Messages posted by : gasbrizo
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I have done this trip a dozen times. Don't muck about with sodding buses, rent a people carrier through airline-network.co.uk or similar. You will get it for a week for about £30 a day max. The drive is easy, the tourist office at the airport will give you a map and the directions. For about £15 they will also give you a set of snow chains, ditto for a roof rack with carrier.
My best time was on about 2 3/4 hours Girona into Pas and you can stop at the great services at the tunnel del cadi for a break and something to eat. Pick the right hotel and you will get free parking or go into the sports center which is free anyhow but a bit of a walk. Then you are independent and if the snow is crap this year again at least you can head over to Arcalis or Pal where it was and this year is again considerably better than Grand Valira for snow and crowds. Alaska is good but a 200-300 meter climb from the ski lifts. Take oxygen. Cheers Gas |
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I've been back 10 days but there has been no snow since then. The whole side of the resort where the best skiing is (in my opinion) is closed and they have not been gunning snow in this area. Consequently it is green with only a few patches of any thin snow cover. This side is where the link is !! So this means they would have to fill in a mountain and 2 valleys to get the link open. I think this means that we need a dumpto get this open.
They are running the normal buses from Soldeu to Grau Roig and Pas de la Casa but these are consequently very very crowded and busy. Somepone in our hotel tried to get tha last (17-00) bus back from Garu Roig and it was full !! Had a 30 minute wait and 18 Euro for a taxi. Snow is predicted on 2 sites I have seen but the official Andorramania site still says no snow other than flurries for one day. We'll have to wait and see who has got it right. Gas |
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Checked out the official Andorramania web site and it still says no snow out 10 days. So who knows ??
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I hope that this is true. As long as the temperatures stay low enough at night they will manage I'm sure. But if it stays at 17 deg......... As Scotty on start trek said "you cannot change the laws of Physics".
Best of luck to all going and buy some wrist guards. £15 well spent I think. Also check out the Avalanche on quiz night and Friday night. It is bouncing and one of the barmaids (the one with the pierced lip)will make your eyes drop out. Jeans so low slung that one side there's cleavage and the other side... well lets just say it's a good advert for Gillette !!!!!. If it snows I'll see you there in late March gas |
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Already posted elsewhere and I am too duff to provide a link but I posted this today.........
Just returned after a week in Soldeu. Snow is all gunned as they obviously have only had a few cms of real stuff. Very hard under the gunned snow. Also the day time temperatures are getting high, we saw 17 degrees C at resort last Wed and THu mid PM. Don't need hats at night or on the slopes. I skied in a spyder high neck base layer and a soft shell jacket with practically no insulation and was never cold. They are working like heck to keep what terrain they have open by running the guns at night and working like fury but loads of bare patches and ice appear very quickly. Also there are only around 10 runs open in total. Don't believe the crap about 50 %, it's only this when you count parallel runs and the nursery slopes etc. They are restricting ticket sales to all bar UK visitors but the slopes still end up very crowded. Forget carving or any other high speed pursuit. If the ice doesn't get you, you will hit someone. To add to it all there are rocks everywhere. I absolutely destroyed my skis. If you are going there, rent. It doesn't matter that you can't get high performance skis, you wouldn't be able to use them at the moment anyway !!. The people in Pas say it is the same but even busier!!! In all my years skiing I have never seen so many broken arms in resort. If you fall you will hurt yourself. Sorry if you don't like the truth but this is as it is. Saying that I did enjoy myself as we limited skiing to a couple of the quieter hours a day and maxed out on the great apres scene. I am not some anti Andorra guy either, I have skied there every year for the last 6 as main or secondary holiday and this is the first time it has ever let me down. If you aren't already depressed enough if you are going there soon, the ski school instructors are saying that they have been told that the resort will close if they don't get real snow soon. There is a water shortage as there has been no rain or snow for months and the cost and time of gunning snow is starting to get prohibitive. On the Andorramania website there is no rain or snow predicted out 10 days. I was booked privately to go there on 28 Jan for 4 days but have now changed this to Italy. If ou are going any time soon I would do the same. On a brighter note I have been in resort when a storm came through and dropped 140 cm in 28 hours, best skiing I have ever had. So pray for the storm. Cheers Gas |
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Just returned after a week in Soldeu. Snow is all gunned as they obviously have only had a few cms of real stuff. Very hard under the gunned snow. Also the day time temperatures are getting high, we saw 17 degrees C at resort last Wed and THu mid PM. Don't need hats at night or on the slopes. I skied in a spyder high neck base layer and a soft shell jacket with practically no insulation and was never cold. They are working like heck to keep what terrain they have open by running the guns at night and working like fury but loads of bare patches and ice appear very quickly. Also there are only around 10 runs open in total. Don't believe the crap about 50 %, it's only this when you count parallel runs and the nursery slopes etc. They are restricting ticket sales to all bar UK visitors but the slopes still end up very crowded. Forget carving or any other high speed pursuit. If the ice doesn't get you, you will hit someone. To add to it all there are rocks everywhere. I absolutely destroyed my skis. If you are going there, rent. It doesn't matter that you can't get high performance skis, you wouldn't be able to use them at the moment anyway !!. The people in Pas say it is the same but even busier!!! In all my years skiing I have never seen so many broken arms in resort. If you fall you will hurt yourself.
Sorry if you don't like the truth but this is as it is. Saying that I did enjoy myself as we limited skiing to a couple of the quieter hours a day and maxed out on the great apres scene. I am not some anti Andorra guy either, I have skied there every year for the last 6 as main or secondary holiday and this is the first time it has ever let me down. If you aren't already depressed enough if you are going there soon, the ski school instructors are saying that they have been told that the resort will close if they don't get real snow soon. There is a water shortage as there has been no rain or snow for months and the cost and time of gunning snow is starting to get prohibitive. On the Andorramania website there is no rain or snow predicted out 10 days. I was booked privately to go there on 28 Jan for 4 days but have now changed this to Italy. If ou are going any time soon I would do the same. On a brighter note I have been in resort when a storm came through and dropped 140 cm in 28 hours, best skiing I have ever had. So pray for the storm. Cheers Gas |
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