There are people who speak of Puerto de Navacerrada not out of nostalgia, but out of a sense of belonging. Chus Martín-Merino is one such person. The daughter of a pioneering family in Spanish skiing, an international ski instructor, journalist and author of the books Hijos del Guadarrama, she has spent years dedicating her life to documenting, defending and passing on the memory of the Puerto de Navacerrada ski resort, which she considers to be much more than just a ski area.
His account blends sports history, family memories and a grassroots movement built around the defence of Navacerrada’s historical and sporting heritage. His narrative features Olympic champions, railway milestones, ski instructors, mountaineers and unsung workers who have shaped the identity of the Sierra de Guadarrama over more than a century. From the arrival of the Norwegian Birger Sörensen in the early 20th century to the current political and legal dispute threatening part of the resort, Martín-Merino argues that Navacerrada has been
“If Navacerrada were in France, there would already be a cable car from Paris to the slopes.”
In this interview with I Love Ski, Chus Martín-Merino looks back at the origins of skiing in the Central System, the historical importance of the mountain pass, the birth of the Salvemos Navacerrada campaign and his “Navacerrada 365” project, a proposal that aims to secure the resort’s future through a sustainable, year-round model. The conversation also reflects a very clear vision: the mountains “should not become a political battleground”.
Chus, who are you and what is your connection to the Port of Navacerrada?
I was born just 14 kilometres from the Navacerrada Pass, in the heart of the municipality that is home to the Segovian side of the slopes. Navacerrada has two sides: the northern side, which belongs to Segovia, and the southern side, which belongs to Madrid, with different slopes on each side. I was born on the northern side.
I come from a family of great champions. My father, Jesús Martín-Merino, won 80 cross-country skiing titles – 13 times Spanish champion in individual events and the rest in relays – at a time when taking part meant travelling to Norway to compete. We’re talking about the 1950s. He used to tell how, when they won a race, they would take off their anoraks so their opponents could see they were from Spain.
“My strength has been that I don’t belong to any political party. The people have brought out the best in me.”
My father came from a family of nine siblings, and practically all of them went on to become champions. They got into skiing in a rather unusual way: they used to go up to Puerto de Navacerrada to work, and one day someone put skis on them and they won. By the time I was three or four, I was already going up with my father to explore the mountains and learn to ski. I soon realised that competition wasn’t for me, but teaching was.
I took my younger cousins under my wing, taught them to ski, and that’s how I became an instructor. Since 1974 I have been with the Spanish Ski School as an international instructor – one of the few at that time – having taken my exams in Chamonix. After that, I spent almost 20 years teaching in the Pyrenees, always with Puerto de Navacerrada close to my heart.
You spent nine years researching and gathering testimonies to write *Hijos del Guadarrama*. What motivated you to do so?
The main motivation was to ensure that the memory of all those who have left their sweat, blood, skill and mark on the Puerto de Navacerrada was not lost. When I started, there was practically nothing reliable to be found online, and the resort was already a run-down facility that nobody was interested in.
So, going from door to door, I gathered testimonies: 85 accounts in the first volume, ranging from champions and skiers to those who worked at the resort. I also have 37 years’ experience in journalism under my belt, so it was no trouble at all for me to recount and document every step of the way.
“I went from sipping champagne to celebrate the book to packing up all my gear to defend Navacerrada.”
A month after the first book was published, in January, a press release was issued by the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO): the central government would not be renewing the concession. The Port of Navacerrada has been operating under concessions for 76 years; it was not the exclusive property of any one party.
And I went from sipping champagne to celebrate the book to packing up all my gear to lead the defence of Navacerrada. They chose me precisely because I’d written the book.
The second volume responds to the need to continue this record – featuring 65 of the most representative accounts – whilst also including everything we did to defend the resort, with a day-by-day guide. It also contains sections dedicated to the Blanca Fernández Ochoa Foundation, written by her sister Lola, on the support provided to competitive skiers.
