Ski Instructors Report 15th January 2011

We had some snow on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, which made the slopes look a lot more attractive. Après ski was lively but not as hectic as the previous week. Mike Jones, aka Elvis, was very active appearing at several locations. The Derby has a new band starting this weekend which I must try to see. There is not much more to report this week other than to say that it was another enjoyable week for me.

On Thursday, whilst waiting for my lift from Corinne, I saw a Landover with a trailer on which was a dead wild boar. This had me thinking, what other wild life visitors could see in Arinsal. Like most other ski resorts, there is so much human activity that all but the most human friendly creatures are rarely seen. I have seen red fox on my first trip of the day on the chair lift some years ago. I also W saw three deer in a field close to the road, whilst walking to La Massana. I have no idea of the species. Corinne often reports seeing Cabriole, whilst walking her dog in the morning. These are smaller than an Izzard and graze lower down the mountain. I spoke to her only yesterday, after she and a friend had visited the Palarine for the excellent Friday night Indian buffet. When I told her what my report was going to be about, she told me that she had seen three Cabriole from her kitchen window, whilst making her early morning cup of tea that morning. She lives in La Massana which is the next big village down the valley from here.

The skiing in Pal is mainly below the tree line which means there is much more cover for wild life. We often see small birds, usually coal tits there. In Arinsal, we frequently see small flocks of Rock Bunting. My bird book says that they are shy of humans but perhaps, the leftovers from the restaurant terraces are too tempting for the birds. There are occasion sightings of Eagles or Griffin Vultures high above the Alta Capa. This is usually at a distance so I am never sure what bird I am seeing, this could be due to my poor eyesight. As a rule I guess that if it is a solitary bird, it may be an Eagle but if there are several, it is almost certain that they are Vultures. This season two people have told me that they have seen an otter in the river in Arinsal. No one has reported this previously. You may be aware that the French and Spanish governments have released brown bear in the Pyrenees. I have not heard of a sighting in Andorra yet.

I apologise if this report is of no interest to you, as I know that most of you come to Arinsal for the skiing and excellent Après ski. There are times when I find it difficult to write something original about those two very important subjects so I thought that this would be slightly different.