 Poster: A snowHead
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@JD Mark, Been to the exact hotel with Nielson twice. El Tarter is not exactly buzzing apres ski but the hotel is good with a wide variety of food. It's a couple of hundred metres from the nearest chair lift. If you're skiers, I'd recommend renting the lockers by the chair lift. If you're boarders, use the free lockers at the hotel. There's a bar attached to the hotel and okay for drinks but not exactly a wild night out.
I've only on pisted and some runs are long and great. Tree and non-tree runs available too for all difficulties. As confident intermediates, there's nothing too difficult. My personal experience indicated more reckless skiers at the Pas end (but maybe it was just my bad timing).
Nielson also do (at least they did 2 years ago), some ski guiding - well worth it for free.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Del Clos is pretty decent. In terms of bars immediately nearby, you've got Dylan's round the corner up the hill, parallel to the main road (best in the evening not for après, and it is full of locals and lifties) and they've just rebuilt l'Arbaset which is the obvious après spot.
There are two main runs down to the lift. Gall du Bosc is a nice but narrow blue. Esquirol is wider but icier and frankly not that enjoyable. Both actually start a lot higher up.
Rossinyol is probably the most scenic of the blues, but Solanella XL is a lot of fun.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@JD Mark, conditions aren’t fantastic at the moment. It hasn’t snowed for a few weeks, it’s been very warm for the last week and very busy. Some of the pistes are starting to look a bit thin with stones coming through (don’t use your best skis!). There’s still plenty of good skiing though. The plus side is, it’s getting cold for the next few days and there’s a reasonable amount of snow forecast to freshen things up. There’s a good chance of good conditions when you get here.
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It’s snowing right now and it’s cold enough for the snow cannons to be running. 
Having a lazy start to today after getting up early to ski Arcalis yesterday.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@mortonia, it does indeed.
We had a sprinkling of snow on Wednesday which along with the snow cannons on full bore did the pistes no end of good.
It’s now been snowing most of today too. It was quite breezy up top earlier, hopefully that dies down a bit allowing some of the snow to stick. In more sheltered places the conditions early next week should be perfect! I’m hoping it’ll be perfect tomorrow too because I’m back at work on Monday and won’t be able to get out on Sunday.
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Looking at the webcams its having a good amount of snow today! This time next week will be on the way!
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Lots of snow in Soldeu. 30 cm I would estimate and still coming down heavily. It's quiet heavy the snow b but it's good fun to ski in
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I made a futile attempt to reach Formiguères yesterday, got about 20 mins from the station but the road was deteriorating fast, bad visibility and absolutely bucketing down with snow...a friend who did make it got stuck in a 2 hour tailback leaving yesterday evening...he said the snow was epic though!
I went over to La Molina/Masella instead. Lots of wind at the top and bad visibility, some new snow on top of an icy base, best snow was on the Masella side...
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Well that was a few interesting days. Initially, I didn’t think we were going to make it up with the serve flooding on the roads leading up to the Val d’Aran.
A few diversions around the flooded sections and arrived in a busier than expected Baqueira.
Turns out they were open lifts after avalanche controls had done their work, meaning everyone was concentrated into the central Baqueira ski area.
After such a promising forecast the rain had done its worst.
Anything below the freezing level was on piste icy and rock hard, and off piste crusty and washed into weird waves of snow.
I looked like it had been raining almost up to 2000m.
Lovely sunny conditions, but with no snow forecast for a while it will be a case of sharpening those edges for the pistes.
Or hiking/touring higher up to get the good untouched snow.
The Freeride World Cup is in Baqueira the week after next.
https://www.freerideworldtour.com/event/2022-freeride-world-tour-baqueira-beret
Looks like they will be using the face under Tuc de Baciver as there are signs up saying don’t ski it.
If you want to watch then the top of the TSD Dera Reina from Beret would be a good spot.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@mortonia, I understand that the snow is pretty good around these parts at the moment. Whilst it did rain for quite a while, it kept snowing for the most part above Soldeu and then snowed for long enough down to about 1500m to cover any of the rain damage. Still over in Arcalis an avalanche (I think on Tuesday) took out part of the La Coma restaurant. Videos show quite a bit of damage.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Just back from a weekend in the GrandValira. It seems that the rain that affected Baqueira missed the higher parts of Andorra, as @hammerite said. There was half a metre of fresh snow on Sunday/Monday and it stayed cold all week: this weekend there was still fluffy snow on the trees.
Chilly but sunny weather meant a generally spectacular weekend of skiing. Piste conditions were good to excellent; pretty much the entire resort is open and in excellent condition; though the lower blues that come down to the resorts were icy in patches at the end of the day, not much fun for my tired 8-year-old daughter.
The off-piste, as you might expect, is almost completely tracked out. However, the advantage of the GrandValira is that it's so big that there is usually an untouched corner somewhere. I traversed in to the face/couloir to the left (looking up) of the Solana chair ("trencalos"?) and got some fresh tracks but it felt a bit unstable in the main couloir, so went over to Llac de Cubil, which is in permashade. I had never played around there before and it turn out you can bail from the t-bar lift near the top, and traverse across to a wonderful playground of sparse trees and rocky-outcrops. Powder conditions were pretty amazing given that it snowed 5 days ago. It's a good spot to session as although the runs are relatively short, you end up right by the t-bar to take you back up, and there is never a queue for it. Great stuff. Photo below for reference.
