We usually go skiing to Astun or Formigal, in the spanish Pyrenees, near Jaca (where my family owns a small studio, half full of anoraks and boots and skies, both alpine and cross-country). We used to go a lot to Astun, even had the season ticket, but nowadays we prefer Formigal. It is friendlier, not so taken over by the whole snowboarding scene (sorry if some Ziner is a snowboarder, but even some of them can be very obnoxious and completely ignorant of the most elemental rules when skiing ... although our snowboarding friends prefer Formigal as us, they say that they feel safer ...) and they have a politic of renovating and finding new slopes every year. We are looking forward to the new slopes they have developed going up towards the Midi d´Ossau, if we can get over the "curse of the new equipment". I was victim of it two years ago (new pair of boots) and this year my sister attracted the curse at the very beginning of the season (new pair of skis).

João mentioned the fine restaurants to be found in Baqueira, Vall d´Aran. I receive the yearly magazines from Baqueira and Cerler, and the amount of very decent places makes them certainly quite interesting, not only for the skiers. Jaca is also not a bad place if you are looking for good restaurants and pastry shops ...

http://www.aramon.es/ http://www.baqueira.es/ http://www.astun.com/ http://www.candanchu.com/ http://www.jaca.com/

But if I were to choose a place to go, I would really like to travel to the italian Dolomites. Skiing in Val Gardena or Alta Badia (doing the whole Sella Ronda on a day) is high among my plans, probably not next year, but maybe in 2006...

http://www.dolomitisuperski.com http://www.valgardena.it http://www.val-gardena.com http://www.dolomiti.it http://www.altabadia.it http://www.altabadia.org

Kind regards, Covadonga Bilbao - Spain