Skiing
Archived posts from this Category
Tuesday, 18th January 2011
Posted by Judith on 18 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
The forecast for today was for sun, but with a lot of high cloud. This would suppress the temperatures a bit and so it seemed the perfect day to go skiing! We set off in a baby blue sky and it stayed that way all day, with just a little bit of high cloud here and there. The snow has been melting and there is a lot less off the pistes, but they have done their best to maintain what they have and the snow quality was excellent until lunchtime. There’s 50km open at Masella and we set ourselves the task of skiing every open run, but by midday the sun had warmed the lower runs too much and we stuck to the top pistes.
Cumulus started to pop in the valley and we bitterly regretted not throwing in the gliders. It would have been an ideal day to ski in the morning, and then go have a fly in the afternoon. As it was, we finished a bit early. My knees were a bit sore from pushing it on some of the red and black runs. But when the snow’s nice…
Wednesday, 12th January 2011
Posted by Judith on 12 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
More nice weather for skiing. A little windy, but not so much that the lifts were closed, and it did keep the temperatures down. We got up early to get an early start so we could make the most of the morning conditions. It was a bit icy to start off with, but once a few people had skied down the pistes and loosened up the top layer, it was actually really good snow. Much better than Monday. At the top was nicest, so we stayed there for most of the day.
There was loads of wave around, and the sky was full of crazy patterns, colours, shapes. It was like someone was painting the sky from above and we were watching it from below. The photos don’t really do the sky justice, since most of the wave bars were too massive to fit onto my camera. There were glories and sun dogs and also rainbows here or there, caused by the wind blowing snow over the mountains. Just beautiful.
Monday, 10th January 2011
Posted by Judith on 10 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
Finally we got to ski again. It snowed in the mountains yesterday and today should be the coldest day of the week, so best time to go. It was sunny at home and we drove through a layer of cloud on the way to Ribes, where it cleared again. In the Toses valley it was beautiful sunshine, but as we got to La Molina, there was thick fog! At Masella, we got on the ski lift and it took nearly to the top of La Pia to get into the sun, but once there, we were treated to a fantastic view of the sea of cloud below us. We took the next lift to the top of the resort, where the views were even better.
Eventually we had to descend back into the murk (to get to a cafe to have lunch). The cloud did start to dissipate in the afternoon, but then started to re-form in other places, so it was a really intersting day for changing scenery. Some of the sunbeams in the trees were magical.
The snow wasn’t the best (or worst) we’ve skied on. With the thaw/freeze cycle coming and going, it’s a bit lumpy and icy under the top layer, but there were nice runs to be found. Just nice to be out in the white stuff again…
Monday, 20th December 2010
Posted by Judith on 20 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Skiing
It would have been a great flying day, but we decided to go skiing instead. Our season passes are not valid over the holiday period, so we need to ski while we can. With no precipitation here for ages there isn’t any more snow, but they’re making it when they can. The snow quality was not quite as good as the other day, but the wall-to-wall sunshine and more pleasant temperatures made it a really lovely day.
We went up to the top of the resort, but with better snow low down, we stayed in the mid and bottom pistes and dodged the ski schools until lunchtime, when the place became deserted. Seems like they were too tired to come back for the afternoon session, because we seemed to have the place to ourselves.
Bad weather is coming up from the south tomorrow, so no more fun and games for a few days.
Thursday, 16th December 2010
Posted by Judith on 16 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Skiing
Our first day of the ski season! Bit less windy today, but still very cold. The ski resort of Masella had announced that they have some fancy new machine that fluffs the snow up and can make even the artificial stuff into powder, so despite only 30km open, we went up to have a go.
There isn’t any snow off-piste, but they’ve made the most of what is open and the skiing was excellent. We skied every piste we could get to by chairlift. Strong winds closed the higher lifts and we couldn’t be bothered to take a button lift – too cold. I had on six layers, and no bits of flesh exposed, so I was actually warmer than I was yesterday.
Can’t wait to go again next week.
Tuesday, 23rd March 2010
Posted by Judith on 23 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Flying, France, Skiing
We headed up to Masella for our last days skiing for the season. We knew it would be slushy from early on, so we got there for the first lift at 9am. After a warm-up run, it was straight up to the top of the resort. It was fine up there, but got sticky down by the lift in the middle. We skied until my knees couldn’t take it any more and then set off to meet Mike at Targasonne.
We love the site, but don’t go often as it is on the other side of the Cerdanya valley, near Font Romeu. Mike had told us he thought it would be a good day and it really was. Cumulus popping off everywhere. Thankfully the road was open and we could drive to the top. It was a little breezy and very thermic, so we waited it out for a while. By 2.30pm it seemed to be dropping so I launched first. I climbed straight to 7200′ AMSL (1200’ATO). The views are just stunning.
The landing field is full of horses, which seem completely unfazed by the gliders coming in and largely ignored us. There was a little incident though, when I misjudged the height I was coming in at, mis-timed my flare and landed squarely on my butt in the middle of a huge pile of horse shit. My harness is still drying out next to the radiator…
Thursday, 18th March 2010
Posted by Judith on 19 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Holiday, Skiing
We got up early to set off to the high Pyrenees to use up another free ski pass; this time at Boí Taüll. The drive from Ager to El Pont de Suert is spectacular. Not only to you get to see the backside of the Serra de Montsec (the ridge which dominates Ager), but the road takes you through narrow steep gorges, past lakes and hydro-electric plants with precipitous stair cases hewn into the rock.
Boí Taüll is at the end of the Vall de Boí, just on the edge of the Aigüestortes national park. It is without doubt the prettiest resort we have ever been to. The views were just breath-taking. So much so, that we did the skiing in a completely leisurely fashion. It took ages to get down the first few runs, we spent so much time stopping, gasping and taking photos. The resort is in a huge bowl and the highest point is 2750m. You get different views from the top of each lift and can see Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees. An approaching weak warm front provided a spectacular backdrop, with whacky wave bars and greying skies.
Despite the approaching cloud, we seemed to be stuck in a blue hole and the sun was far too strong to keep the snow nice. By 2.30pm it was getting slushy even in the middle of the resort and the resistance in the skis was making my knees ache. We had been to all the sectors and to the top of all the lifts, so decided to call it a day and head back home in a leisurely fashion, taking a route through the Pyrenees we’ve never travelled before.
On our way we passed through Sort, a place I have always wanted to see, given the name means ‘luck’ in Catalan. The anticipation wasn’t rewarded… we didn’t even stop. We did have a coffee at the service station up the hill on the way out of town and the loos have the best views!
We stopped and had a look round La Seu d’Urgell. We’ve been past it loads of times, but always bypassed it on the way somewhere else. It’s a lovely place and you can see that it was once a massively important town. The old splendour of the buildings in still there, albeit a bit more cramped together than 600 years ago.
We got home late and are determined to have a day off (hopefully at the beach). Nine days of consecutive skiing/flying and we are exhausted!