Skiing Sierra Nevada: High Altitude Turns Above Andalusia

Skiing in southern Spain isn’t something most people picture right away. I didn’t either—at least not until I found myself riding a chairlift above Granada, watching the sun creep over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada. We spent Febuary of 2025 traveling around Spain, and while spending a week in Grenada, touring the Alhambra and enjoying sunny Andalucia, I was able to ski Sierra Nevada and it totally puches above it’s weight.

This place quietly breaks a lot of assumptions. It’s the farthest southern ski resort in Europe, but the high altitude, 3,300 meters (10,500 feet+) makes skiing possible even when the winter temps are sunny and warm in the city of Grenada.

Above the Tree Line in Southern Spain

One of the first things that stands out about Sierra Nevada is the altitude. The resort sits well above the tree line, and most of the skiing happens in wide-open alpine terrain. There’s a sense of exposure up here — long views, big sky, and weather that feels more mountain than Mediterranean, despite where you are on the map.

On clear days, the light is sharp and clean, and the terrain feels vast even when the trail count isn’t overwhelming.

Additionally, my experience is that the majority of the skiiers here are on the beginner terrain, so if you’re comfortable on intermediate and expert slopes, the crowds are largely elsewhere.

Affordable Skiing (Especially by U.S. Standards)

Here’s where Sierra Nevada really shines: the price and convenience.

A single-day lift ticket runs about €69, which feels almost unreal if you’re used to skiing in the United States. For comparison, that’s often less than half of what a day pass costs at major U.S. resorts—and without the pressure to “ski hard all day” just to justify the expense. Rentals were affordable as well, and good quality gear.

see single day lift tickets here: One or consecutive days ski pass

You can even get there via the public bus - the Grenada Line - Sierra Nevada (TOCINA) leaves Grenada bus station starting at 8:00 returning as late as 18:30 from Pradollano, 10 euro round trip. (Disclaimer - we booked a taxi from the hotel instead)

The Base Area: Functional, Not Flashy, but a number of options to stay on mountain.

The base area (Village of Pradollano) isn’t posh like Aspen or Telluride, but there’s a number of hotels, a decent food court, some bars and restaurants, and a lively Apres scene. While it won’t win awards for luxury, it doesn’t need to. It’s about a 45 minute drive from central Grenada, so it’s totally doable to go back and forth to get a ski day in. For more than one day, I’d stay on mountain for one or two nights. The resort is a good size, but I wouldn’t say I felt I needed more than one or two days given all the amazing things to do in the area. We only had one day available to ski on this trip so we didn’t sleep at the resort, instead did a day trip from our hotel in the center of the old city. I skiied hard and felt like I covered the whole mountain.

Above the trees - big bowl skiing

Sierra Nevada may not have the global reputation of some mega-resorts, but it gives some comparable big mountain views and wide open runs as USA resorts like breckenridge or Heavenly (Tahoe) (maybe with 50% of the terrain) - there’s some difficult pistes and loads of off piste areas between named runs that are accessible. What it doesn’t have is tree skiing - instead, you’ll be dodging bolders and exposed rock faces.

When conditions line up, the terrain here can demand respect.

Mountain Layout

The trail map tells the story - a good amount of red (intermediate) terrain and a few steeper back runs. Lower altitude trails might not be open depending on the conditions - when I was there in Feb 2025, there wasn’t much snow below the Borregulles mid station, but there was one skiable run down to the Pradollano village. By far, the best area of the mountain if you are an advanced skiier is the Laguna area - That’s the area circled in yellow on the map below - I had to wait until about 10 am for them to drop the rope, but it was worth the wait for first tracks, and once you get your bearings there’s loads of powder stashes and gullies that you can access off the main groomed runs.

Skiing With Granada and the Coast Next Door

What truly sets Sierra Nevada apart is where it sits.

Granada is right there—close enough to stay in town and commute to the slopes. And the Andalusian coast is only about an hour away. It’s entirely possible to ski in the morning and be looking at the Mediterranean later the same day. We stayed in Grenada and explored the Alhambra the day after skiing Sierra Nevada. There’s a couple of ways to get up there, we booked a private taxi from the hotel, he picked us up and dropped us off at the end of the day. There was also a town bus, but given I had only one day of skiing, I wanted to get there early and get my rentals sorted.. My wife is often a non-skiier, so this was an ideal setup for both of us, I could sneak in an unplanned ski day, and she was able to enjoy the 60 degree weather down below.

That combination—high alpine skiing, historic cities, and warm coastal air is, I think, unique to this area.

Final Thoughts

Sierra Nevada isn’t going to compete with the biggest resorts in the rockies or Swiss Alps, but that’s what makes it different. What it offers instead is something quieter and more balanced: affordable skiing, proximity to warm coastal lowlands, and a world class historic old city direcly down mountain.

If you’re open to skiing somewhere that doesn’t fit the usual mold, this corner of Andalusia is worth your time.

See a Youtube video with a first person view of some of these runs - https://youtu.be/HO-G6SsmQaI