First week in the Pyrenees

Yes, we’ve made it and we’ve now had almost a whole week in the Pyrenees. I probably should say the French Pyrenees as there is of course Andorra and also there are Spanish Pyrenees too as the mountains create a natural border for all three countries. But we’re here in France with the most major town (that we have to drive down to fill up with LPG gas for our heating and cooking) being Lourdes. We didn’t know you could ski in the Pyrenees (other than Andorra) until we read an article about it and as we were planning to travel down to Andalusia in Spain and we would be passing by we thought why don’t we stop and have a look around. And a little ski while we’re here, if we can. And can we ski? Yes we can - the French Pyrenees has something like 14 different ski resorts ranging from the largest in Grand Tourmalet with over 100km of pistes to very small ones with just learner slopes.

View from Grand Tourmalet pass

Of course although we love to ski we also like to get a flavour of the local history, culture and nature and we read that the French Pyrenees have loads of that which is almost unspoilt by commercial tourism on a big scale too. Ok so enough of why we came, here are our experiences so far; 

Our first stop was in the town of Luz Saint Sauveur which we immediately took to with its bustling centre and almost Victorian architecture. For the first night we decided to stay in the Camping-Car Aire which is just outside the town over the bridge commissioned by Napolean III (his wife too Eugenie apparently loved the place and built some of the houses here too) and also near to the thermal spa which is said to have child bearing properties!!  Most importantly for us we understood the local ski bus comes past the Aire everyday.

Arriving on an empty aire - always a worry that we've got it wrong?

But here we noticed our first difference to the Alps as there was literally only one ski bus a day first thing in the morning and bringing you back at 5pm. And also it didn’t come past our Aire but stopped at the bottom of the hill about half a mile away. Never mind - we’re fit enough to do that! But of course we had the upward bit to encounter on the way home. First the bus ride - wow that was an adventure of its own as we wound up the steepest hillside you can imagine and went round 29 hairpin bends along the way. When we got off at the ski slopes of Luz Ardiden we needed a toilet stop for recovery. I would’ve taken some pics but my hands were glued to the seat in front holding on for dear life. Next the skiing there which was great at Luz Ardiden - lovely snow and we realised that we weren’t so bad skiers as we’d thought at Super Besse. Unfortunately though it was cloudy and very windy so we cut short our ski and didn’t get to visit some of the slopes on the Bederet side. But never mind we’ll do that next time - if we can manage the bus trip up again!

Arriving at the ski station.....

The next day was terrible weather down in the valley where we were staying so we didn’t try to ski then but instead thought we’d move up the valley to Barege so we could easily access the famous Grand Tourmalet slopes. While doing this it started to snow quite heavily and it was clear we weren’t going to be able to park in this little town so we carried on up the valley to the car park for the ski lifts. This was also covered in snow as well as cars and vans but as it was close to the end of the day we watched out of the window as everyone packed up and went home. 

'Will we get out?!'

Roxy enjoying the snow - not a care...

Our view across the car park at dusk

Meanwhile the snow was getting thicker and by 6.30pm there were only four of us left, including a guy in his pick up which had a fold up tent fixed to the back.  We couldn’t believe it when he got out and coolly set up chair and gas fire and made his dinner outside in the heavy snow before cleaning all his ski kit and then he popped up his tent and went to bed. Wow

Total awe for this guy!!

We also went to bed early - hoping the next day would bring decent skiing weather and and also hoping we wouldn’t be buried under snow and so unable to enjoy it. About 4am our hopes for a good nights sleep were unlikely to be realised as the snow ploughs turned up to clear the car park. And they drove so close I could literally smell the drivers aftershave and garlic breath. Hastily I filled a jug with warm water so we could clear the steps of snow and ice and fold them up before the snow ploughs took them home as a memento. After 2 hours of this we were both wide awake but still in bed hoping they’d finish their work and go somewhere else soon. But they didn’t and instead decided it was time we should move somewhere else as we had unknowingly parked in the helicopter drop zone. ‘Oh dear, err I mean pardon’ I hastily apologised to the car park attendant lady as I stood there in my best PJs. 

Melle's new best friends clearing the drop zone next to Homer!!

