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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
19th March 2018 Skiing: St. Pierre(1640m) Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Sunny start then cloud over with snow late! Max Speed: 42.74 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 35.85 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Monday 19th March – ski ***** St. Pierre(1640m) French Pyrenees – Sunny start then cloud over with snow late! 5 hrs 45 mins out, 42.74 kt max speed, 35.85 miles covered. Lovely peaceful night just outside the hamlet of Eyne, woke to crystal clear blue skies and another inch of snow:) Our plan was to have a relaxing day after our epic 7 mile walk but one look out of the window and we had changed our mind. With St Pierre one of our favourite little ski resorts only six miles down the road it was too good an opportunity to miss! With decision made at 8.45 while still in bed, the diesel heater had just warmed up the van enough to open the iced-up door. We had breakfast and packed up and were ready to leave by 9.20. We had a slight delay as a local had parked near the van at nine and taken his dog for a walk. The collie returned alone looking very pleased with himself with a whole deer leg in his mouth!!! He then laid by the van and started to munch, yum yum, venison for breakfast!! The owner was nowhere to be seen! As we were near the road we couldn’t leave the dog so I followed the owner’s footprints in the snow and after five minutes I found him and explained where his dog was as he had been calling it for several minutes! Dog and owner reunited we drove the short distance to St. Pierre which was very quiet and we had the whole bottom section to ourselves:) Two adult day lift passes for 62 Euros, so we could ski here twice for one day in Andorra!! So much better too as you had to look really hard to find another skier:) The only downside of this area is there is only one chairlift with the rest being buttons which is knackering on the legs! We were on the lift up at 10.30 which takes you up to a wooded flat area with stunning views of a bowl including the impressive Cambre D’Aze at 2750m. Now to the skiing, well it just gets better, the piste man did a good job last year and today was no different, super smooth but with an inch or two of fresh powder on top and you could leave tracks from top to bottom. You start on the Chateau d’Eau green which leads to the amazing Roc Long as it winds its way through the trees and by the time you are nearing the bottom you are flying! It has everything in one run :) We went up this lift nine times coming down a variety of reds, blues and greens all as good as each other - just perfect. We even spotted a dark red squirrel run under the lift and at least half a dozen vultures fly over:) The only downside is my Fuji camera is now locked on manuel focus, a problem I have had with every X-S1 I have owned, perhaps time to splash the cash and I quite fancy a Fuji mirrorless camera but with lenses they are expensive! While I was changing the camera battery Mag got talking to the man who was checking the lift passes. If you can believe they are the sticky sort you put on your coat zip with a metal clip! He had dreadlocks which he was scratching but he was very friendly and pointed Mag in the direction of ‘Fairy Rock’ which is actually at the end of a snow shoe walk and overlooks the valley we walked yesterday so we decided to head over to Eyne Station and try and find it. The green into Eyne is nice and then we had several goes on the short but great runs into Eyne 1770m. Its then two long leg destroying button lifts to take you to 2440m where you have a choice of two reds down. The fairy rock is off the Jacques Solere another top-quality run and we managed to find the snow shoe path which we could ski until it turned left and went uphill. There was a sign saying the viewpoint was half a kilometre away so we really turned into ski tourers and walked with skis on then when it got too steep we took them off and finally made it absolutely knackered to a clump of rocks with the most stunning views of the paths we walked yesterday! It was now starting to cloud over and get breezy so we found a sheltered spot for our picnic. (bit of a scramble!) Refreshed we headed back to our skis as another vulture flew low over us – amazing :) We then felt like proper off-pisters as we skied down the narrow tree lined track and carried on down the snow shoe path which brings you out on the Coulee d’ Eyne red. We then did the deadly two buttons twice more, once to ski the nice red to the right and then to do the Font Frede which says its ‘tres difficile’ and it certainly was! An un-pisted mogul field more like a black but we made it after lots of falling over and giggling! We then did the t bar up into the bowl a couple of times, I came a cropper on the blue, losing my poles and a ski. Time was getting close to call it a day! So, we had one more run down our favourite red then up the lift for the tenth time and down the blue to the van and the end of another top day at St Pierre, we love it here:) Back at the van I reversed into a spot for the night. Mag sorted out the electric control panel which was making an annoying beep - it has done it before and you just have to take out some fuses which is easy but the fuses themselves are hard to reach and it is very fiddly! I packed the ski gear away. Cuppa and cake, I read about a page before dozing off, definitely taking it easy tomorrow. Its snowing again so let’s hope we can get out of the carpark tomorrow, they are really good at clearing the roads so shouldn’t be a problem:) Photo Gallery Here Tuesday 20th March – Relax – cloudy start, sunny later but very windy. Lovely toasty night in the ski carpark at St. Pierre and we woke to another inch or so of snow but very windy. We could lay in bed and watch the snow being blown off the trees in giant clouds! The lift started at nine but nobody seemed keen to get up the mountain. A few brave souls turned up to brave the wind but many only lasted an hour before heading for home, shame really as the snow looked good. Had a lovely lay-in hot with the diesel heater running as minus 4 outside. We had a good sort out and didn’t have breakfast until about eleven! We wanted a relaxing day after two full on days in a row. Read until 12.30 when we packed up and headed down looking for a shop as we needed a few things. We had loads of big icicles hanging from the bottom of our van! First stop the lovely old walled town of Mont Louis to top up with water from the camper parking, right under the entrance to the town. It is a lovely sheltered spot with great views of the bowl we have just skied so decided to return here after shopping. We found a Casino supermarket on the way to Font Romeu but as it’s near the ski resort of Pyrenees 2000 it was quite expensive:( Again we had just enough money in the wallet to pay at the checkout the Tosser from Tossa who nicked our credit cards has a lot to answer for! We headed back to Mont Louis and got a top parking position in full sun, out of the wind with fantastic views and then enjoyed our prawn baguette’s, especially better as they were reduced:) Went for a quick walk around the town, checked out the old walls, looked in the church and spotted the mad cat woman trying to get her many cats out of the road to feed them! Back at the van for bread and jam, read, relax, play cards and do puzzles. One more camper has joined us but unusually quiet here? Supposed to be minus 10 or 11 tonight and windy again tomorrow but better on Thursday so hopefully we can ski at Formiqueres? |
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