A hiker negotiates a trail alongside a ski lift in the resort of Navacerrada, close to Madrid, Spain.
Photographer: Emilio Parra Doiztua/BloombergHow to Rewild a Snowless Mountain Ski Resort
The Spanish government has started to dismantle the iconic Navacerrada ski resort to restore the mountains, but lawsuits have delayed the plan.
José Conesa felt no hesitation as he surveyed the bare slopes of the Guadarrama mountain range in late October. Conesa runs the Navacerrada ski resort and was certain nothing — not the lack of snow and certainly not the Spanish government’s plans to dismantle the resort— would prevent it from operating this winter.
After all, Navacerrada had been welcoming skiers since the 1940s, and the central government has been trying to shut it down for years, including in each of the past three seasons. Spain’s Minister for Environmental Transition, Teresa Ribera, called it “an occupation without a license and therefore, illegal.”