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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