One afternoon, trying to decide whether to bike or ski touring the next day, we set ourselves a new challenge: to do a combination of mountain biking and skiing in order to reach a channel we had been wanting to do for a long time… the northwest corridor of the Tuc de Ratera “a plan without fissures”
It has been a very atypical season… unfortunately this February we have had very little work in the resort, and therefore a LOT of free time. But for hyperactive people like us it is never too much, so turning the situation around (we have no other choice), we have taken the opportunity to do more sports than ever and go on adventures almost every day.
One afternoon, trying to decide whether the next day was for biking or ski touring, we set ourselves a new challenge: to do a combined mountain biking and skiing to be able to reach a channel we had been wanting to do for a long time… the northwest corridor of the Tuc de Ratera “a plan without fissures!”
6:15 am, the alarm clock goes off and just thinking that I’ll have to pedal for at least two hours… I’m not looking forward to it, it’s super early! I get dressed for skiing, breakfast what the body lets me, and to the bike!!!!
It seemed easy eh…. Well NO. We left home with the chip of “I’m going skiing”, so none of us took into account the usual setbacks of the bike. We spent more than an hour trying to fit the skis on the frame, inflating tires with a tiny stain (the emergency kind), and Xavi was left with the derailleur cable in his hand, so we spent a long time to finish the set-up.
8:00 am, we started the route! At the end we left Salardú all with the skis in the
backpack, and motherfucker how heavy it is!
I’ll just tell you that the extra I had on my back, the rear suspension was blocked and my hands could hardly reach the handlebars … not to mention how technical it becomes to get on the bike without the skis collide with the rear wheel …! haha I said, “a plan without fissures”.
Well, with that pleasant feeling of 8 in the morning, cold and somewhat loaded quadriceps we arrived to Banhs de Tredos. Once there, and past some snow that we found on the way (pedaling uphill was easy because of the hard snow), we continued until we found the road full of snow. It was then when we decided to hide the bikes behind a tree and change the bike shoes for ski boots. We took skis, put skins and… change of chip!!!!
It was a beautiful day, it had snowed and the landscape was white again after so many days of brown snow and Saharan atmosphere. It is always a luck to be able to spend the day in the mountains and more if it is surrounded by the best company.
To be honest, the day before I was nervous… I was not confident I could keep up the pace, but the truth is that the long climb ended up being enlivened with a break in the sun in which we took the opportunity to chat a little and eat something.
15:00 pm, we have finally reached the base of the channel, it is beautiful and full of powder snow! Now we have to do the GOOD part: put crampons on, take the ice ax, skis on our backs again and up we go!
After 7 long hours of climbing, we had the best stretch to reach the summit. Climbing up opening a path through the channel that we wanted to ski down.
I will add that I am lucky to do these routes with experienced friends from whom I learn a lot every day, and most importantly: THEY ARE STRONGER THAN VINEGAR. That’s right, they’re all like Superman and without them I wouldn’t be able to get to places like this. So I took advantage (once again) and with the feeling that my legs were twice as heavy as normal, I climbed up the already made route until I reached the top.
From there we contemplated the beautiful views and how far away the bikes were waiting for the final descent.
16:30 pm, we descend one by one the aesthetics of the channel. The beginning is narrow and it gets steeper and steeper until the characteristic “S” of the intermediate zone. What nerves!
The truth is that more than one of us had trembling legs before the descent. I don’t know if it was because of accumulated fatigue or from seeing the “canelón” of powder snow at our feet.
We went down enjoying like children until the shovels of the base of Ratera, where after a short break, we continued the descent between the beautiful lakes of Colomèrs.
What a good feeling… there was only downhill left! But we were exhausted and hungry. To give you an idea, on the way back across the lakes, all you could hear was XL hamburgers, lamb with grandma’s potatoes and spaghetti carbonara.
18:30 pm, we finally arrive at the bike… the body relaxes and we have more than 15 km to the car.
Ah! and a small handicap to which I gave importance later… we had 20 minutes of light left.
The race starts! Silly the last one… and the least smart ME hahaha. The “supermans” were already down, I was still getting up from the first butt on top of the snow.
Have you tried cycling down the snow? If it’s already technical as usual, imagine with skis, boots and all the expedition material on your back. Not to mention that as I get very cold, the only glove I chose that day were my feather mittens similar to a boxing glove) and I ended up doing the whole descent without any touch on the brake lever, and in the dark. A long, long ride home.
After almost 40 km of travel, 1700 meters of elevation gain, and many nuts…. We arrived at the village being black night.
We had made it: to reach the proposed channel alternating the bike and skis to
gain time during the approach … a ROUTON!
Tips to keep in mind, in case you decide to try Bike-Ski or we repeat it in the future:
– A bib shorts is not bad for the pedaling section, or your ass will remind you all day long that you were going without!
– Don’t forget your bike tools. Even if the main activity is jibbing and skiing, you may get a puncture or have a technical problem during the approach.
– Bring plenty of water, cycling you drink a lot, so the water bottle you normally use for Skimo outings is not enough. We were lucky enough to cross the river twice and we were able to refill.
– The headlamp should always be mandatory in the mountains, even if you start very early, the day can be extended and you end up arriving home at night! And I’m telling you, it’s nice to see something when you’re cycling in the snow and with skis on your back…
In addition to BikeSky, we have several activities such as:
- Private Sky Lessons in Baqueira
- Ski club for children and adults
- Skiclub Baqueira
- Group ski lessons in Baqueira
- Individual ski lessons
- Mountaineering on Baqueira
- Freeride in Baqueira
- Snowboard in Baqueira
If you want to hire the BikeSky in Baqueira with us, you just have to write us a WhatsApp and we will inform you of everything: 679132772