After a misunderstanding about where they wanted us to go and a severe telling off we ended up about 30 yards from where we had been previously. Not sure how the helicopter would cope with that but who am I to question the powers that be. Then, just as we thought all was fine and we could get ready to be first on slopes - which might be the only benefit of staying on a ski lift car park.  We were told we had to leave our van and go and stand over by the (closed) restaurant as the helicopter was coming to artificially avalanche the heavy snow that had built up on the nearby mountainside. Again we nodded our heads and did what we were told - and watched as pretty much nothing happened for 45 minutes. I'm still not sure what the helicopter achieved during its brief visit but at least it didn’t land in the drop zone and slice the top off Homer! Also we were now rather annoyingly parked on a down slope meaning that if we wanted to move off the car park at some stage we would need to have snow chains on. So I put them on - first time in sub zero temps (as had practiced on my drive in Shrewsbury last year) and of course I couldn’t remember how to do it. My hands froze, my ski kit got covered in dirt - I looked like I’d spent a night on the streets - and I also felt like I had. And to top it all the car park was now filling up and we were in danger of missing the early lift benefit of staying there. We tried to remain calm though - Melle made some sandwiches and packed some drinks and snacks and we set off about 45min after the lifts had opened but still early. I thought we’d done pretty well as we stood at the first lift - I had all my gear on and skis, poles, helmet, gloves etc - and then Melle asked me if I’d remembered to brush my teeth - sounds like my Mum I thought? I hadn’t of course which also meant that I hadn't put my false tooth in either or done any of my morning self 'grooming' so I probably smelled like a hobo as well as looking like one!!

Hi my name is Chris - The local hobo!!

The skiing on that first day at Grand Tourmalet was good though and so it was all worth it. The weather was still variable and by late morning the clouds had come over so visibility was quite poor in La Mongie but we just went back over to the Barage ski area - which is more forested - and enjoyed the skiing there. We had to finish a little early for Melle’s English teaching online but we didn’t mind because we were exhausted from the night before and nearly a full days skiing too. Despite our first night tribulations we stayed put in the ski station car park - even though it didn’t have any services there are toilets there in the day and our second day we took advantage of our location as we were virtually the first to ski the groomed slopes of Barege. It was great skiing that morning although by early afternoon, when Melle again needed to return to Homer for English teaching, it was starting to get a bit cloudy. As I didn’t have much to do after our late lunch I thought I’d do a little bit more skiing anyway. And then as I was venturing towards the Barege - La Mongie connection at Col de Tourmalet the clouds opened and the sun shone through. I took this to be a sign from the heavens and ventured over to the La Mongie area determined to try a few new slopes.

View back down the valley - Homer just a spot

I was so glad I did as next day we had a perfect blue sky day (often known as blue bird day) no wind and not a cloud in the sky - so the recce the previous day really paid off. Crisp in the morning so perfect for skiing and we took advantage to try out even more of the La Mongie slopes as below.

France and some other mountain range in the distance

Even the bar at Col de Tourmalet (the famous mountain pass which often decides the Tour de France ‘king of the mountains’) was open with people sat outside basking in the sun. Melle and I skied all day, barely stopping for lunch and we returned back to Homer exhausted but ready to move on. We packed up that evening and drove down to start a day of laundry, shopping, filling up with water and lpg gas and emptying the toilet (sorry for those squeamish) - all of the things we hadn’t been able to do while up at ski lift car park.

We thought this was a chapel when we passed on a chair lift the day before 😁😂

We had a lovely spring day to accompany our drive down to Lourdes and after filling up with gas we spent a little more time in the famously spiritual town parking up near the funicular which takes people up to local hilltop Pic du Jour. It was built in 1900 as part of a tourism drive and is still a very popular local landmark today. Melle took some more English lessons while I had a look around. We drove back into the Pyrenees to the fabulous Cauterets - sense we might do a whole blog about this town in future. Today, though, we spotted blue sky on the horizon and the afternoon weather report was promising too so we trudged up to the telecabin/gondola station and got excited about our next ski resort. It looked equally promising after the long gondola ride which takes you up to 1850m (the car park at Grand Tourmalet is 1450m) and we immediately caught the Barbbat chair lift close to the summit. When we got there though, the wind was quite blowy and although we had a good ski down the weather gradually closed in over the rest of the morning and early afternoon. We skied a few more runs and even tried another chair lift to the top but it was now snowing heavily and blowing quite strongly too so we came down back to the town and Homer.

This is short clip of first run and first go with GoPro this trip

Although we love skiing we prefer it in nice weather and one of the benefits of coming for longer means that you can just avoid skiing in really horrible weather and go and do something else instead. And there’s loads to do in and around Cauterets but that’s for another blog… 

 This blog was written by Chris (hence the infatuation with skiing)