Judith's blog

We agonised somewhat about what to do today, but in the end, decided to go skiing. The temperatures rose a lot today and this was the first time this year that it got slushy at the bottom. However, this also means you can sit in your shirt getting sun burnt while having a coffee break.

Snow was nice and we discovered some more runs we didn’t know existed. 70km of piste was open, which is about the max we’ve known at Masella. Despite the forecast, the wind started picking up and when we wanted to go to the top of the resort for the last run of the day the cloud came in and they closed the lift. We took the button lift instead (we were one of the last people to get on it) and arrived at the top in thick cloud. I’ve skied in thick cloud before, but not with visibility so bad. We had to ski from one piste marker to the next, hoping no one else was anywhere near you. Geoff and I lost sight of each other after about 10m. I got a bit of a fright when I heard, but couldn’t see, a skidoo until it was nearly on top of me. I loved it, but Geoff wasn’t so sure.

Lovely day out, unfortunately we had to end it in the Renault garage to have them check the clutch on the van.

Lots of people went flying and Nani said conditions were good – everyone had great flights, then had to get out of the way of strong lift with big ears and then all flew again for more fun.

Geoff writes: for some reason I don’t understand, anything to do with cars here is always more expensive than in the UK (except fuel), even allowing for the exchange rate. The repairs will cost a lot more than they would in the UK.

Flying here hasn’t been as good as usual this year, but it has, unusually, been far better in the north, where we are, than in Algo or Alicante. The weather patterns have been very different this year. We are here for another 7 or 8 weeks, and hoping for good flying in that time. 

See photos of today.

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The forecast was looking a bit dodgy for the whole week, so we were trying to hedge our bets and try to eke out as much fun out of the week as possible. I thought the forecast looked better in the mountains than at home, so persuaded Geoff (against his better judgment!) to come skiing. It poured all night, so there would be lots of new snow. As we passed Ribes the rain stopped and the sky started to clear, but as we approached La Molina, it started snowing, and continued most of the day.

We met up with Kai and James, but the snow quality left a lot to be desired (small drifts across the pistes), it was very crowded and visibility was terrible. Three runs and Geoff thought better of it, and went home (the van was also playing up, and he needed to check it). I thought it would be useful practise, so stayed. It was good getting used to more difficult conditions and I did a spectacular splat, which both Kai and James failed to see. Highlight of the day was me falling over and Kai skiing past me laughing gleefully, only for him to splat right next to me in the same snowdrift. Schadenfreude is something best saved for when you’re away from the hazards that caused the damage in the first place!

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Geoff writes: another day skiing, but what a different day to yesterday! Wayne managed to not slice any more bits off. Richard got a lot faster. The wind dropped and the sun came out giving the usual stunning views. We all had a great day, skiing until the lifts closed, which we rarely do.  The snow was excellent, the pistes were well groomed, and though there were lots of people you could avoid them by getting higher up, or going to the less well-used side, La Pia, away from the main resort parking. Richard had another lesson, is hooked, and determined to beat Judith’s speed of 80-odd km/h. But he has to learn how to stop first. 

On the way back we met up briefly for a quick drink with Kai and his son James, who are going to Masella for a few days skiing.

And out for a meal in the evening, where Wayne practised his Spanish by asking for more, and more, and more, wine; Judith started slurring her words; Richard tried, and failed, to get off with the extremely attractive waitress.

A great night out.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: a sunny forecast, but very cold. In the mountains, a torb wind was forecast. This is a very strong mountain wind that blows over the summits, and whips up the snow, so that it seems as though it’s snowing, but it isn’t. Normally we would not go skiing in that forecast, but because Wayne and Richard were here, we decided to go. It was bitterly cold, and also very crowded – must be half term here, hundreds of kids. We don’t normally have to queue for lifts during the week, but this time we did.

The snow was good, though a bit slow in places where the wind had blown snow over the groomed pistes. The highest slopes were closed, but that was no great loss – still plenty open, and according to Richard’s instructor (he had a skiing lesson) the wind chill factor on the top was an incredible -50C. Seems a bit low to me, but anyway, it was extremely cold – possibly the coldest we have every skied in. Judith had four pairs of gloves on this time. A new record.

