Andorra

Got up before dawn on Saturday to drive to Andorra for a weekend of skiing with Justin, Emily, Pat, Kev and some other friends. It was already snowing when I left Quelebu - yippee! The driving conditions were pretty difficult when I reached Pas de la Casa (the Andorran frontier and a high pass) with a blizzard blowing but by the time I reached Arinsal and Pal, a little before 10.00, things were settling down to a bright, sunny, cold day. I skied all morning before meeting up with everyone else at lunchtime and finishing off the last few pistes I hadn't skied at the resort in the afternoon.

On Sunday we headed to Arcalis which is a beautiful resort with a real mountain ambiance, very little development in the way of shops, hotels, cafes, etc and some very nice skiing. The weather was cold and it deteriorated through the day until at about 4.00 a storm hit. We skied as long as we could, but with gusts of wind strong enough to blow you over when you were skiing (which it did twice), we decided enough was enough. We bid a retreat back to the chalet and following a game of scrabble (man we know how to party) J and E cooked an amazing spaghetti carbonara followed by dry run of a quiz that J is planning for his employees next week, which provided an hilarious and slightly drunken evening of entertainment.

More snow fell Sunday night, so this morning I couldn't resist one more ski run at Arcalis. I skinned up to the top of the resort (about 600m of ascent in 1hr 5mins) before descending in about 15 minutes back to the car. The run was unpisted and with wind blown spindift and fresh snow there was about 16" of powder at the steep top of the run and probably 6-9" lower down. Despite my tired legs from the ascent, I was really pleased to be able to ski the snow reasonably well and concentrate on technique (last season it would have defeated me).