A whopping 70cm has fallen today on top of an already amazing base layer. The Grand Tourmalet resort opens tomorrow and we’re all ready for it!
Our photos say it all. Please like us on facebook (MountainBug) and follow us on Twitter @mountainbug to keep up to date with the latest photos as we take them.
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| The lifts at Tournaboup |
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| Welcome! |
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| The ski lifts at Tournaboup |
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| Bareges |
Martin and Rob’s off-piste adventure on Monday
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| Rob off in the distance |
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| Snow cannon. No need for that today! |
Still thinking about your skiing holiday? Not booked yet? Perhaps our Christmas week and January discounts will interest you!
With a foot of fresh powder lying across the resort, we’re looking forwards to its opening on Thursday. While we’re fully booked for February at the chalet and with limited space at the hotel over peak periods, we’ve put together some tempting offers.
These discounts, combined with the MoutainBug 10% off ski hire at Intersport, Bareges, and the cheap flights Ryanair are offering, are making January out of season skiing look even more attractive.
Christmas week, 22 to 29 Dec
Pay our normal low season rate of 495€ per person instead of our high-season rate of 599€ at the chalet only.
Last two rooms available, including the family suite (2 separate rooms, one bathroom, can take up to 5 people) and family room (can be a double, triple or quadruple).
This price includes:
- half-board accommodation in ensuite bedrooms
- full Christmas dinner and complimentary bubbly on Christmas Day
- afternoon tea.
This discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other MountainBug discounts.
January 2013
Be like a local and enjoy quiet, low-season skiing, on pristine, almost empty pistes.
Chalet discounts
If you choose to stay in the chalet, deduct 100€ per person from our normal low-season rate of 495€.
Pay 395€ for the same high standard of accommodation, food and service but with the added benefit of quiet pistes.
This offer:
- is based on 2 people sharing an ensuite bedroom
- is for half-board, including afternoon tea
- is for one week stays only, Saturday to Saturday
- applies for stays beginning on the 5 Jan, 12 Jan and 19 Jan.
- can be used in conjunction with the 50€ off per person for groups of 8 or more who book and pay together. So groups of 8 or more can have 150€ off per person
- cannot be used in conjunction with any other MountainBug discounts apart from the large group discount.
Hotel discounts
If you book the Hotel du Tourmalet through MountainBug, we can offer you 15% off all bookings made for the period 5 January to 25 January (so departing Saturday 26 January), for stays of 7 nights or more.
Please contact us to take advantage of these great discounts.
N-PY have announced that the Grand Tourmalet ski resort will open this Thursday 6 December at 9am.
MountainBug can offer ski accommodation from Saturday 15 December. Beat the crowds – come and ski with the locals before Christmas.
Last night and this morning Bareges received over 10cm – the first snow to truly settle in the village this season. With this much snow down here, you can imagine what it is like in the resort. Check out our Facebook page (MountainBug) as we’ll be updating it regularly with photos and news as we get out there.
The ski resort is due to open imminently – we’re waiting for a confirmed date from N-PY. You can book rooms through MountainBug at the Hotel du Tourmalet from the 15 December (it’s the same price as going to the hotel direct). There are also still a few rooms left at the hotel and the chalet over Christmas and New Year if you are still thinking of a white festive season.
See you soon!
Skiers! Want to take your skiing to the next level? Join us for a week’s off-piste skiing, January 19 to the 26.
You’ll spend 5 days with an instructor, learning/perfecting your off-piste technique the best way possible – by going off-piste.
You’ll explore the beautiful, remote, winter Pyrenees and also tackle the famous Pic du Midi descent.
The snow has been here on the peaks for a few weeks now and it keeps coming…at the moment the freezing level keeps rising during the day so by the time we get our cameras out, the snow line has risen.
This weekend they are forecasting over 12cm of snow at between 1450m-1800m (the resort begins at 1400m and Bareges is at 1250m).
