Homeward bound.

We don’t know if we saved any money flying into gatwick, and if we did we can’t say how much. What we can say is that however much any saving was, it wasn’t worth the trek through the underground. Its not the greatest of places any time of day but with two bags and a snow board, each in a party of four it becomes a significant impedement to progress. We have wished dylan adeau, and now speed towards birmingham in the relative comfort of first class. May even make last orders…

Last hazy days

Post-nicks-birthday celebrations we were all quite wounded and the day was pritty much written off.

Early Saturday morning there was a huge dump of snow which continued to fall throughout the day. It made some lovely powder which felt great under foot but visibility was entremly poor and many  of the lifts were closed due to high winds. With horizontal snow ripping into us we set off mostlt  using  feel to judge our balance and turns as all we could see was a featureless white. Still it was the last day and we managed to squeeze as much pleasure as was possible from our last day on the slopes for this year.

We are now at Toulouse airport having a team bear and reflecting on our experiences. I have to mention how shocked and stunned we all were on hearing about the disaster in Japan. Our thoughts go out to all those effected.

In airport!

We’ve got to toulouse airport. Transfer was wise n smooth.

Private transfer to airport.

The valley is widening and the snow covered peaks becoming less prevalent. the river we are following down the mountain is becoming wider.

Pending departure

Transfer arrived. The wait was mixed with feelings of contentment, reflection and anticipation of a long journey ahead. We leave fine snow for next weeks visitors.

nice apartment

good boarding

scenic mountains

do not wash head here

shop here

Andorra friday

Friday was wounded day. Myself and dylan managed to get up to the greatest supermarket in soldeu which i’ll have to document at some point. I think its supermercat font. Off the main drag anyway.
On the way back we decided to enliven ourselves by dipping our head into a water trough. Whilst the water looked crystal clear, dylan discovered it hummed a wee tad. We returned to the flat to recleanse ourselves and cook breakfast. Several hours later myself and dylan had lovingly prepared nicks belated birthday breakfast.
Following dining, myself, nick n dylan went to get a hot swaying chunderbus to andorra la vela, which was further away than anticipated. I have no idea how I kept my breakfast down.
I’ve not heard many complementary things about andorra la vela, but I liked it. The buildings were rugged, but provided a contrast against the surrounding mountains and the interesting textured river which appeared to have bumps and suchlike on the bottom, creating undulations and patterns on the surface.
The most prominant feature of andorra la vela was shopping. Elvis cow outside the cheese shop was its parting visual gift as we headed in the vague direction of the bus back to soldeu.

andorra1

andorra2

andorra3

A Videographic treat

Due to popular demand – some actual real videographic evidence of our activities on the mountain.  This has Dyl and Steve nailing it down a black run over by El Tarter resort

Last Day

Today i woke early, mind busy with thoughts of returning to work.

The first thing i noticed was the different light outside… opening the blinds I saw that it had been snowing. Heavily. This could mean onyl one thing – out last day was going to be a powder fest.

We made it out for a few runs early on, but the conditionas were against us… the wind was intense and it had taekn most of the powder from one side of the mountain.  aftger a couple of runs we followed Steve down for fajitas, in the hope conditions would improve come  the afternoon.

Relunctantly heading back out in our wet gear, after confirming slightly improved consdidionts, we headed over to El Tarter.  Loving the flowy powder, we got in a coulpe of runs down ou favourite reds with a few detours into the trees along the way.

A great  end to the week, and quite a contrast to the blue skies and hardpacked pistes we’d had so far!

Nick’s birthday snowboard special

I heard movement around in the kitchen and was glad that someone had got up to cook breakfast for Nick on his birthday. I grabbed a few more blinks of sleep before pulling on my jumper and wandering through to find Nick cooking his own birthday breakfast, I hope that he appreciated it.

We did a couple of red runs followed by a black. It has not snowed here since last week so the slopes were icy and packed hard making for difficult conditions. The pistes were relatively clear so we were able to weave across them at high speed chasing each other down unimpeded by crowds. Steve really put his foot on the gas today motoring down the slopes. We had a great time racing each other it was a hell of a buzz.

We boarded down a blue run to El Tarter for Nicks birthday lunch. I came a bit of a cropper on the way but it served as another lesson teaching me to look the way I am going. We got a table outside looking down the beautiful pine forest valley. Steve was difficult to spot in the crowd. [see pic]

The afternoon brought more excellent boarding. Unfortunately James was struggling to get into the flow, but it’s like that sometimes. We finished a little early at 4.30 to allow for sufficient birthday drinking time. We took a couple of pints at our favorite bar that looks back across to the piste and watched the sun as it began to dip behind the mountain.

We had a few beers and several Jager bombs before walking down to Fat Albert’s bistro where we enjoyed some quality food and a couple of bottles of wine. We retired to the bar with pints of Leffe and a complimentary birthday shot of something and lime that tasted like cola bottles. We pogoed like idiot kangaroos to Rage Against the Machine and other tunes, Nick bought a raffle ticket and won 5 Jager Bombs. The bar staff had a very showy way of making them which involved balancing the Jager shots onto of glasses of red blue then knocking the first one into the second causing them to all fall domino style into the glasses.

We wandered down to another bar called Aspel to play pool. We played with enthusiasm and good-natured boisterousness but little skill.

We left to head to a club called Pussy cats stopping around the corner to have a little team talk about acting a little more sober than we were to gain entry. After five minutes reiterating how subtle we should be in very loud voices we wonder in and up the stairs to an empty club. We had a drink and left returning to Fat Albert’s Bar to dance the night away.

Things become a little hazy after this. I went outside for a little walk up the mountain and was rewarded with a stunning vista of stars that was too good not to share. I returned to the bar to get the others. Steve had gone home but Nick and I had the only two sets of keys. I wandered back towards the apartment expecting to find him asleep in hallway unable to gain entrance to the flat. I was surprised to find him inside on the sofa, we are still none the wiser as to how he got there. I asked him if he would like a little walk he mumbled something incoherent in way of a polite decline. I returned once more to the bar which was now nearly empty and convinced James to come with me. We clambered up the grassy bank and followed a ridge along until we found a pleasant spot to stop and admire the view. It was around this point that I began to wonder at the wisdom of being where we were so we decided to walk back down me urging James to ‘respect the mountain’ every few steps. James decided to take a more direct route than the one we took up via some rather scratchy bushes. We got down safely and returned to the bar which had now closed. Back at the flat I checked on Nick finding him sprawled across his bed in his pants, Steve was fast asleep in his room. There appeared to be some bits of pizza on the sofa which I picked up and throw in the bin. It turns out it was Steve’s sick, which was nice. I passed out on the sofa and awoke at five when I retired to my bed.

More broken Nick

Action …ish pics

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As requested by my lovely niece Layla (Who’s reading of this blog I hope is being censored by her responsible mum)