARVA, SHOVEL and PROBE), essential in the snowy mountain.

What do we offer you?

Day 1: Chía mountain range (2515 m): Viewpoint of the 3 valleys

Altitude: ±800 m
One of the interior mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, made of limestone displaced from the massif of Monte Perdido. With wide, medium and easy slopes. The panoramic view over the whole Benasque Valley is unique, as well as over the Gistain Valley and the Cotiella area.

Day 2: Ardones Valley and Castanesa Peak (2861 m)

Altitude: ±1100 m
One of the peaks with the best views of the south face of the Maladetas Aneto massif. In addition to having a unique panoramic view of the Benasque Valley and Castanesa due to its location. Without being a 3mil, it honours its altitude and its slopes offer options for all levels of ski mountaineering, with a descent of over 1000 metres.

Day 3: Sacroux peak (2678 m)

On the physical border with France, the Sacoux has the beauty of a varied ascent, black pine forest, open slopes, frozen lakes and a panoramic view of the Maladetas massif in the foreground and the Benasque Valley and the valley of Luchon (France), the contrast of the two slopes making it particularly striking.

Day 4: Maladetas Glacier (3000 m)

Accumulated difference in height: 1240 m+ and 900 m-
One of the few remaining homogeneous glaciers in the Pyrenees today. Due to its height and orientation, it is perhaps one of the places with the best snow quality for most of the winter and spring. Its physical situation makes the landscape of the French Pyrenees and Aranes spectacular, as well as the spectacular Maladeta Peak that watches over it from the verticality of its name. The width of the slopes makes it a medium-easy level.
We will sleep in the Renclusa Refuge to link up with the summit the following day.

Day 5: Diente de Alba peak (3120 m)

Cumulative height gain: 980 m+ and 1370 m-.
One of the easternmost 3000 m of the massif, together with Alba peak. Its ascent has nothing to envy to the highest ones, as it is magnified by the black pine forest through which we will make a large part of the descent, being the most technical ascent of the week, in the final part. It will be the reward for a technical and physical progression on mountain skis. Its arrival at the summit is a small climb on rock or mixed with a reduced space for the final photo. A peak in every sense of the word.

What will you need?