Sleeping in a tent isn’t your typical ski holiday accommodation, but then this isn’t a typical ski holiday – and it’s not a typical tent either.
In search of something different to the British favourite of seven nights in a ski-in/ski-out resort in the French Alps, I’m in the Pre-Pyrenees in Catalonia, an hour and a half north of Barcelona in the El Solsones region.
The mountains and resorts here are more modest in size than their Alpine counterparts, but that’s the whole point – I’m looking for something slower, distinctive and more relaxed.
And I find it in spades at Forest Days Wild Camping. Here, secluded among the pine forests of the Ora Valley, are four five-metre bell tents made from thick cotton, a communal camp kitchen, and a rustic but smart shower block and larder. The latter is the only part of the site on-grid, the rest is firmly off, with plenty of solar-powered lights, log-burning stoves and an endless stack of firewood to provide the home comforts.
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Open for 10 years, this is the first year the owners John, from Harrogate in Yorkshire, and Montserrat, from Barcelona, have decided to open during the winter. The couple met while camping in the snow in Scotland and fell in love, both with the experience and with each other.
“We believe the hardship of the experience is totally worth it,” says Montserrat. “And our customers have been asking for the opportunity to experience Forest Days in the winter for a while now – this year, we finally felt ready.”
I was one of those customers last summer with my family and leapt at the chance to return in the winter. To keep with the spirit of Forest Days, I wanted to travel at a more natural, slower pace so I took the train. That meant breakfast in London, lunch in Paris and dinner and overnight at the Casa Bonay hotel in Barcelona, where I met a friend to join me for the rest of the trip. The following morning, we hired an electric car from MEC Electric CarSharing for the last leg of the journey up into the foothills of the Pre-Pyrenees.
From our base at Forest Days, we’re a 15-minute drive from the fiercely independent and historic town of Solsona and about a 40-minute drive to two of Catalonia’s 10 ski resorts, Tuixent and Port del Comte.
Both these resorts encourage us to slow down the pace. At Tuixent , we hire cross-country skis and skate off into the forest – our guide, Lars, says: “Skiing is all about the gliding, we can travel effortlessly and autonomously to see the landscape,” before meeting Martí, who runs Mushing Cau de Llops, a non-profit cooperative kennel with nearly 40 Siberian huskies. The ethos of the place is apparent – they’re the happiest, calmest huskies I’ve ever encountered, but the sleigh ride through the pine trees is anything but slow.
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In Port del Comte, there are 50km of pistes spread over five peaks in the mountain range of the same name. The pine forest grows nearly to the summits at 2,100m, and in acknowledgement of its altitude, the resort is savvy with its biowaste, spreading it over the terrain once the snow melts, meaning less snow is needed the following winter to provide decent coverage.
A day’s lift pass for an adult starts from €36, but we opt for an even cheaper option and hire ski touring equipment to explore the lightly wooded Estivella area. On one of our descents, our guide Marta makes sure we stop to throw a snowball for luck into the font, a deep cave that until recently was used to store the village’s ice supplies to preserve their food.
The food in Catalonia in the winter is as good as it is in the summer, and we’re here at the height of truffle season. So for après ski, Catalonia style, we meet local truffle hunter Juan Martínez and his dog Una at a wooded nature reserve 10 minutes from Solsona and, guided by Una on where to carefully dig, start scrabbling in the ground beneath the oak trees for these black diamonds.
Truffles are prominent on the menu at Mare de la Font, tucked in next to a small river on the outskirts of Solsona. It’s the place to be on a Sunday lunchtime, and the sleek, modern interior is packed with families enjoying innovative Catalan dishes prepared by Laia. She and her husband Roger have run the restaurant for 13 years, and Roger’s parents ran it before them; he now effortlessly manages the front of house and shares his extensive knowledge with us as he walks us through a six-course wine pairing menu. We learn of the local suppliers doing for cava what craft beer has done for ale, and small producers mixing things up with vermouth.
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This wine-tasting session isn’t obvious to book, but speak to Carles Santana García, owner of Què Fer A Solsona, and you’ll learn of lots of activities that you would never know existed here. Carles is also the one who introduces us to Juan and the truffles, and he also runs Photo Logistics, a bird hide and wildlife photography agency. We spend a wonderfully relaxing hour in a hide with him, watching finches, tits, robins and a woodpecker play around a pool of water.
If Carles can’t help with an activity or an excursion, John and Montserrat probably can – and they introduce us to Albert Caellas Cardona, a local mountain guide, for a walk along the Busa cliffs at the head of the Ora valley as the sun sets.
We’re on the hunt for taia – the inner core of a pine tree, known as nature’s firelighters – and spot it among some fallen branches. Taking only a few inches, we witness its effectiveness when we’re back around the campfire at Forest Days, grilling local pork and calçots with romesco for dinner.
As the fire flickers and the banana split parcels sizzle, camping in winter couldn’t feel less like ‘hardship’.
How to do it
Book your camping pitch online at forestdaysglamping.com. Electric cars can be hired from meccarsharing.com. For more information on the region, visit catalunya.com and turismesolsones.com.
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