Sector: Soldeu
Catalan scholars and pedants may note that this piste's name is a compound word derived from the term
Trenca l'Ós, which means ‘Bone-Crusher’!
This ominous-sounding title is simply a witty play on words, intended to enhance the notoriety of this short descent, which is renowned for its steep & tricky drop-in off the ridge. The name is in fact the common term for a rare Pyrenean bird (the Bearded Vulture), which has earned this soubriquet by dropping animal bones from a great height in order to break them open to get at the marrow inside.
The entrance is just behind the lift attendant's hut at the upper terminal of the
Solana chairlift. You get a good adrenaline rush as you drop in off the lipped edge of the ridge, but it's a short-lived buzz because the run quickly mellows into an easy red-equivalent cruise, converging with the neighbouring
Cucut run and the wide
Fura piste, towards the
Assaladors and
Solanelles chairlifts below skier's right.
This entire upper valley usually has good snow conditions, being at a sufficiently high altitude and well placed to catch any drifts blown off the exposed ridge, often reinforcing the pronounced lip at the start of this short but worthwhile run.
A great alternative finish to this descent is to leave the mid-section of the run in order to ride across the inter-piste terrain between the neighbouring
Fura and
Ós pistes (to the skier's left), and then to go off-piste amongst the trees ahead-right: there is a challenging natural halfpipe gully in these woods, dropping out to join the
Fura again on the banks of the stream below. Exit via the
Fura piste, or stroll up to the nearby chairlifts.
