Sun, ski and spring

The sun is shining and spring is starting to arrive down the valley. As you drive up to Bareges, there are lambs and baby goats in fields that are slowly turning green. The first flowers are starting to appear although it won't be until June that the mountains will burst with colour and scent.


As you pass through Bareges and towards the ski resort, there's more signs of snow...then you reach the resort and it is business as usual! The pistes are still open, with a good covering of snow, over a compacted layer. The best time of day is from 10ish to 15.00ish when the night's icy top layer has melted and the groomed snow is soft. Even better - the pistes are EMPTY! You can ski for hours and barely see anyone else. This combined with the lovely weather makes Easter Pyrenean skiing really enjoyable.

Our ski tourers this week have been heading to over 2000m, where there is still plenty of snow (about 60cm in places). The high peaks will have snow for a few more weeks, making it a good time for touring and snow-shoeing. Martin, one of our Directors, snow-shoed up to 2100m last week and was walking through 2 foot of snow. The hotel's chef, Stefan, has been out ski-touring every day, practising for our Chamonix-Mont Blanc trip in April, which has a few spaces left still.
The ski resort is open for another two weeks and we have more skiers and ski-tourers arriving tomorrow, taking advantage of the longer days and the empty mountains.

View from the top station of Barege's disused funicular

Flowers poking through in the sunny spots of the valley

More snow and Hotel party

The resort has had 30cm of new snow since yesterday, with friends reporting "the best powder I have ever skied in". This is great news for our Easter holiday UK guests who will be arriving next week. The resort is 80% open with 70cm of snow on the pistes at 1800m and 140cm at 2500m. As is normal for spring, the avalanche risk is high, level 4, so off-piste skiers need to be very careful.

The hotel bar - now full of people. We forgot to take the camera to the party - sorry!

While the resort enjoys snow, tonight the valley is enjoying a belated opening party at the Hotel du Tourmalet, owned by MountainBug founders Robert and Emma Mason. The band have arrived and are setting up, every few minutes a few more villagers arrive, the complimentary punch is flowing and the delicious food keeps coming! Tonight is a chance for people to see the inside of the hotel, with one of the floors being open for people to have a look.

More snow and discounted last minute ski accommodation

Following a great couple of weeks, we're currently receiving more snow, with another 20cm forecast over the next few days. Together with light winds, the Pyrenees are providing a fantastic last few weeks of the season.

One of our guests enjoying some boarding

Another guest enjoying a "day off" snowshoeing, just above Bareges

Due to last minute cancellations, our chalet has space available from the 31 March-7 April and we're offering a 10% discount off the advertised price.

As the season quietens down, the locals are enjoying some time off and are flocking to the restaurant at MountainBug founder's, Robert and Emma Mason, new hotel. Hotel du Tourmalet has been gaining a well deserved reputation for excellent food and having a very atmospheric bar, that's great for an apre-ski drink and tapas.

We're currently writing our end of season newsletter. If you would like to receive it or want to get in touch with us about anything else, please Contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Our new website is launched

While this week's guests have been enjoying beautiful snow under clear blue skies, we launched our new website. We hope you find it informative and interesting. Naturally, there will be glitches and errors, so if you find any, please do contact us.

If you are already booked on a holiday with us, then please be assured that while we have changed the names of some of our holidays (for example Gentle Walking is now called Explorer: Valleys, Villages and Cirques), they are all still running.