Just before Christmas I had a couple of weekends enjoying the snow around the Pyranees. Well, I say enjoying...in hindsight it was all great fun, but at the time I was thinking this was some of the most bat-shit crazy things I had done.
The first weekend at the start of December a group of friends invited me to join them skiing. I'd wanted to try this whilst in Toulouse. The only time I had trie skiing was on a dry slope in teh UK when I was at school, on a course over five days. I managed to finish the last day by chipping a couple of teeth and almost breaking my arm - but figured I'd be okay on soft snow.
The plan originally was to head to Ax Les Thermes, which is only an hour or so away from Toulouse. I wanted some photos of Beaky in the snow (don't ask) so said I'd ride down with them in the Mystery Machine. This wasn't as stupid as it sounded, as I had been to Andorra in the snow back in April when I arrived in France, and knew the roads were kept pretty clear.
All well and good, except we ended up leaving 30 minutes earlier (at 6:30am) and heading over the Pyranees into Spain to ski at Baqueira.
This was cold.
Very cold.
Beaky was showing the air temp to be -11 degrees C as we passed the valley into the Spanish border; I've no idea what the wind chill effect was. Luckily the roads were clear of snow and dry, so there was no danger from ice.
I'd also managed to lose my friends in the Mystery Machine on the autoroute, so wasn't entirely sure where I was heading. Luckily I could find the village without any problems. On finding a promising looking car park (filled with SUVs and vans being unlaoded of ski gear) I got a few odd looks as I found somewhere to park.
Usually my tactic to parking in France is to find other bikes and park with them, on the basis that the locals know what they are doing. For some strange reason, there were no other motorbikes around...I couldn't imagine why!
After defrosting with a cup of coffee, I found my friends, geared up and enjoyed a day on teh slopes. Kelly joined me on the bambi slopes, and gave me a few pointers whilst I tried not to kill myself or start an avalaunche.
I could just about walk at the end of the day, then had the fun of riding back down the mountain to our hotel in the dark.
The next day I skipped the skiing, as I wanted to get some photos and ride home in daylight. Another cold trip, but not as bad as the previous day!
A few photos:
The standard Beaky-in-the-photo shot. The slope opposite was the ski resort.
A view of the bambi slopes where I had spent the previous day.
A snowy field on the mountain opposite the ski resort.
The temperature up on the mountain.
Icicles!
Arty "Beaky Eyes Up the Road Ahead" shot.
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