Skiing
Archived posts from this Category
Friday, 25th March 2011
Posted by Judith on 26 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
We went skiing, possibly for the last time this season. The plan was to get up early and ski at Masella until 1pm, then meet up with Mike for a flight at Targasonne. We did hit the slopes at 9.30am, but the sunshine meant that it was already slushy on the lower runs. On our third run the cloud from the weak occluded front came in and this dampened that slush at the top, so the skiing was ok. We hooked up with Debi at 11.30am, but the increasing wind meant that it wasn’t worth travelling across to France.
My knees told me it was time to quit early afternoon and we headed home – in the drizzle!
Nils and Mark came to visit us in the evening, but because they came so early, we sent them to the tree house and labyrinth. I was in the middle of the supermarket getting dinner when I got a text saying ‘Very funny! How do we get out?’ which had me chuckling in the veg isle. We had nice dinner and a great catch up, but too much wine!
Wednesday, 23rd March 2011
Posted by Judith on 23 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
We weren’t sure how good the skiing would be today, what with the sunny weather, but with all the new snow, it seemed daft not to give it a try. We got up to Masella early, and the lower slopes were hard and compacted with icy patches here and there. Once up at the top of the resort, the snow got better and with 69km open, we got to ski runs that are open for the first time this season. Some of the really scenic ones (Isards, Panoramica, Bona Vista, etc.) are now open and it was nice to get the alternative views – albeit very late in the season.
So a nice skiing day, with lots of sunshine and slush confined to the bottom slopes. We’re hoping to go again this week!
Wednesday, 9th March 2011
Posted by Judith on 09 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
Our second day of skiing at Masella. The valley was cloudy at various times on our drive up, but on getting to the resort, it was sunny and clear, with a sea of cloud below us. We skied most of the day, Wayne entertaining us with more crashes. Because the sun was so strong and the temperatures have risen, it got very slushy, even at the top. On skiing down for lunch there was so much resistance in the ski that I was wincing with pain in my knees, so I decided to quit while ahead and just go for a read and snooze in the car. Geoff joined me and we let Mick and Wayne have an afternoon skiing on their own.
Tuesday, 8th March 2011
Posted by Geoff on 08 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
Geoff writes: we woke up to rain. We got up early, because skiing seemed the only option, and it would take a while to sort out everyone with ski hire and tickets. The forecast for here was rubbish, but getting better further west, and in the mountains. And actually, this was largely accurate. It rained most of the way to Masella, but as we got closer, the sun started to appear, and there was no rain there. It just got better throughout the day, and in fact ended with wall to wall sunshine – though looking towards the coast, it was still cloudy.
We had a great day’s skiing – a little crowded, and the snow lower down was slushy, since it was quite warm, but higher up, it was fine. I would mention all the times Wayne fell over, except that on the final run, I fell quite hard too, again, so better not mention Wayne’s crashes. I feel I’ve been skiing much better overall this year, but also I’ve fallen far more than I have ever done before, so obviously I’m doing something wrong, and need to work on my technique a lot. I might spend some time on this tomorrow.
We finished with the usual apres ski beers in t-shirts, in the sun. A really enjoyable day.
Driving back, the closer we got to home, the worse the weather got, and clearly most of the area had been in cloud most of the day. And in fact, it was still raining at home. We definitely made the right call going to ski.
Wednesday, 2nd March 2011
Posted by Judith on 02 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
We’ve got a lot on this week, with work, socialising, skiing and flying. Trying to make the most of it is turning into a logistical challenge! We decided to go skiing once this week but needed to pick the day. We’re hoping to go flying with Nicky tomorrow and Friday’s forecast looks uncertain… needless to say, we went into dither mode. In the end what clinched it was the forecast for here. Grey skies towards the coast, blue in the mountains.
We’d forgotten that it’s Semana Blanca (white week), where the kids take a week off from school to do activities – these can be anything, skiing, archery, arts and crafts, whatever their school organises. The ski resorts always get busy at these times, and we were horrified to find we actually had to queue for a lift! Normally during the week we feel we have the place to ourselves, so it’s always a bit of a shock to the system when others turn up.
Anyway, they churned up the snow and made it less pleasant, so we packed up half-way through the day. After a nice cold beer in the sunny car park, we drove off and were almost immediately under the grey claggy sky. It got worse and worse as we drove closer to home. Really pleased we made the decision to head north and make the most of the good weather. Especially since I’ve just seen the updated forecast for tomorrow. Really crap!
Thursday, 17th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 18 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
Geoff writes: the forecast for today had been gradually deteriorating. This morning, it was giving cloudy all day, variable amounts of precipitation, and possible thunderstorms. We had been planning to go to Port del Comte to ski, but decided not to bother, since the view would be lousy, and it was a long drive on very small – and probably not often ploughed – roads. So we decided to go to the museum first, see what the weather actually did, then maybe go to Masella, which is on our way home anyway, if it was not as bad as forecast.
La Seu d’Urgell is an interesting place and we thought the museum would cover a lot of the history of the town. It is very close to Andorra. When we were parking up last night, we’d started chatting to someone else feeding the meter, and asked her if the car would be OK parked overnight on the street. She said it would be fine – no-one bothers with car crime here, it doesn’t make enough money – the big money is in smuggling from Andorra (mostly tobacco).
So we went to the museum. We were the only people there, and the attendants were really pleased to see us, and one of them, an old guy, decided to give us a personal tour, detailing every exhibit. Unfortunately, the museum was a church museum rather than a general museum, so we got in depth information about dozens of Christian relics, crosses, saints, churches, paintings… not our idea of a good time. The other problem was that he took a shine to Judith, and in the guise of showing her around managed to do a bit of surreptitious groping. And the traditional Spanish kiss on each cheek, turned into real clinch with her. And all this in front of the Virgin Mary!
We escaped as fast as possible, and went to Masella. All around there were snow showers, but Masella was clear (but cloudy). We skied for a while, then went for coffee. On our first run after that I wiped out quite badly. Both of us hate skiing without sun, because it becomes so difficult to read the snow. I wasn’t going particularly fast, but took a bad fall and hit my head really hard. I am certain that had I not been wearing a helmet, I would have done some serious damage. As it is, I’ve just got a slight headache.
So an interesting day, mostly for the wrong reasons.
Wednesday, 16th February 2011
Posted by Judith on 16 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
We were going to hit the slopes early today, but conference work and LMSC stuff delayed us a bit. This is turning into a real working holiday. I have piles of follow-up work verifying the conference submissions of American and Candian delegates so that they can maintain their certification to practice. Rather than chilling out, I have been working several hours each evening and am slipping further and further behind.
After a hearty Andorran breakfast, we drove up to Arinsal and got our free ski passes. The weather was gorgeous – sunny and cool. We skied most of the day, and crossed to Pal in the afternoon. We went out to the furthest point that we could ski to and then headed back via most of the open runs. It seemed deserted though. In comparison to the two other times we have been there, it was empty. I suppose people don’t have the available cash to spend on holidays at the moment.
We’re spending the night in La Seu d’Urgell and then heading to ski at Port del Comte tomorrow. Forecast looks rubbish…