The Port del Comte resort is finalizing the details to open the new ski season as soon as possible. It is usually inaugurated on the December long weekend but, to date, no snow has yet fallen. “In other years around this time there had already been some whitewashing,” laments Albert Estella, the director of the La Coma y la Pedra station, in Solsonés.
As a novelty, this year a new ski lift will open. The season is also marked by the withdrawal of Government aid to private stations that have done very well in updating their facilities and that now, without that money, according to the director, “it will be more difficult.”
Estella says they will have enough water to make snow during the winter with the two rafts they have.
The Government announced, a little over a week ago, that it would stop subsidizing private ski slopes and that it would allocate that money to social apartments in the Pyrenees. This is an item of 1.2 million euros that was launched in 2020 to compensate for the losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and was intended, among others, to finance actions to improve the facilities. tions and to produce artificial snow. The beneficiaries were the three private ski resorts in Catalonia: Baqueria-Beret, Port del Comte and La Masella.
The station management is aware that it was an extraordinary measure. Albert Estella assures that in Port del Comte they had never had subsidies and, therefore, they had always managed to get ahead.
He affirms that the aid has gone “very well” to renovate facilities, especially to get them ready at an energy level. He believes that without that money, it will be more difficult to make improvements. Furthermore, this situation is added to the increase in energy costs which, in his opinion, have tripled.
Water management is also one of the challenges for ski resorts, since the production of artificial snow costs a lot. Port del Comte also belongs to the municipality of La Coma y la Pedra, which has been at an exceptional level for a few weeks due to drought.
Estella emphasizes that to produce artificial snow, the station does not use water from the network, but is supplied with the two ponds they have. It has one of 40 million liters that is at more than 80% of its capacity and another of 80 million liters of water that is at approximately 60%.
“The water in these ponds,” explains the station director, “comes mostly from rain and melting ice!”
Although there has been little rain, Estella says that they take advantage of all that falls through the drains and clarifies that everything is reused and not a single drop is wasted. She does admit that they will have to “think a lot” when they start up the snow cannons. In total, Port del Comte has 260 snow cannons spread throughout the resort.
Port del Comte does not yet have an opening date, since it has not snowed. “Other years at the end of November I had already done some flouring, but this year nothing,” laments Estella. Therefore, we will have to keep an eye on the sky, also to decide when to start the cannons to produce artificial snow.
This year the resort will have 40 skiable kilometers with “one of the largest beginner areas in Catalonia.” It has been decided to keep the 54 skiable kilometers of the Estivella area closed, as was done last year, since, as Estella explained, the facilities are old and many renovations are necessary.
One of the new features will be the installation of a new ski lift in the beginners’ area. It is an innovative ski lift – there is no one in Catalonia with these characteristics – that allows it to be raised when not in use, allowing machines that tread the snow to pass underneath. Estella has also detailed that it is a more manageable and easy-to-use machinery for beginner skiers.
