The best snow in Europe just now..?

Well, that might be pushing it, but while the Alps are suffering with a lack of the white stuff, our own Sierra Nevada opened this weekend with more piste (40kms) than ever before at this time of year. The season's been getting steadily longer and better since we've been coming to the Alpujarra - about eight years - during which global warming has wreaked havoc with the ski industry hundreds of miles north. Here, where you can see Africa on a clear day, no operator is going to give you a guarantee of great snow, but it's getting more dependable every year. Here's a shot from local paper Ideal, showing the first skiers to venture out this year. (They're not going to win awards for photography at Ideal, I'm afraid.) Our house is not for a single-minded skiing holiday, as it's an hour's drive to the slopes, but for a mixed trip which combines winter sports with, say, walking, visiting the Alhambra and a day on the beach, it would be perfect.

This is one of the few places in the world where you really can ski in the morning and swim (comfortably) in the sea in the afternoon of the same day. If you're at our place, you're about half way between the two, as well as close to Granada and surrounded by great scenery in every direction.

Live webcam...

...of the ski-slopes at Sierra Nevada here. Keep refreshing your screen and you can have endless fun watching Spaniards falling over in the snow. This is only a few miles from our place as the crow flies, but the crow would have to ascend about 2,200 metres (as the ski lifts start at about 3,500m). Meanwhile, snow is forecast for everywhere above 600m this week, so Juviles should see a white out.

It's all downhill from here

The ski season at the Sierra Nevada (above our house) starts a fortnight earlier than last year, with 11 lifts and 27 kms of pistas opening on Saturday 15th November. Lift passes are on sale at a discounted rate if you're quick, and our house is available until 20th December, and then from 2nd January, for about £250 or €300 a week. Latest news from the ski station here.

Early snow

It looks like it might be a good ski season in the Sierra Nevada this year, as they've had a couple of major snow falls already and it's still only October. Traditionally they open the ski lifts on December 1st, but I think they may bring it forward if conditions allow. No snow in Juviles yet, although it looks like it's going to be pretty cold this week - while we have guests from Paris staying in the house, no doubt frantically searching for firewood as I type this. Or making their way to Tino's bar to keep warm, one or the other...