Grandvalira Days
I wish I had the time and energy to post things here every night as promised but, waking up early in the morning every single day to be the first to hit the slopes and enjoying the after ski or hanging out with friends every evening makes this task quite a challenge. So, I decided to leave it for later. And then later, and later, and later, and when I realized, more than a month has passed by. But now, I’m sitting in a cafe in the central train station in Milan waiting for a train for my next snowboarding trip and decided to use this time to finally update this space.
The week in Andorra
The snow conditions were sub-optimal. The weather was a bit too warm and the last report of fresh snow falling was almost a month before we finally got there so it was a lot of hard packed snow and grass/rocky fields. But, man, that didn’t stop us to enjoy it at all! Good conditions or not, Grandvalira in Andorra is just awesome. And with a large group of friends, the fun was over the roof. And, speaking of friends, I think it might be polite to introduce each one of them.
The crew
When I booked this trip to Grandvalira I was basically coming with one other friend when this became this huge trip with a big group of friends. Each person came with their own reasons, backstories and goals to achieve during the trip and I took some time to ask them what brought them to this exact moment. To begin this, I’ll start with myself:
Me (Jão)
If you’ve been reading this publication, you know maybe too much about me already. If not, I can break the story short. I used to do some surfing back in Brazil when travelling during summer breaks but, after I moved to Malta in June 2015, the waves got a bit far away from me. Since winter in Malta is quite boring and it was cheaper to book a trip to Italy to check the Alps. The first time I tried snowboarding was in 2015 and I fell in love with it. A love that I keep trying to share with more and more people all the time, trying to bring more members to our sport while trying to improve myself. And these trips that I book is basically for that: to improve my riding and to have a good time with good friends.
My goal in this trip was to get better and better at some advanced snowboarding skills, like trying to do some small tricks, learn how to get more control in high speeds and try a bit of off-piste. But, when you travel with a group of friends your goals can become second option and, as you’ll read below, I have no regrets about choosing to have a good time over a technical alone time.
Paul
Originally from England, Paul got his first snowboard when he went to study in the university in Scotland. He never used it that much aside from some crazy city jibbing with the boards through stairs and rails but Scotland is not a snow sports kind of place so the board got forgotten after a while. When he moved to Stockholm for work, he brought his board with him and when in 2017 I started organizing group trips to ski resorts around Stockholm he decide to join. Since then, his interest in snowboarding came back full strength and now it became part of his life in winter.
His goal for the trip is to build more confidence to get more speed on a snowboard. And boy, he did! It was really hard to keep up with Paul during the days so we always end up meeting at the after ski or some occasional restaurant during the day because he was focused on rushing through the slopes as a rocket. I would say that his mission was accomplished.
Lenny
Lenny, as most of the Swedish people, learned ski since childhood. The first time he tried snowboarding was when he was 17 years old, during teenage years. He recalls falling every single time trying to learn to use that equipment but, by the end of the day, feeling that he had the greatest time ever. In 2017, together with Paul and I, Lenny went with us to Romme for his second time ever on a snowboard since then and the fun memories from more than 15 years ago came back full force. Now he’s addicted to it and always try to get together in our trips to enjoy it.
His goal for the trip is to purely have fun! Snowboarding is a mix of sports and leisure and, if you take time to enjoy yourself and your surroundings while doing it, you’ll have the greatest of times! And Lenny did enjoy his time during the week, gliding down the slopes always with a smile in his face.
Dariusz
Originally from Poland, Dariusz learned how to ski during high school as part of the mandatory sport activities during winter. He went for his first ski trip with his classmates without knowing anything about ski at all and, according to him, crashed into everything on his first tries. After spending some time and learning how to get control over it, he realized how fun it was! But, since then, he never tried again. It was only a memory, until I told him that we were planning this trip to Andorra and he decided to join without hesitation.
His goal for the trip was to improve his skiing skills that he liked so much during teenage years. Dariusz was always on the first group to leave the apartments, wanting to be the first one to hit the slopes and the last one to leave. Starting on the blue slopes only to remember how it was done, soon enough Dariusz was competing with Paul for the record of the fastest speed in the slopes.
Claudiu (Dragon)
Claudiu (or Dragon Man, as we like to call him) started skiing when he was only three years old back in Romania. He got really good at skis since he have been going every single winter to the slopes with his family but, according to him, the challenge started to disappear. So, to add a bit of salt to his winter life, he decided to jump into snowboarding into 2012. He feels that skis restrict you a bit on what is right and what is wrong but snowboarding give you more freedom to create your own style and ride your own way. Also, flying low on top of a snowboard is a rewarding feeling according to him.
