What you can see on the Candanchú webcams
The cameras give a close look at the bottom of the ski area. One faces up the wide, gentle slope of Pista Grande, with its drag lifts and the ski-school huts; another, from beside the ticket office, looks up at a great wall of pale limestone that towers over the resort. From the deck of a building higher up, a third looks across to the Tuca Blanca chairlift and its station, with a row of jagged peaks behind. A shop camera in the village shows the main road, a large hotel and the green slopes above it. In winter they tell you at once whether there is snow down to the base and how busy the nursery slopes are.
Candanchú village and the main road to the Somport
This camera belongs to a ski shop in the resort village and looks across the main road through Candanchú, the N-330 to the Somport pass. In the middle of the frame stands a large hotel; to the right, the road curves past chalets and parked cars, and above everything rise the green ski slopes and the rocky ridge of the resort.
It is the camera for the drive up: you can see whether the road is clear or white, whether there are queues of cars, and how much snow lies around the village itself. Windy shows it as a time-lapse of the day.
Candanchú webcam on Pista Grande, the beginners' slope
Pista Grande, at about 1,560 m (5,120 ft), is the broad, gentle slope at the foot of Candanchú where generations of Spanish skiers took their first lessons. This live camera looks straight up it: a wide grassy run crossed by a service track, the poles of the drag lifts climbing the hill, a small lift hut and, on the skyline, a rocky ridge with a few pines.
In winter it is the camera to check before bringing children: it shows whether the nursery area has snow, whether the drag lifts are running and how crowded it is. In the morning the sun rises over the ridge straight into the lens, so the picture is brightest and clearest from late morning.
The Tuca Blanca chairlift and the peaks above Candanchú
From the wooden balcony of a building on the slope, this live camera looks across to the Tuca Blanca area: the station of a chairlift, a couple of small huts and a parking area on a grassy shelf, with the lift line climbing away up the hillside. Behind it stands a row of sharp limestone peaks.
Because it looks up towards the higher part of the resort, it is a good guide to snow and cloud on the upper slopes when the base is clear. On stormy days the peaks vanish first. In summer the same view shows the walking routes on the open slopes below the summits.
Limestone walls over the Candanchú ticket office
Set beside the ticket office at the bottom of Pista Grande, this camera tilts upwards to the most dramatic sight in Candanchú: a huge wall of pale grey limestone, banded with darker layers, rising over green slopes and scree. At the bottom of the picture are the roofs of the base buildings and the lift poles of the nursery slope.
It is less about the piste and more about the mountain: the place to see fresh snow dusting the ledges, the snowline creeping down the cliffs in late autumn, or cloud pouring over the crest from France. Late morning, with the sun on the rock, gives the sharpest picture.
A resort with a history
Skiing began here in the late 1920s, and Candanchú's ski school is one of the oldest in Spain. The resort has two areas: the lower Pista Grande and Tobazo slopes, a big, gentle beginners' area laid out so that parents can watch from the base, and the higher La Tuca sector, reached by chairlift, home to steep runs such as the Tubo de la Zapatilla. The pistes start at about 1,500 m (4,920 ft) and climb above 2,200 m (7,220 ft).
When to watch Candanchú
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The season usually runs from December to April. Sitting right on the watershed, Candanchú catches storms coming in from the Atlantic, so snow can arrive here when the southern valleys stay dry, and fog can fill the pass in minutes. Some cameras look into the sun in the late morning, so the afternoon pictures are often clearer.
Around Candanchú
The Somport pass, a mile up the road, is the Aragonese gateway of the Way of St James, and the ruins of the medieval pilgrim hospice of Santa Cristina lie beside the river. Down the valley are Canfranc, with its vast international railway station, and the town of Jaca. Astún, the neighbouring resort, is a few minutes away.
Getting to Candanchú
The N-330 climbs from Jaca, 17 miles (27 km) to the south, and continues over the Somport into France; the Somport road tunnel bypasses the pass. The nearest airports with flights from the UK are Biarritz, about 105 miles (169 km) by road, and Zaragoza, about 112 miles (180 km).
