La Mogorrita
A single-slope ski station on the highest peak in the province of Cuenca, worked by two homemade drag lifts driven by old Land Rover engines, which ran from 1972 until the local ski club gave up in 1992.
- Region
- Castile-La Mancha
- Country
- Spain
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1972
- Year closed
- 1992
- Reason for closure
- Maintenance costs the club could not meet, an increasingly unreliable snow cover, and the impossibility of funding the upgrades the station would have needed. In 1992 the Club de Esquí Montes Universales ended its involvement after more than 25 years promoting skiing in Cuenca.
History
La Mogorrita is a summit of 1,864 m in the Montes Universales, above Valdemeca in the Serranía de Cuenca, and the highest point in the province of Cuenca. In 1972 the city of Cuenca handed the use of the mountain refuge there to the Club de Esquí Montes Universales, which ran a ski station on the peak: a single piste of about 500 m served by two very small drag lifts powered by old Land Rover motors. The set-up was rudimentary in the extreme but could hold up to 500 people skiing on a good day, and it had its heyday through the 1970s and 1980s. Ambitions to turn it into a proper station never found funding, the snow became less dependable, and the running costs outgrew the club, which wound up its involvement in 1992 after more than a quarter of a century. It is remembered locally through the Facebook group 'Yo esquié en La Mogorrita' - I skied at La Mogorrita - and the site is now walked rather than skied. No lift or piste names are recorded.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | One of two small drag lifts, both driven by old Land Rover engines. Lengths, dates and any names are not documented | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | The second of the two Land Rover-powered drag lifts |
Sources and further reading
More in Spain
Location
40.3545, -1.7659