Skiing in Portugal - Impossible?

Torre - the highest point of continental Portugal.

Central Portugal. Serra da Estrela mountains. Top peak named Torre is nearly 2000 meters above sea level. The skiing station is rather small counting with only 5 ski-lifts. The ski trails are marked red and black but the degree of difficulty is very, very exagerrated. All the piste are easy or moderate. One is marked as black, but on the Alpine scale of difficulty it should be only easy-red.

Skiing conditions are very, very unpredictable due to strong winds from the Atlantic Ocean that can bring rain ( very frequently ) or snow ( rather rarely ).

But this February 2009 the massive snow storm hit the mountains really hard covering it with up to 2 meters of fresh powder. We took our ski and hit the slopes of Ski Station at the top of the Portuguese mountains.

Part of Torre instalations.

Later in the afternoon we drove down to the hotel , where I usually stay, and had a local specialty: Trout from Manteigas. ( Manteigas is a name of small Portuguese mountain village ). Baked with oil, flower and coarse grain salt. Served with butter, poured with the lemon juice, pepper and the minced parsley.
To accompany we had a small bottle of regional white wine Meia Encosta. Dry, well equilibrated and full of minerals, Meia Encosta is a nice white wine for mid-week´s night dinner.

Maciek.

Camera: Nikon D80, fl 10 mm, f20, 1/125, ISO 100, white balance:auto, sky filter.



Ski Station Link