What are the most significant historical milestones in the history of the Port of Navacerrada that are covered in your books?
The Navacerrada Ski Resort began in Ventorrillo. People would get off the train at Cercedilla, carry their skis on their shoulders wherever they could, and make their way up there. The guide for all this was Pepe Arias’s father, who had a donkey called Vinagre with which he carried people up and sold cakes. Over time, they made their way up the remaining six kilometres to the top of the pass.
We’re talking about 1900–1902. We have an unpublished account by a Norwegian named Birger Sörensen who came to Spain in search of timber – skiing has always been linked to pine forests and timber – settled in Madrid and Segovia, and would ski down the slopes with his arms outstretched. That spot was called La Loma del Noruego, and that is what it is known as today.
“The Navacerrada Ski Resort, relative to its seven hectares, is the location with the most skiing medals in the world.”
Then there are some key dates: in 1923, the Navacerrada railway lines served as a model for the construction of railway lines in the Alps – which did not yet exist in Europe. In 1936, a skier born in our municipality took part in the Garmisch Winter Olympics (Germany).
In 1964, a group of people from Madrid founded Baqueira Beret in the Aran Valley and, around the same time, another group from Madrid pushed for the railway line to be extended to Cotos, as Navacerrada station had become too small. This project required a tunnel 93 metres deep at an altitude of 1,880 metres – the largest-scale engineering project undertaken by the Spanish railways at the time.
Decades later, historic milestones would follow, such as Paco Fernández Ochoa’s Olympic medal and, in 1996, the first World Ski Championships held in Spain, with Alberto Tomba arriving on the slopes by helicopter and winning gold. I was there with my father. It felt as though we weren’t in Spain at all, but in the Alps. The Puerto de Navacerrada, relative to its seven hectares, is one of the locations with the highest historical concentration of medallists and champions in relation to its size. And it has more than 40.
The Supreme Court has upheld the closure of the Segovian ski runs – Escaparate, Telégrafo and Bosque. However, you state categorically that people will be skiing in Navacerrada next year. Where does that conviction come from?
We must, of course, abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling. What it has done is to uphold the ruling of the High Court of Justice of Castile and León. The Government ordered the dismantling, the Regional Government refused to carry it out, they were sued, and that is how we have ended up here. But the dismantling is not going to happen overnight. Legislation is required.
“This isn’t a legal issue, it’s a political one. There is no reason why the Port of Navacerrada should have to close.”
The Board has to receive the notification, and if there are any clauses in the decommissioning process, everyone affected must be notified in due course, and given time to submit their comments… Do you think that can be done in three months? No.
And perhaps, in the meantime, there might be a change of government that delays the whole process even further. So the closure isn’t imminent, and it’s perfectly possible that people will be able to ski in the Segovia area next season if the transport link isn’t completed in time.
What have been the greatest achievements of the ‘Save Navacerrada’ campaign, now known as the ‘Children of Guadarrama’ Citizens’ Association?
The greatest achievement was building a genuine citizens’ movement, something that is incredibly difficult. My strength has been that I do not belong to any political party. That gave me credibility in everyone’s eyes.
The first step was a citizens’ proposal that we took to Congress. I went personally to convince the MPs, with my book in hand as a letter of introduction. Just eight months after the MITECO letter, on 9 December 2021, the proposal was approved in Congress. That was the boost we needed. People began to rally behind us.
We formed a group comprising five organisations: the Regional Government of Castile and León, the Community of Madrid, the Madrid Winter Sports Federation (FMDI), the Spanish champions and civil society. We managed to support the concessionaire so that it would not be intimidated and would not close down in the face of pressure. There were about 7,000 of us on social media, plus everyone else who knew about it.
The impact of Salvemos Navacerrada even reached the international media. On 1 February 2022, various French media outlets linked to the Alpine region, including the French daily Le Monde and L’Est Républicain, published articles on the Navacerrada dispute and the challenges faced by mid-mountain resorts in the face of climate change and the management of artificial snow. Subsequently, the situation at the pass was also covered by the Franco-German cultural television channel Arte and the German business daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, consolidating the international dimension of the debate surrounding the resort.
