 Poster: A snowHead
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Hello long time lurker first timer poster kind of thing.
Just got back from a weeks skiing in Soldeu and thought I would write a quick report.
My wife and I decided to go to Andorra again this year mostly because of the good vaule lift pass and ski school and the fact we like it.
Now I have been to Andorra before and had some nightmare tranfers, its a flight to Toulouse followed by a long three and a half hour coach trip. First things first check in was a breeze at Gatwick, loading onto the plane was one of the most civilised i have ever seen and the plane even landed twenty minutes early and within five minutes we were walking off the plane into the airport at this point I pointed out to my wife that something will soon go wrong likely a long wait at passport control followed by an even longer wait at baggage pick-up. So it was a somewhat of a surprise that only twenty minutes later I was sat on an almost empty coach heading off for Soldeu. So once again I mentioned something must go wrong at the hotel wrong room maybe or over booked but again not only were we the first coach into Soldeu we were soon into our room in the Sport Hotel.
As i mentioned I have had some truly awful transfers into Andorra and even this year I heard of some people not checking into the hotels by mid-night so well done to Thomas Cook on this transfer and I think one of the reasons why its was such a good tranfer is that this was the earliest I have flown to Toulouse we were the only flight coming into the airport at that time where before on a flight even a hour later I have known 5 or 6 planeloads of Brits landing.
Back to the hotel Sport this was the first time we had stayed here before we had stayed at its sister hotel the sport village, The reason we stayed at the Sport this time was because it was cheaper but we found the Sport hotel even so it is the cheaper of the two too be a very similar standard rooms were nice food was good and the hotel had a nicer atmosphere than the Sport Village,
So first morning on the slopes up early so we could get morning classes got to the gondola for aroung 8.30 for the 9am start now when I was here before 8.30 at the gondola was more the norm than the expection but this time we found ourselves first in the quere at 9am previous years by 9am the quere starts to number hundrands and is on the street this year at 9am perhaps 20 people were waiting this meant we had the first gondola up and had mentioned 3 runs down by 10 o clock and start of ski school which is the biggest plus point for Andorra as its excellant as it was again this year and I would recommand any learner to Andorra as the slopes and ski school make it a great beginners resort.
Snow for the first four days was a dream or hero snow as the insructors called it and every morning we were greeted with beautiful blue skis and snow which held well thoughout the day and even more surprising empty clear slopes for the first four days we were at the gondola aroung 8.55am and was always the first up for empty runs back down this all changed on the fifth day (friday).
After being spoilt by empty slopes it came as a little more of a surprise to find queres for the lifts on the friday this was the spainish coming to the slopes for a long weekend still the resort wasnt packed and no quere was really longer than five minutes more depressing was the snow condition which by the afternoon was getting really cut up and the temputure on the friday was around 50-55f this meant the snow was getting very stick and slow even high up. Friday was just a taster of what was to came again on Saturday the slopes was busy and the snow very sticky even first thing in the morning again with temputures being around the 55f mark and with the sun still beating down things felt very warm indeed.
Still we had a great week conditions thoughtout the first four days were prefect and really felt that my skiing had improved. I do feel for anyone in Andorra this week or looking at the forecast for the next few weeks as conditions really have changed to spring the temputures are creeping onto 60f and rain is forecast.
Now Andorra is pretty much the only place I have been skiing so its hard to compare but my wife has been skiing all over Europe and she agrees the ski school is excellant and is a great place to learn. A few other things I have noticed again I cant compare so dont know if this is the norm or not-
1, The ski area has a great deal of boarders who find it a game to get as close to a skier as there can (is this a crazy spainish thing?) also many of the boarders go down runs which are too hard for them so slide down in a straight line sit down for 5 minutes than slide again (sorry if it sounds iam against boaders iam just written what I see).
2, Mountain theft. A big deal is made by the tour company and the ski insructors of mountain theft and someone in my wifes group did have their skis stolen whilst at lunch on the mountain and a couple of years ago someone stole my poles and replaced them with broken ones is Mountain theft a normal thing or is it more of a problem here than other resorts? my wife mentioned that she had never known instructers to sit so near they skis.
Thankyou to anyone who got to the bottom of this report I know my grammer is bad and my spelling worse if anyone could enlighten me on my last two points or recommand somewhere I could go next year for someone of my abilitys ( love the reds, just starting the blacks) it would be a great help.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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HI, me and a group of six mates went to soldeu at the end of jan for a week and the only boarder in our group had his brand new k2 board nicked from outside a mountain restraunt after only been in the resort for 3 hours. we were told by the police that theft is a big problem on a weekend, not so much during the week. We still had a great time though !!
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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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| jase380 wrote: |
| we were told by the police that theft is a big problem on a weekend, not so much during the week. |
Must be the Spanish then, going by Vintageryan's report! (i await the impending backlash for that statement)
We're flying out Sunday morning, and hope to write a similar report upon return.. Just hope the snow bears up for a couple more weeks now, fingers crossed..
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Vintageryan,
I haven't really had any bad experience in 5 trips to Andorra wrt ski theft etc so I cannot really comment in that regard.
I share your view on Boarders in GV in particular. Soldeu is an ideal beginners resort and many people on the slopes are beginner snowboarders aged 15-20 - the immortal age. In my time there, I found that I skiied with one eye forward and one eye looking backwards scanning for strings of boarders moving at speed but without control. TBH it coloured my views of boarders for bit.
My experience elsewhere couldn't be more different. Boarders in Switzerland (Wengen) seemed to be experienced, confident, competent and courteous - a dream.
My most recent trip to Austria seems to bring out too many reckless, speeding SKIIERS, but no boarders.
In Soldeu, I think it's a combination of factors.
Beginners + Male + Teenager + skiing in large groups + trying to keep up with buddies = poor piste companions.
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