His goal for the trip is to ride every single black piste available on the resort. And he quite did it! When the option of black pistes were over, he decided to go to some crazy off piste experiences that I would support if the snow was not so hard packed but that didn’t stop Dragon to do it. Always positive, he had a great time and we had a great time with him as well.
Hans
Back in Estonia, where Hans comes from, there are not many slopes so the common form of skiing practiced over there is mountain skiing. And that’s what he has been doing during his teenage years, from 13 years old to the end of high school. Since then, he never touched a pair of skis again but always had this will to get back on doing it again. When he knew about the trip, he decided to join to face for the first time huge mountains like the Pyrenees. According to him, Estonia is a flatland compared to what was about to come in Andorra.
His goal was to be able to master the skis again, improve his carving and ride these giant beasts from the south of Europe. On the first day, Hans would hesitate a lot if the blue track that he was going to take had a small piece of red. But man, that changed fast! I remember waiting for him at the bottom of a red slope and I told him “Take your time! I’ll be here checking my phone.”. Then I looked down to open Instagram and when I looked up, he was already in front of me screaming “WOOOOO!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!”. After that, you wouldn’t see Hans near anything less than red, riding full speed and laughing all the way down.
Miguel
Do you think you’re geek? If you spend five minutes with Miguel you will realize that you know nothing. But Miguel is not a stereotype kind of geek. He is into sport activities and likes to roller skate during summer preferably on parks. It is like combining fun with transportation. On the end of last year, when I was going to Romme for another weekend of snowboarding, Miguel decided to go with me to learn how to do it. Since I always talk about snowboarding and he feels that winter has no activities to do, he decided to try it out. It was really hard but he didn’t give up. Even more, on the next weekend, when I took more people to teach, he came with me to improve himself and to pass on his knowledge (that’s part of Miguel’s way of life: sharing is caring).
His goals for the trip was to improve on it and learn how to do it better. Sadly, Miguel got struck by a flu two days before the trip but, he still came anyway. But, being in a high altitude place for the first time, on a very slippery board and sick was not the best of the experiences. He still tried a bit but decided to go for the other attraction of Andorra’s winter: the SPAs! He surely had a great time there. Maybe not snowboarding but, who knows what will happen next season?
Oussama
What can I say about Oussa? We used to work together and he always asked me to tell him when we are going for a snowboard / ski trip and that’s what I did. I told him that we were going to Andorra and he promptly signed in! Cool! People asked me “Is Oussa Snowboarder? Or skier?” and I didn’t know what to answer. In my mind he was a skier. But then, one week and a half before the trip, he asked me “If I go to Andorra, rent a snowboard and just go down the slopes to learn, would it be hard?”. Then I knew the answer. Oussa is a daredevil! He has more than six years of skydiving practicing, likes radical sports like skateboarding, surfing, wind surfing and so on and he wanted something fun to do during winter. So, what I did was to book a trip to Romme with him a week before the trip so we can at least go through the basics. He got the gist of going down but not on how to break but that was a start.
His goal, on his own words, was to break a leg and have lots of fun! Well, I can’t say that it was close to that, but with a few extra classes in the mountain, he got hold of what he was missing from the previous lesson one week before. At one point, when he got the confidence to do things his way, it is when things got crazy. Riding close to a cliff on a red slope, I passed through him while he was on the floor and asked “Are you OK?” and he replied “Yeah! I just need some speed.. this place is too flat.”. I looked forward and, when I looked back again, he had disappeared. Long story short: Yep, he FELL OFF THE CLIFF! Not on purpose but, when I met him downhill he was laughing his ass of about how crazy it was. My almost heart attack when I lost him close to the cliff turned into a mix of laughter and relief. Man, we had a great time!
The result
A week passed by, we got to know each other more every morning and bonded together every evening so I have to say that this trip was a huge success. It was the first time I went snowboarding with so many friends and I can say that it was one of the best experiences of my life. My goal was to get better but, if I’m allowed to rewrite it, my goal would be JUST to have a great time with these guys, and it was a mission accomplished with full success.
From all the camera footage we got from our helmets, I made a small music clip summarizing the trip and each one’s riding style and techniques to share and save for the future. There are no tricks, no jumps, no crazy jibbing. Just eight friends having the time of their lives together on the top of the Pyrenees.
What are your thoughts about snowboarding with friends? Do you go in large groups or prefer to go alone? Share your thoughts on the comments section below.
Cheers and have a good ride!
