Ansó, 18 February
by Isabel Isherwood - 16:02 on 20 February 2017
We’ve just had our February half-term holiday here, a Thursday and Friday tacked on the weekend. The preceding Monday and Wednesday were the last two days of cross-country skiing with the school, and though Monday was dreich and rather miserable, Wednesday was glorious. After the classes I joined Iona and her friend Juan and a couple of teachers on a trip up and over the hill behind the ski station, ‘off-piste’, Iona and Juan were very competent; the rest of us struggled up the hills with lots of slipping backwards, and tumbled down the other side. But the views were fabulous.
On Thursday and Friday we changed from cross-country to alpine skiing. Ansó was historically a rich community, owning a considerable extent of valuable high-level grazing in the mountains along the French border, taking in the upper part of this valley and the next two to the east. The second of these valleys now hosts an alpine ski resort, Candanchú, and some yeas ago Ansó community gifted a parcel of land to the ski resort. A happy consequence of this is that Ansó residents are now entitled to cheap ski passes and half-price gear hire. At the weekend the ski resorts are absolutely packed, with queues for everything and nowhere to park. In the week they are much quieter and really very pleasant; so Thursday and Friday all the skiing families in Ansó headed for Candanchú.
The girls are now pretty comfortable on skis, after their two hours of alpine ski classes a few weeks back, followed by five days of ski fondo. Jake has never been taught but is quite happy to just throw himself down hills and work it out as he goes along. I decided to give alpine skiing a go, but was frankly terrified. Iona appointed herself my teacher, and was very patient and helpful – and within a couple of hours I was starting to really enjoy myself. Indeed, I am now very excited about downhill skiing, a sport I have always considered rather silly….. I don’t think I will be heading for the black runs any time soon, I am very happy on the learners’ slopes – but there is one lovely bit at Candanchú where a braided piste runs among big boulders and knolls, with lots of little ups and downs; I really enjoy the feeling of swooping through there – it always makes me think of the little robot on the moon in Wallace and Gromit…..
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