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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3073 |
9th March 2017 Skiing: Sierra Nevada Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: 38.72 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 44 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Thursday 9th March – Ski ***** Sierra Nevada – sunny and warm :) Max 38.72 kts, out 8hrs, 44.07 miles covered and picnic lunch at 10,780 ft! I didn’t sleep great last night must have been excited about the prospect of going skiing and it was mild so we were not holding out much hope of it being a good day. As usual in these parts it seems we woke to wall to wall sunshine again with the most perfect blue skiing sky:) Up at 8.15, breakfast, picnic packed, gear sorted and we left the van for the short walk to the Virgen de las Neives lift. We stopped for a chat with our closest English neighbour who is in Spain for 6 months and then bought a day’s pass for 82 Euro’s including insurance- I got a reduced rate for being over 60! The lift started and finished indoors which was a little odd and our fears of it being a crap day were soon realised as the snow was awful just very icy and Mags worst nightmare:( We met our neighbour on the slopes and he was struggling too, we can’t believe that after such a mild night the pistes are so icy, perhaps we should have delayed coming up an hour? I think the biggest mistake we made was we skied over to the next lift the Stadium and went up too high where the snow was even icier! We managed to get down to the main town and by-passing the cable car we headed to the Jara chair hoping the snow was better on the sunnier side of the mountain. Which was the case :) Things really started to improve as this was where a lot of the action was taking place for the 2017 Sierra Nevada FIS World Championships (freestyleski/snowboard) giving us plenty to watch. The Slope style course included a series of huge jumps and grinds and heats were taking place as was practice for the Border Cross. There were merchandise stalls, free lager tents, with loads of stands to watch the action as well as TV cameras everywhere with drones and helicopters in the sky. We went up the Monachil lift loads of times getting a Birdseye view of the men’s Slope style. We even shared a lift up with two nice American boarders taking part and they had just completed their first runs, they are off to Andorra when this Audi sponsored event is over, they are certainly living the dream:) After getting a couple of free cans of San Miguel isotonica (sadly disgusting:() I managed to get close up to the action to take some pics. We were getting hungry so started to make our way to the top which is the peak of Veleta at 3398. Back up to the large white satellite dish and down towards the mogul pairs competition where the ladies event had reached the semi-final stage so we went up the Emilio Reyes lift for a great view of one of the semi’s. Then at the bottom we watched several rounds including the two finals where a French girl won to a big cheer:) It was then down to Borreguiles in the heart of the resort and it was absolutely heaving but thankfully most people were standing near the lifts and restaurants and not on the slopes. There are four slow chair lifts out of the bowl which we did in turn and had some of the best skiing of the day, lovely wide blues and greens where you could slalom around the many learners and with the icy snow now a thing of the past we were enjoying the conditions and entertainment a lot. We have never been to a World Cup event before and to think we arrived here not knowing it was on! Another fluke! The snow looks as if it should be slush but it isn’t just a strange beige colour. This is due to the dust from Morocco which covered our van last week - a hint of the Sahara! Then we came across a long t-bar for 2 people which took you nearly all the way to the top, Mag wasn’t keen but I persuaded her and we had a laugh but she didn’t want to do it again. She said that she had to do the whole thing on one leg as I was weighting down the other side!!! I then noticed there was yet another chair in the Laguna de las Yegua experts only area. We ignored that and headed over. We survived a narrow path and took the Laguna lift to the top and found a fantastic spot just off piste for our picnic with stunning views of Spain’s two highest peaks Mulhacen and Veleta. We sat on some rocks sharing our delicious sandwich with a very friendly and beautifully coloured Alpine Accentor. You could see the sea and Africa – just - from here and we were only about 5 miles from where we stopped yesterday but it took us over 90 miles to drive here! Legs are always a little dodgy after a break so we had a couple of long red runs in the Raguna area before taking the Dilar lift out which strangely turned 90 degrees in the middle! After 4 o’clock Mag decided to go back to the van and get the kettle on but I carried on for another half an hour and skied down past the boardercross to see if they were racing. Sadly, not and the snow was now crap soft and rutted. I had to take two lifts up to get high enough to get back to the van. So a bit of an unexpected 5 star day - out for 8 hours covering 45 miles in snow for the most part good considering how hot it is this far South. Some top entertainment thrown in for no extra charge. It was a relief to get out of the ski boots and sweaty clothes – they soon dried in the sun – and enjoyed a cuppa watching the ski action below in some chairs kindly loaned by our English neighbour. The carpark attendant had left and the barrier was up so we decided to leave so we didn’t have to pay and one days skiing is more than enough! We found a spot just two miles down the road and were treated to yet another amazing sunset before tucking into a great chicken curry – another fantastic day – should sleep well tonight especially as I am still typing this blog at 10.30! Photo Gallery Here |
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