An expedition with the Freeride Center
Credit: Daniele Molineris
The following day, we decide to take our rejection of groomed snow to the next level and go touring. Within the bounds of Grandvalira, we could follow the marked “mountain ski circuits” – routes up and down, described on the same map as the freeride zones. Many of them start with a trek across the frozen Llac de Pessons, in the Grau Roig sector, before offering different variations – both wooded and open terrain – around Pic Alt de Cubil, the off-piste mountain where the athletes of the Junior Freeride World Tour compete annually.
We decide to take advantage of the fact that ski touring doesn’t require an actual ski resort and head to the Ransol valley, a 15-minute drive from El Tarter. For our half-day tour, we are led by Toní Rodriguez, head of the Grandvalira ski school, and his dog Luca, whose favourite pastime is chasing descending skiers, of which there are quite a few – this is a popular area for locals. “There’s lots of variety here,” Toní says. “It’s mostly only 30 degrees of steepness, so quite avalanche-secure, and you can reach a peak after only a couple of hours’ climb.”
We gently and gradually gain altitude, picking our way through fir trees and fording a stream, before a final steeper section, where kick turns are required, before reaching a ridge with views back down the valley and across waves of white to higher peaks by the French border. For a small country, with quite a few large-ish towns, it’s surprising how quickly we find ourselves in a beautiful, remote mountainscape. The descent, as so often with ski mountaineering, is a freeform dash that’s over in minutes.
OK, so I’m convinced on one score – Andorra isn’t just for beginners. What about the other common assumption those invested in Andorran tourism have tried to dispel, that it’s a cheap-as-chips booze-cruise destination? Well, thanks to duty-free prices, the main street running through Soldeu is still populated by the odd staggering drunk, but what resort isn’t? It also houses the five-star Hermitage, which opened in 2006, frequented by footballer Lionel Messi and other Barcelona players, and the four-star sister hotel Sport next door. Both establishments share the Sport’s Wellness Mountain Spa.
The Áliga piste in Soldeu is used for World Cup races
Credit: Sergi Perez
There are eight restaurants in the hotel complex, including a branch of Michelin-starred Japanese chef Hideki Matsuhisa’s Barcelona place, Koy Shunka. Nandu Jubany, the Michelin-starred Catalan chef from Can Jubany, west of Girona, serves his tasting menu at Origen. He also heads up the more casual restaurant Sol i Neu, where the New Basque approach to traditional Catalan and Andorran specialities transforms trinxat (bubble and squeak with bacon and black pudding), pigeon rice or pig’s ear with escarole leaves into elegant, delicate dishes.
There are also several independent, traditional restaurants known as bordas, from the word for barn, along the road that runs through the Grandvalira resorts. La Llar de l’Artesa in Soldeu is crammed with bric-a brac and has a sophisticated wine list, notably organic and biodynamic wines and a great selection from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. We eat there one night and opt for a Vega Sicilia Alión, a full-bodied Tempranillo with complex aromas, which pairs beautifully with the huge steak sizzling on the original wood-fired grill in the corner.
The following day, the sight of fire leads us to the greatest gourmet experience of all in Andorra. During a day trip to the linked resorts of Pal and Arinsal, a 25km/45-minute transfer from Soldeu or El Tarter, we see flames rising from a barbecue outside El Moli de la Plaça (known as Molly’s) in Arinsal. Restaurateur Giles Boyce, a Brit who has immersed himself in Catalan food for 20 years, is cooking calçots, which look like giant spring onions. They’re not cooked over gently glowing charcoal but right in the flame, Giles explains: “The outer layer chars and the inside steams in the intense heat.”
Popping out the delicately flavoured inner flesh, dipping it in rich romesco sauce (made with almonds and sweet red peppers), and dangling it into your mouth before washing it down with red wine, is a decadent, hedonistic and addictive thrill you don’t expect from a vegetable dish.
During my time in Andorra, there are more food and drink surprises – in Grandvalira, for example, I come across a Veuve Clicquot VIP champagne terrace (not the lager-lager drinking experience I was expecting) and a roving street-food truck on a piste-basher. I never thought I’d say it, but Andorra is a hipster-friendly hashtag-foodie backcountry powderday destination. Brace yourself, Instagram.
The resort of Soldeu
Need to know
Neilson offers seven nights in the Neilson Hotel Del Clos in El Tarter from £469, half board (breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner each day); or in the Sport Hotel, Soldeu, from £755 on a half board basis. Price includes flights, transfers and Mountain Experts guiding and coaching. Instruction and guiding with the Freeride Center is €42 per person for three hours, but a two‑hour introductory session is free for Neilson customers as part of the Mountain Expert programme. A day’s ski touring costs from around €100, depending on location and equipment. A one-day ski pass for Pal‑Arinsal costs €36.10, but there are no direct buses from Soldeu – it’s a 45-minute taxi ride.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/articles/not-just-cheap-cheerful-skiing-in-andorra/
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Publish date : 2017-11-16 08:00:00
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