The forecast for today had substantially gone downhill when we got up this morning, and outside the window was thick fog. Subsequently, there was some discussion whether it was worth going skiing. Despite all the info we were given, the web cams at Masella showed lovely sun shine, so we went despite the forecast of snow later in the afternoon.

By the time we left home there was sun in Castellfollit, but we drove back into the fog in the Vall de Bianya. We finally cleared it after Ribes, where we briefly stopped to collect Geoff’s skis. On getting to Masella it was lovely and sunny and we raced to the lifts, only for Geoff to fall on the first run. When he caught up with me, he looked very concerned. The lads at the repair shop had not just filled in the gashes on the skis, but also sharpened the edges and the skis wouldn’t turn. We swapped and I tried them, but thought they were so dangerous I refused to go more than a couple of hundred meters. There was no choice but for Geoff to ski down, take his boots off and drive the 25 minutes back to Ribes to have them fixed again. There was no point in both of us going, so I had a couple of hours skiing on my own. A novel experience.

I decided to go right up to the top of the resort, and took the quick button lift. As I was going up, I realised that the cloud had come in and we were going to be in clag. No concerns there, except that visibility got so bad I could barely see the cable above me. Suddenly 5 skiers appeared out of nowhere – they must have got lost in the cloud and missed the piste and had to come down the button lift track. With the cloud coming in, the sky looked amazing – blues, greys, blacks all made of a real spectacle.

Once Geoff got back I met him at the bottom and the minute we got on the lift, it started to hail. Great! He got off the lift with some trepidation. His skis were better, but nowhere near as good as they were before. I had another try, but still couldn’t satisfactorily parallel turn them and my cartilage depleted knees can’t take snow-plowing. The sun came out again, so Geoff was keen to try to keep going, but after another couple of runs he had to admit defeat for his own safety. I had skied a lot, so I handed him mine and went to read my book. As soon as he got back on the lift, it started snowing hard. Just not his day, I guess!

His skis are back at the shop for repair and it rained cats and dogs on the way home. Hope that means more snow as it was looking a bit bare in places.

See photos of today.

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