The Pedraforca in winter: snowshoes

Winter is the season fewest people associate with the Pedraforca, and it is probably the best time to come. The paths empty, the north face turns white and the Berguedà recovers a quiet it simply does not have in August. That said, winter in the Pyrenees also means some things stop being available, and it is better to know that before driving up than to find out at the top.

The summit, in winter, is a different mountain

This needs saying plainly, because every year somebody misses it: under snow and ice, the climb to the Pollegó Superior stops being a hard walk and becomes winter mountaineering. The Enforcadura gully, an awkward scree slope in summer, becomes a slope of hard snow that requires crampons, an ice axe and the knowledge to use them.

Fitness is not the variable. Conditions change from one day to the next, and the same route can be reasonable in December and out of the question in February. Anyone set on the summit in winter should go with a guide or with proven experience of their own.

The rest of us get the whole mountain from below, which is where winter is best anyway.

Snowshoeing: where it actually happens

Snowshoeing is the season’s headline activity in the Berguedà, and it is worth placing it correctly: it happens in the woods and meadows at the base, not in the gullies of the massif.

The routes that work are the Gresolet wood, with its wide paths between snow-loaded beeches; the meadows climbing towards the Lluís Estasen refuge, with the north face in view the whole way; and the Rasos de Peguera area on the far side of the district, more open and better waymarked. They are half-day outings with moderate ascent, and they need no previous experience: if you can walk, you can snowshoe within ten minutes.

One thing we will save you finding out late: we do not rent equipment. Casa Rural Pedraforca is accommodation, not an activity company. Snowshoe rental is in Berga and at Rasos de Peguera, and local guides run organised outings. Book it before you drive up, especially on January and February weekends, because stock runs out. When you confirm your stay we pass on the contacts we use.

The villages, open all year

Winter is when the Berguedà villages make most sense. Bagà, with its medieval core of narrow streets, walks well in the cold because the facades cut the wind. Gósol, on the far side of the massif, offers the view of the Pedraforca from its much less photographed side. Berga handles the long lunch and the shopping.

In Saldes itself, the silence of January is hard to find anywhere else an hour and a half from Barcelona. The days are short, the low light arrives sideways, and the mountain looks different every hour.

Getting there when there is snow

The road up to Saldes stays open for most of the winter and is cleared regularly, but after heavy snowfall chains may be required. Checking the road status that same morning is the single gesture that saves the most trouble across a weekend.

Saldes is a little over an hour and a half from Barcelona on the C-16 to Berga and then the road climbing towards the mountain. Carry chains in the boot even when it does not look necessary, and leave in daylight, because in December it is dark before six.

What to bring

Saldes sits above 1,200 metres and the temperature drops noticeably after dark. Thermal layers, a waterproof and windproof jacket, gloves, a hat and insulated mountain boots. For walking on snow, gaiters. And a flask, which in the meadow below the refuge is worth more than anything else in the rucksack.

The Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park is protected ground, declared in 1983: in winter, staying on the waymarked routes matters even more, because snow erases the paths and the wildlife is running close to its margins.

A base for a winter weekend

Casa Rural Pedraforca has 73 beds at the foot of the massif, with a terrace looking straight at the mountain and common rooms that take a whole group at once. In winter, coming back to somewhere warm after four hours in the snow is a good part of the plan.

If you want to come outside high season and have the Pedraforca to yourself, tell us your dates and your group and we will check availability. If you are still deciding what to do, our guide to what to do around the Pedraforca covers the rest of the year, and if you are bringing children, the easy walks with kids set out which routes work and which do not.