May holiday

May Day this year fell on Sunday, so the holiday was passed on to Monday to make a nice long weekend. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice most of the time and there was a cold wind which made it unpleasant to be out, so we didn't have a good outing until Monday when the wind had died down. In Somport there was bright sunshine and nice crunchy snow in the shady areas.

Although most of the ground is clear of snow everything still has a rather squashed look and the vegetation hasn't woken up for its short growing season yet in Somport. Last weekend in San Juan de la Peña was different; it's a bit lower down and spring was busting out all over.

Beech shoots

Jonquils

Pale Alpine narcissus

Flowers in Somport

On Saturday morning we took a picnic to Le Somport, just over the border in France. In Jaca it was not a bad day, but as we approached the mountains we could see clouds caught on them. Arriving at the ski resort it was dull, misty and bitterly cold. We went for a long, brisk walk around the cross-country ski circuit, enjoying the spring flowers and the glimpses of the mountains. It was muddy, and there were patches of snow in secluded corners. On one misty stretch of track I saw the rumps of three or four roe deer which disappeared silently into the mist. The ground was very heavily worked by moles and wild boars.

Alpine squills on a bank angled at about 45º.

I didn't know what they were, and couldn't find them in any of my flower books, so I posted a photo on Facebook and my cousin suggested squills. That gave me a clue to follow. 

Then I googled squills and found http://www.seasonalwildflowers.com/alpine-squill.html which confirmed what Christine (my cousin) had said. It's a lovely blogspot. 

These are some kind of  orchids growing on a rough slope among the molehills and boar-rootings.

A big traffic jam!

After all the snow and bad weather, we decided that Saturday was the day and so we loaded the car and started out to Le Somport, just over the border in France. It's about 30 minutes' drive from Jaca on an excellent road. HOWEVER, not long into our journey we realised it would take us longer; there was a continuous line of cars going very slowly, stopping and starting from the second village on the route. We thought it was just sheer volume of traffic; there having been several weekends when the ski resorts couldn't open due to bad weather. When we finally got to the turning for the first ski resort of Candanchu we saw the problem. The main road was closed and all the cars had to drive through Candanchu.

The main road was blocked by a bank of snow, I imagine that further on it was either blocked by an avalanche or in danger of that happening.

So all the traffic wound through the road which goes into Candanchu and out the other side, where most cars went towards Astún and what looked like just a few crossed the border to Somport, the cross-country ski resort. Le Somport is on the road which goes down into France, but it was blocked with another bank of snow, so the only access was from Spain. 

So we finally arrived, parked and got skiing. There is a layer of at least two metres of snow over everything up there; enough for everyone. 

This sign is usually taller than me.

Some of the smaller trees were almost buried.

The snow was quite hard as it wasn't fresh and had melted and frozen again.

It was really beautiful, and not very difficult to get away from the many, many other people there.

When we left, we saw there were cars parked along the road, both sides, right up to and beyond the border with Spain; more than I've ever seen before there.

Midsummer in the mountains

We haven't had time to go to the mountains recently. Or if there was time the weather was bad. Today, however it was hot in Jaca so we drove over the border with France and stopped at the cross-country ski resort of Le Somport and went for a walk along the tracks where people ski in the winter. Sheltered by trees and lined with wild flowers it was perfect for a hot afternoon.

Here are some of the flowers we saw. In the open it was very windy, but not a bit cold. On the way back to the car we sat down for a moment, without talking,  and suddenly there was a roe deer on the path ahead of us. There was an instant before it noticed us, and then it bounded up the hillside into the trees; we could still see it now and then because we knew it was there. I'm sure it's not rare, but what a treat! This is a snippet of video; the wind makes a terrible noise!

No snow!

We went cross-country skiing yesterday in Somport just over the border in France. You can see how little snow there is in the top photo. There were places where rocks and grass were exposed on the tracks, and others which were solid ice, but we managed to ski round the circuit.

Just as we were leaving, the sun came out. We really need it to snow in the mountains.