To the Max

Today we woke up and got to breakfast quite early. We had tea at breakfast, and still managed to get to the slopes half an hour before our normal time. This was our last day skiing and we were determined to make the most of it. We decided to ski all the way to Cortals, about midway over the Grandvalira area. The weather was really nice: snowing with good visibility if mostly cloudy.

Before getting dressed for our day skiing, we checked online to see which lifts were running and planned our route accordingly. The Costa Rodona area was closed, so we took lift 4 Font Negre from Solana, then skied down to Grau Roig from there. That crest is always very windy, and the Grau Roig side today also had high winds, very poor visibility, but incredible deep powder. It was hard to find which areas were pisted and Leia got thoroughly stuck in it. At one point Guy suggested she just ski on the piste right next to her, as though he knew where it was more than a second before. Guy enjoyed skiing the deep snow and near the bottom of pista llarga where it got steep enough to try turning, he made a nice track in the powder.

After a break in a nice "picnic" room there, we took the nameless little beginner tow-lift for a boost to reach the next lift, 15 Cubil. Leia recalled fondly how a year ago she would have been terrified of a beginner slope like that, which now to her was trivial. The route down to Llac Del Cubil was less windy and more pleasant than to Grau Roig, again with many pistes covered in deep powder. Leia could not have enjoyed it half as much as Guy, who wanted to ski that slope if time permitted (as it turned out, it did not.)

The area facing Llac Del Cubil was our original destination, and we reached it around 1300. We took a run up lift 22 Enradort and down the run of the same name, which Leia skied beautifully, before stopping for a snack break at the cabin below, called Westfalia. It was a small and crowded snack bar specializing in sausages. We held on to a table that just cleared, but Guy had to clean up after the previous occupants. Finding nothing very appetizing he had a bag of chips while Leia had a very thin "ghoulash" soup.

We tried to find the way to the larger restaurant up at the top of Cortals, but ended up taking another couple of runs down enradort first. There were nearly pristine powder bowls off the sides of that run and Guy made a nice track under the lift while Leia enjoyed perfecting her form on the piste. We met near the bottom of the run where it flattens out and Leia always had to push herself along, and Guy skied up behind Leia to surprise her with a dynamic hug.

To reach the restaurant and the rest of the resort, we discovered we need to ski down the other side and go up a short chairlift Colibri. We had hamburgers for lunch at a large cafeteria there, where again we were lucky enough to find an empty table by a window. The cafeteria staff (but not the burger place staff) were all disguised as Mexicans for some reason. We also saw a few people skiing around in costumes today (superheroes, maybe a witch, and one baby.) Aiming to reach Pla De Les Pedres, which was recommended to us as a nice ski area, we at first again ended up in Llac Del Cubil, but Leia really liked that run so it was no loss. Guy finally found the right route past a black run v. solanella, which Leia was afraid he would try to throw her down. We followed signs to riu de les solanelles run, a blue that was again unpisted and very powdery: more fun for some than others. Halfway through that Leia protested that she was tired and would like to start heading back after that run. The timing was perfect because we got to the bottom of it at 16:05.

We took lift 19 Pla De Les Pedres (Grau Roig) to the top and skied over to enradort together. Since we were pressed for time, Guy tried to convince a tired Leia to stop doing "braking" turns across the hill, and instead keep her skis downhill most of the time and use the turns only to control speed. When she was concentrating, she did that very well, and we got to lift 21 Llac Del Cubil a couple minutes before it closed at 16:30. The top of that lift was very cloudy and windy, so it was hard to see where we were supposed to go, especially as neither of us had been that way before. We found signs indicating the way to Grau Roig, but they seemed to take us over a black run mirador, which aside from being the most direct path also looked like the easiest black run we had ever seen. Leia still did not want to go down it so through the snow we found the red run cami de pessons. This was a narrow track, with piles of snow blown on to it from the wind, that was tremendous fun for both of us especially as we were skiing it quickly: it was like a bobsled track with curves and jumps. That route opened up into a similar blue track tortuga, which eventually met the black piste mirador again. By then the lift was visible, and Guy tricked Leia into skiing down the black run despite the presence of a perfectly good blue run right next to it, just to prove to her that she could do it. Even tired as she was, Leia used the soft bumps in her turns with skill and confidence to make it down without excessive delay. She actually found it easier than many red runs. Guy met the liftie closing lift 10 Pic Blanc, the only way back to Pas De La Casa, and begged him to let us on so we could get back, and to wait a moment for Leia who was coming up right behind him. We were the last passengers on that lift, at 17:00. That lift had trivia questions and answers on the lift pylons that were lots of fun (for Leia). Did you know that the national flower of Andorra is the Narcissus?

As always the top of that ridge was windy and we could not see much. It was so windswept that there were patches of dirty ice instead of soft fluffy snow. This time at least we knew the way. Still... it was hard for Leia, who was tired and cranky by the time we got there. The ski patrol were closing up the mountain and approached Guy and distressed Leia to ask if all was alright. He saw she could ski just fine but we got a personal escort to the bottom. At the very bottom there were two dogs playing catch with snowballs.

Immediately on our return to the hotel (at 17:30) we changed shoes and went to return Leia's rental gear. When we returned through the hotel lobby, the receptionists asked us for our ski passes: since the resort was closed for a day due to weather, they could reimburse them for another day's pass. We are nice so we gave them the passes; Leia gave hers to the Filipino receptionist who checked us in, and Guy offered his to the masseuse who was hanging around there, but she deferred to the unknown guy who asked for them. Then we put Guy's gear in the room and took a much needed soak in the jacuzzi and sauna.

By the time we finished all our arrangements and showered it was dinner time. We had steaks and overall decent (not exceptional) fare. It took us almost until 23:00 to finish packing and go to sleep. We set an alarm for 03:00 to get to the bus at 04:00.