Arinsal Andorra

Hi,

Is there much natural snow in Arinsal? There's a lot of mention of snow cannons but I can't find out any info about snow fall over the last few years. Looking to vist Arinsal for our first snowboard trip in Feb of next year. Any info would be great.

Cheers,
Rob

check out www.andorramania.com i went this year and thats where we checked the reports on.
its gto web cams on the mountains and daily snow reports

Was in andorra In march last year for a week. Cracking ski/ board weather for the time of year. Had roughly 3 nights of snow and the snow cannons just topped this up in the warmer spells towards the back end of the week.

I have just received an email,dated 5th Nov., from an instructor in Arinsal, who has walked around the ski staion. He says that there is about one foot outside the ski school and about one metre outside the Obelix. They have stared pisting the Blue Gulley and the top two reds. The snow cannons have not yet been used. They MAY open the resort at the end of November if they get some more snow. Otherwise the 6th Dec. is the planned opening. Hope this cheers up a few the readers.

So the snow levels are okay in March? Me and a few mates have just booked 1st-8th in Arinsal and wondered desperately what the snow would be like...

Wicked news to hear you were there before and it was good conditions Great news. Was it just that year though..?

Also, is there a terrain park there or nearby? And does anyone know if we'd need to buy another pass to a neighbouring resort in order to use it?

Please if someone could let me know, i'd be in their debt. My email if thats easier is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thanks in advance!

There will be plenty of snow in March. We currently have the most snow for several years and even if it stopped now there would still be plenty of snow for March and April. It is snowing at the moment and the forecast is for more snow all week.

As far as I know there has never been a problem with a lack of snow in March in the 30 odd years that the resort has been open.

For your other questions - yes there is a terrain park with a halfpipe, a couple of kickers, an airbag jump and a fair few rails. The skipass covers Pal (reachable by cable car) and Arcalis (a half hour bus ride away, included on the pass). The other resorts in Andorra - Pas de la Casa, Soldeu etc. - are owned by a different company so you would need to buy another skipass. They are also pretty difficult to reach by public transport.

Ian

Just a note on how much snow we have - over the last week they have been using JCBs and trucks to cart snow out of the village as there is too much to just snowplough out of the way.

I have never seen that before in any ski resort

I left there this morning and it had started snowing again. The snow was quite good all week but there were a few bare patches up near the top. Hopefully it just kept snowing and has given a good coverage on the runs. The locals I spoke to were almost praying for some snow!! It was far too hot all week and down near the gondola and on the bottom of the green were rather slushy early on in the day

The forecast is for snow for the next few days so all looks good. I left today and was gutted as it started snowing last night. The snow in Arcalis was great when I went there on Thursday

Nicki - er... this season has seen the most snowfall since 7 years. There are no bald patches - there's 3 metres of depth at the top, and 2.7 metres average depth at the ski station. All the runs have so much snow that the ski station stopped using the snow cannon in January, and are now removing them - which isn't that easy because they have to dig down 3 metres (9 feet) to get to the bottom of each cannon to disconnect it.

Are you sure you were in Arinsal? All the locals here are praying for a few days of blue skies and sunshine - it's got rather tiresome having to dig your car out of the carpark every week this winter.

The usual condition of the snow at the moment is what we call 'spring conditions'. (oh.. that'll be because we're in Spring now eh?) Towards the end of the day the snow gets a bit soft. Also, first thing in the morning it's a bit firm. Typical for March, anywhere in Europe. So, the best skiing is from about 10am until 4pm.

Oh, if you want slush, come in late April. At that time of year, we ski from 9am until about midday, after midday then you get slush - which really is unpleasant and no-one bothers much with skiing once it gets like that. It's about 20C during the day then. We ski in the morning in shorts and T-shirt and get the suntan, then head off for a Menu-del-Dia and a bottle or two of wine at some local restaurant for the afternoon. Now that's what the locals do!

However, if you were to ski in shorts THIS week, you'd get frostbite on yer bits...!