After his lesson, Richard went off to practise on his own on the blue runs, and Wayne, Judith and I went off to ski a bit faster. Wayne managed to fall and slice his leg open on the edge of the ski – which was a bit unfortunate. Eventually, Judith took him to hospital in Puigcerda to get it sewn up free, rather than paying 100 euros at Masella. Hopefully, he’ll be able to ski tomorrow. He was very unlucky – as he says, if he fell into a barrel of nipples, he’d end up sucking his thumb.

Skiing tomorrow, and it looks good for flying on Saturday.

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Geoff writes: our Supporting Deaf People conference  opens Wednesday, the biggest ever. But most of the preparation work is done, so we decided to go skiing, though to finish early. We woke up, and it had snowed, there was a light covering here, so we checked the roads, but they were all open. In fact, it hadn’t snowed at Masella at all last night, so the roads were fine. It was a beautiful day, even less crowded than usual – Monday is always quiet – and great snow. It was very cold though – I know it’s supposed to be cold in ski resorts, but in fact if it’s sunny, it’s usually quite warm, especially sitting in the cafe having a break. But not today. Judith ended up with three layers of gloves – her free plastic petrol station diesel gloves on the inside, then some normal inner gloves, then her highly expensive ski gloves. She was just about warm enough with all those. It’s the diesel gloves which make the difference.

They flew in Santa Brigida again, and, I think, had a good day. The sky certainly looked good at Masella, with some nice cumulus.

And home to an evening of work.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: we’d planned to go skiing today, though looking at the forecast this morning it seemed like it would be cloudy most of the day, and snowing by late afternoon. In the event, it was sunny all day, with some good cumulus development later in the afternoon. So we had a great day at Masella, made better by the fact that I picked up my skis from the repair shop, and, this time, they were perfect – which was a great relief. Fourth time lucky….

Being Friday, it was a bit crowded, with the beginners earlier in the week moving up to the higher slopes. But crowds are relative – the longest we had to queue for a lift was, literally, three minutes. More often than not, we got straight on. The snow was really nice to ski on, and sitting in the cafes when we had a break, it was warm in the sun.

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Geoff writes: Today is the day before we open the conference for reading, so we went skiing. First, we stopped to pick up my skis from their fourth repair, but they hadn’t been done, so they lent me a pair for the day, and promised to get mine fixed. So then we decided to go to Nuria to ski – the train station, the Cremallera (zip) rack and pinion train is just opposite the shop. Nuria is the miniature, Legoland resort we’ve not skied at before. Just under 7km. The ride up on the train was quite spectacular. The skiing was ok, but hard to spend a whole day there. I’m not sure why people would buy a season ticket for it, when there are much better resorts close by (we got a free one day pass, including the Cremallera, with our Masella season ticket). But it was fun for one day.

Apart from a couple of greens, there is just one ski lift taking you to a few runs of varying grades. All very short! Judith, for the first time for a year, managed to fall over after hitting some ice; then later on got told off by the guy at the bottom of the lift for skiing too fast, and not slowing down when getting close to the lift. That put her in her place….

We decided to catch the train back around 4.00pm, hoping to get the seat right at the front, with a panoramic view through the window. As the train came in, and we were walking towards it, a huge horde of kids came out of the waiting room, and trampled us in the rush to the train. Fortunately, Judith was able to use her ski poles to good effect, and did manage to get the front seat, pushing the kids out of the way. No use being tall if you can’t use the height. On the other hand, that meant there were far too many kids behind us in the train, all competing to shout the loudest – mostly screaming “uau!” (that’s Catalan for “wow”). They weren’t exclaiming at the scenery – they just wanted to make a lot of noise. Their teachers tried to shut them up, but failed miserably.

Back at Ribes, and back at the ski shop, they’ve fixed them again. They offered us a full refund, but we refused it. They’re nice people. However, next time we go skiing, we will borrow a spare pair from them just in case….

A fun day out. But we won’t bother skiing at Nuria again. Work tonight, in preparation for tomorrow.

See photos of today.

P.S. And here’s what the lads got up to while we were skiing… Johnny’s video.

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