There are a few rooms left in both the chalet and the hotel over Christmas and New Year, although they are selling quickly. January is looking quiet at the moment but February is very busy with the chalet almost fully booked most weeks. Do email us to find out availability. See you on the pistes!
The Guardian, is a national UK newspaper, which every week has a “Readers Tips” travel section.
This Saturday, over their breakfasts, the people of the UK got to read about where’s great for skiing and winters-sports…and we are in there!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/oct/26/skiing-winter-sports-snowboarding-resorts
Thank you to our guests for all your support. For a small, independent business like us, the reviews you write about us on Trip Advisor and other sites, the recommendations you pass on about us, and submitting to things like this make a massive difference. We appreciate it.
This morning the Tour de France 2013 route was announced at a Press Conference in Paris.
After teasing us all with speeches and an excellent montage film of the highlights of the 2012 Tour (is it just us who still get goosebumps watching Mark Cavendish win on the Champs Elysees and Wiggo take the crown?), the route was announced.
For the first time in years, the 100th Tour de France will be exclusively in Franc. It will begin in Corsica, before heading to Nice for its mainland tour and heading to the Pyrenees unusually early.
The two Pyrenean routes are Stage 8 from Ax 3 Domaines and then towards us for Stage 9.
Stage 9 on Sunday 7 July, goes frrom Saint Gironnes to Bagneres de Bigorre, which is a 45 minute drive from Bareges. It is a relentless stage, with five climbs during the 165km route.
Therefore, our Tour de France guided cycling week this year will begin with a bang on Sunday 7 July, as we head cycle over the cols to Bagneres de Bigorre, ready to watch the pros as they cycle over their stage finish.
As well as our Tour de France guided cycling week, we’re also offering our week long cycling holiday from the 13 to 20 July. This Classic Cols week allows you to cycle some of the famous Pyrenean Tour de France routes and Cols. Alternatively, if you’re short on time, come and join us for our cycling long weekend, from the 22 – 25 June.
The Grand Tourmalet (Bareges-La Mongie) ski resort is scheduled to open on the 24 November 2012.
In preparation, NPY (the company who own the lifts and pistes) have made even more improvements to the resort:
- there have been works on the Beaute and Marmotte pistes, including 42 additional snow-cannons
- this means most of the on-piste skiing is now covered by cannons
- two old-button lifts at La Laquette have been replaced with a new beginner magic carpet
- this means beginners can get up the four-man lift and have more areas to practice in before taking the green or blue piste back down to Tournaboup.
NPY have been improving the resort every year, with new lifts, more snow-cannons and better facilities. We can’t wait to get out there and the recent snow in Bareges has got all the locals excited and telling tales of a good winter to come.
See you on the slopes!
The summer season is now over and autumn has truly arrived.
We had two different trips running for our last week of the season – one in the French High Pyrenees and one in the Spanish Pyrenees in Aragon.
Despite what looked like a shaky start with some rain, both trips had fantastic sunshine and our “bring hat and gloves” warnings seemed a bit doom and gloom in retrospect.
We’re now writing our end of season round up newsletter. If you’d like to receive it, please visit our website and sign up to it.
As the last of our guests left, the weather took a cold turn. The sheep and cows have been brought down from the mountains and are grazing in the lower meadows. The autumn lambs and calves are happily trotting around the fields, as the leaves turn golden brown, and birds of prey are hopefully circling near them. Because there is more moisture in the air, we are seeing fantastic low cloud formations, with banks of fluffy cloud suspended in the valleys.The peaks are getting dustings of snow already, which isn’t melting as the freezing line keeps dropping.
We’re already taking bookings for the winter season (and summer next year!) for ski accommodation, snow-shoeing, ski-touring and off-piste.
Enjoy some of our off-season autumn photos and we’ll keep you up to date with MountainBug news throughout the off period, as well as answering our phones and emails.
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| Bareges in the autumn sun |
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| Cirque de Gavarnie with snow on the top |
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| Autumn colours at Gavarnie |