The temperatures are due to warm up a little this week before getting colder again. I suspect that with the cannons and bashers doing their things, the piste conditions will continue to be reasonable, but off piste will crust over. There is a dusting of snow forecast for later this week but i wouldn't hold your breath for anything special.
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Sun, sun and more sun next week by the looks of things.
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You know it makes sense.
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@mortonia, but thankfully staying relatively cool.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Friends went to The GrandValira on Saturday, there was a dusting of snow on Thursday, they said that the piste conditions were good!
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Poster: A snowHead
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A few days piste skiing in Grandvalira with friends over from the UK.
Beautiful blue skies.
Snow conditions on piste are great considering there hasn't been any snow for a while.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Agreed! I went for a day trip yesterday to Andorra. 99% of the GrandValira, including some of the rarer areas, was open; and piste conditions very good indeed.
Temps are warming up now before a hard freeze later this week so I think it might turn a bit icy. No real real snow on the long term forecast either. Hopefully Feb will see some more, it’s still early.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I’m not sure how much weather in Lisbon is related to Andorra, but my gut feeling and very unscientific observations are that Lisbon gets weather maybe 2 days before Andorra. And it hasn’t rained here for weeks, in fact my lawn is cracking.
@hammerite, according to words under your username - happy birthday!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Is every year the same now in the Pyrenees? Snow in December, anti-cyclone for the whole of January, and then loads of snow in March? At least it's still cold I guess....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Orange200, thank you very much. Yes it was indeed my birthday.
@AlunAlun, I skied last weekend. Saturday was quite busy, Sunday was much quieter. It felt pretty hot on Sunday though.
It’s been really warm this week during the day. Went up to Pal today for work (I wasn’t skiing). Pistes were nice and hard this morning, but turning soft and dampish in the afternoon. As long as we get a deep freeze overnight and the ability for the cannons to run things should be ok for the time being. Could do with a dump before half term though.
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@hammerite, just booked another trip to Pyrenees for half term, but am I right that Spanish schools don't seem to have a half term? Is it quieter as a result? Going to la Molina this time
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Probably they have Sat-Tue off when Tue is Carnival but go back on the Wed, so not a whole week like a British half term.
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Some seriously icy patches developing on some piste in Baqueira. Still no sign of snow in the forecasts.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| mortonia wrote: |
| Some seriously icy patches developing on some piste in Baqueira. Still no sign of snow in the forecasts. |
Yes, last few days have been very tricky. That said yesterday some South facing off piste bits had a proper spring slush
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@8611, yes, I think pretty much as @Orange200 says. We have a full half term here in Andorra but it doesn’t begin until the last weekend in Feb.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@mortonia, there was a light sprinkling overnight and this morning on the Grandvalira, but not much. Conditions were pretty good though.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Pla de le Pedres lift was broken today so you can't get back from Grau without a 200m walk up blue slope from Funicamp...
Certainly got my heart going. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow
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@pieman666, it was closed quite early so I was quite surprised to see so many people had come over from Soldeu/ET and were walking up. I headed over towards Grau Roig early on (from Funicamp) then planned to head to Soldeu to meet a friend. She ended up driving down to Encamp and came up the Funicamp to meet me instead.
I have no idea why there’s not an extra, short lift to link from near the Funicamp to get over towards Soldeu and ET.
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You know it makes sense.
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Skied Pal/Arinsal today. Good conditions on the whole, however, I noticed quite a few stones on the steeper sections of some of the pistes coming down Cubil.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Cold and some snow appearing on the maps for the weekend. Hopefully holds up.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Few cms of fresh today in Baqueira. Spent the afternoon doing this season avalanche practice session.
Digging is hard work.
Sun and perhaps more snow at the weekend.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Not sure if this is the best place to post this (very niche!)question but: we're driving to Baquiera from the UK on EU passports. We will have single vaccinated teen with us who also has a UK proof of recovery. Does anyone know whether the UK proof of recovery will be accepted for crossing from France to Spain, or do we need to make sure that the test that she takes to enter France is still within time for entry into Spain? And any intel on whether there are any checks at the French/Spanish border on the N125/N230?!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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As on another thread; we weren’t asked for anything Andorra-Spain or Spain-Portugal just before Christmas, when countries were more restrictive than they are now. So doubt you need to worry.
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@Orange200, thanks for the reply. It does seem unlikely, doesn't it. I'm overthinking everything right now, whilst also praying that none of us picks up Covid in the final couple of days before we leave....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Frapps, we have never been stopped going into Spain from France on that route. However, the last 3 times coming back into France we have been stopped and asked for ID and vax status. No idea what docs/test you would need to get back into France, but there is a risk that you would be stopped.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Another thought - do you have to have another sworn statement to get back into France printed out travelling by land from baqueria to France??? One for a green country?
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We have them, but not been asked for them.
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| 8611 wrote: |
| Cold and some snow appearing on the maps for the weekend. Hopefully holds up. |
All but disappeared. I should know better than to look for anything more than 3 days in advance!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@8611, the snow forecast is all over the place at the moment. Changes considerably every 6 hours which doesn’t inspire confidence!
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Does anyone know what is wrong with the Pla de la Pedres chair lift? It's been broken since Saturday and there is no obvious sign of anyone working on it? Work out broken you have to hike up a piste and then cut cross country to get back to Soldeu from Funicamp!
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FAQ
