It’s pretty boring hearing about other people’s trips or athletic events. The good parts are the really serious injuries, or better still, mere demonstrations of the places sans words. This is why all the snowboard videos rarely have dialogue. You mostly see dudes doing crazy tricks with loads of gorgeous snow, mountains and sunshine as a backdrop and some variation of reggae or punk music. And even still, a good third of those videos are typically the wipe outs.
Hence, I won’t ramble on about a three-day ski trip to Andorra. Simply put:
- The serrated mountain tops make for incredible scenery. Skiing on the tippy tops of the Pyrenees, verses down a mountain’s face (aka in the Vermont), is a trip
- Going up the lifts you can occasionally spot birds of prey, eagles I think, which is cool. Albert swears he also saw a fox, but I’m not sure I believe him.
- It’s cold. -12C=10F. By end of day two I get frostbite on my toe, and am out of commission for our last day of skiing, which sucks, since the skies open up and its completely sunny.
- We are puzzled to learn that in Pas de la Casa, the village where we stay, Spanish is practically useless. We are as relentless in continuing to speak Spanish to bar and restaurant owners as they are in answering in French.
- Andorra is a real country. Or it has been since 1993, when a mere 9,000 of its eligible voters cast their ballot for independence. Know what it was before that? A co-princedom, going back to Charlemagne. It’s not in the EU, probably because 80% of its GDP comes from selling tax-free booze, cigarettes, and luxury products; ski tourism; and anonymous account banking (where do you think all the Swiss depositors are fleeing?).
Andorra, the country
Some photos of the mountains and ESADE crew, who organized the trip.
Diarmuid and Dim
With the English board shop manager, who kept a bottle of vodka by his workbench, and lent Dmitry his personal snowboard
All smug after eating a spicy beef wrap. So hot....mmmmm
Shark's teeth peaks
Dimina Phone Home 