Valcotos, Former ski resort in Sierra de Guadarrama, Spain
Valcotos is a former ski station in the Sierra de Guadarrama located within the southern zone of Peñalara Natural Park, positioned between the Peñalara Cirque and Cotos Pass. The slopes sit at an elevation where snow appears reliably during winter months and where open grassland greets hikers in warmer seasons.
The site opened as a ski station in 1969 with basic lifting equipment and experienced rapid growth to nine mechanical lifts by the mid-1980s. It played a key role in developing winter sports near Madrid and helped popularize skiing across Spain during that era.
The location takes its name from its position between mountain ridges and was once a gathering place for winter sports enthusiasts from the Madrid region. Visitors can still observe traces of former facilities scattered across the slopes when walking through the area.
The slopes are now open for cross-country skiing and can be reached from the Cotos Pass, offering straightforward access for winter visitors. In summer, the trails work well for hiking and exploring the mountain grassland ecosystems of this central range.
In 1999, authorities made the uncommon decision to dismantle all ski facilities and restore the landscape to its natural state, a move unprecedented in Europe at that time. This removal allowed the mountain area to recover and showed how post-industrial land could be returned to nature.
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