We also discovered that the water intake at Arroyo del Telégrafo had been blown up. Someone had blown it up, and the next day the snowmaking system wasn’t working. I live just a few kilometres away; I was told about it, we sorted it out, and we didn’t say a word. But ten days later they tried it again. So we went to the Civil Guard, I made a public statement, and the Duero River Basin Authority took charge. If we hadn’t been there, it would have happened without anyone knowing what had gone wrong or how to fix it.
Tell us about Navacerrada 365, the project for the future.
We presented the project to Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The Segovia section is in the process of being dismantled – we don’t know when that will happen, but that’s the direction it’s heading in. So we’re focusing on the Madrid section, where there is a 29-year lease covering 54,000 square metres.
If we used to have seven hectares, we’ll now have five and a half. And there’s something else, still at the planning stage, that’s very positive for the area. The proposal includes sustainable sliding panels – green in summer, white in winter – that allow skiing 365 days a year. If there’s snow, you ski on snow; if not, on the panels. Britain’s Dave Ryding, winner of the Kitzbühel slalom in 2022, regularly trains on this type of synthetic surface in the UK. Facilities of this kind can be found in Abu Dhabi, in Australia…
“If there’s snow, you ski on snow. If not, you ski on the panels. 365 days a year.”
The dream is that you’ll be able to hop on a train – with services as frequent as in Europe, not just a tourist train – and that your children can go skiing whilst you enjoy a beer in the summer. We want a sustainable, inclusive resort that operates all year round.
And the train: historically, it has always been for public use – workers used to board at 7 am. It can’t cost €17 a journey when the AVE from Madrid to Segovia costs €6. The refurbishment is underway, although it’s progressing slowly.
You maintain that the mountain is not a political issue. Why do you think the closure of Navacerrada is due to political rather than environmental reasons?
Because there is no environmental justification for the closure. In the United States, all national parks coexist perfectly well with ski resorts. In the case of Navacerrada, the resort was expressly excluded from the National Park by Law 7/2013 – it is a ‘development zone’, as the law states.
“This isn’t a legal issue, it’s a political one. There is no reason why the Port of Navacerrada should have to close.”
It does not contravene any environmental regulations. Storks have been living alongside the chairlifts since 1955. Everything is electric. There is no objective reason.
The difference is this: Castilla y León and the Community of Madrid are governed by the same party; the central government, by a different one. This is a political problem. The situation has been deliberately manipulated in order to dismantle the Port of Navacerrada.
Is there also an issue of access and overcrowding that needs to be addressed?
Absolutely. Before, 5 million people used to visit; now there are 7 million, and they all want to come every weekend. There isn’t enough room for everyone. But the solution isn’t to close it down: it’s to regulate it.
Firstly, the train: it should run frequently, so that people can leave their cars at home and use it.
Secondly, restrictions on road access, but with prior notice: if you close without warning, you’ll ruin all the bookings for the establishments in the valley, which only operate at weekends during the winter.
And thirdly, car park. The current car park, which has around 3,000 spaces, lacks solid foundations. Motorhomes arrive at night and take up all the spaces meant for cars. We propose that a car park for coaches and motorhomes be built on the site where the Álvaro Iglesias hostel has just been demolished, leaving the rest for private vehicles.
What is your dream for Navacerrada?
There should be regulated and orderly access. Accommodation should be re-established so that people arriving by train can stay overnight. It should function as an integrated station linking the Segovia and Madrid sides. And if it were ever to be linked to Valdesquí, that would be the ultimate dream. A ski area spanning both sides, with a different management model and genuine accessibility.
A capital city like Madrid, with a population of 7 million, has an extraordinary attraction less than an hour away. If Navacerrada were in France, there would already be a cable car running from Paris to the slopes.
