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Injury advice when in Andorra! Oops...

Injury advice when in Andorra! Oops...

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Started by Clong in Andorra - 25 Replies

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Seamus
reply to 'Injury advice when in Andorra! Oops...'
posted Dec-2011

I hope it is not your ACL but if it is there does not seem to be great urgency in getting it repaired. My wife tore hers in Selva (Italy) in Feb this year and eventually had the operation to repair it in April. We are booked for Andorra on 19 Dec but are devastated about the lack of snow. The web says 'closed for snowsports'. What were you skiing on?!!. Are they managing to make any significant amount of snow?
Seamus

Ottomatic
reply to 'Injury advice when in Andorra! Oops...'
posted Dec-2011

Grandvalira can be a treacherous bitch, even when there's enough nice powder. The Pas sector is on a specially windy terrain, which makes unexpected ice something you can't actually always look out for, and I've had a couple of scares on what initially seemed to be snow mounds that actually turned out to be big, smooth piles of ice after the wind had blown all the powder on top, leaving a deceively round, white surface. Miss the warning sticks -which will not always be in place- and you can end up with a fractured collarbone such as myself. So even in ideal snow conditions and wearing the appropriate protection it's always worth to go the extra mile and take the medical insurance.

Now, in case you actually injure yourself my recommendation would be to go to the next lift and ask for a transport, or go either to Pas, Grau or Soldeu's base medical facilities. People around there usually are helpful and pretty competent, and will stitch you up pretty nicely. HOWEVER:

Public transportation in Andorra tends to be quite shitty, and you should take that into account when recurring to medical facilities. If your injury isn't really incapacitating (and a fractured collarbone is not in my opinion, since you can pretty much hold it off as much as a handful of hours and you get a proper transportation to the base station) you should really take into account that it'll get you up to 4 hours to get to a medical facility and get patched up. Plan where you are and where you want to get, and take into account that meteorological conditions and timetables are a key factor to get back home without having to resort to taxis, which are hella expensive. In a completely sepparate incident, I got a shoulder tendon bruised pretty badly, and after asking for an evacuation I ended up on Grau Roig's base station at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. By the time I was released, all the buses were out of business and I had to go back down to Andorra la Vella (that's where I live), so I asked a friend of mine to come pick me up with her car. Chance had it that the weather started getting bad to the worse, so I had to endure a couple kilometer walk to Soldeu where the road got cut off, in an increasingly bad weather and with an arm aching like a bitch.

So my main recommendation in case of an injury would be, assess your situation, plan where you want to go, get transport accordingly and THEN go get looked up. Of course that wouldn't count for an incapacitating injury such as a displaced bone, broken limb, concussion or severe fracture, something really threatening should get looked at ASAP by a professional, but always keep in mind where you need to end up your day or else you'll find yourself in the middle of bumfuck anywhere in the middle of some seriously bad weather.

Topic last updated on 19-December-2011 at 20:19