MoreDirt Epic's - James Sawyer's Andorra Experience

A few weeks back Carl set off to Andorra with a good friend James for a holiday with tour provider Singletrack Safari! Check out James diary from the trip!

Day 1

Soldeu Bike Park

As Andorra is such a small country, getting to the far end only took half an hour in the van. Traditionally Soldeu had been a park that was a bit softer underfoot with a bit of loam in the woods but a late snowfall has made it much more dry and rocky.

Two main lifts service the riding area and the variety of trails is excellent for what is a relatively small park area. Blues, reds and blacks offer the majority of the potential although beware of the grading as some of the blues have sections that would classified as blacks back home. Even the transfer lines between lifts are fun all out blasts rather than the usual fire-road affairs.

Its also noticeable how much effort goes into trail maintenance here. Very few braking bumps are found and the trail crew is big and constantly busy. When we reports a loose plank on a wallride feature, they were straight up and had it fixed within the hour, a level of pride and focus not always seen elsewhere.

Lunch was at the top of the first lift station where 10 Euros gets you a drink, burger and fries at the site of Europes highest golf course. The driving range off the mountain does make you wonder which poor sod has to collect the balls!

We were riding on a Sunday and yet the park was surprisingly quiet with very polite trail users. There certainly was a pretty civilised feel which is typical of Andorra as a whole. Even the lift operators are happy!

Standout trail for the group really was Parabolica 1 which was a classic alpine trail – fast, flowy and open and one that you can ratchet the speed up run by run. There is however something for everyone with steep wooded sections, jump lines and more aggressive features.

Sadly Day 1 left us with a man down, with Carl having a somewhat freak crash on a wallride that left him with a lot of bruising and a damaged shoulder. A salutary reminder that the big mountain can still chew you up and spit you out.

All in all a good day and pleasant to return to the hotel for a whirlpool bath to ease though tight joints and then on out for a great meal in town.

Day 2

Natural

After a bumper breakfast of cheese, ham, sausage, croissant, pain au chocolate, bacon and eggs we found ourselves in a loaded van headed up the col behind the hotel for some natural trail uplifting. With mission impossible playing on the stereo, the van took us up to a dizzying height and then we started a push up to ‘locals only’. The push up at the lower limits of what would be classed as altitude left our lungs searching for whatever molecules of oxygen there were in the air but a breather in a lovely alpine meadow and then a final push got us to the start of the track. Natural trails can be a real mixed bag but this was something to appreciate. Racing through the trees like a speeder bike, this was flat out in places and huge fun. Everyone came back down with a huge grin on their faces. The afternoon saw us ride a much more technical rocky trail known as Roquefort which in places would challenge even the best riders. At this point I was exhausted and the rest of the group went up for another run of a trail known as Tech-Fest while I hung out with the injured Carl.

Day 3

Vallnord Bike Park

Another full size breakfast set us up for the day to visit the world renowned bike park at Vallnord. Two lifts were open and after dropping Carl at the top of the Gondola station for some sun bathing, we tried Route 66. A steep descent littered with jumps and endless turns, the trail descended the full height of the valley in about 15 minutes and tested the limits of tired arms. Dusty and loose wouldn’t begin to describe this trail. Back to the top and crossing the transfer line to the next lift reminded me from Monday of how Andorra has got the connecting trails in bike parks so right. In other areas these are just functional pieces of double track but in this country, they are fun trails in their own right. Carbonera was a great choice to make it to the lift station or there were shore and 4X options. From the second lift we accesses some great trails including Skippy, Tabois and Corpalanca. One thing that strikes be about the bike parks here is that the grading system for trails is as random as it is elsewhere with black features on blue trails and red trails often easier than the blues. Not a major issue but one to watch if you like to hit trails full speed on your first run.

At day end we took a mixture of a lovely natural trail and route 66 back down to town with clouds of dust left hanging in the trees and hands and fingers screaming in submission but with big smiles all round. Another day in the park is definitely required and plans were made to spend our day off riding at least 50% of the time.

With an impending day off and surrounded by Scots, the evening was probably always destined to be messy but started with a relatively civilised pizza and then on for ‘one beer’ at the sports bar out of town. One turned into several and then came the Jaegermeister, Rum, random cocktails and much else. Banking on a bar shutting at midnight as a way of controlling alcohol consumption only works if the staff don’t stay up until you drop. New nicknames were born, bikes were ridden round the bar and things got pretty messy but we all staggered home at 4am leaving the poor barman to shut up and all of us likely wondering how we were going to get up and ride the next day.

Day 4

Recovery

The day started slowly for all, with the group surfacing around 11 looking bewildered and heavily hung over. We took an early lunch and I was trying to decide if I wanted to ride or simply go back to bed. In the end a small group of survivors headed out to Vallnord and rode the trails at the top for a few hours. Really was about the best hangover cure.

On the way down we rode a locals track from top to bottom which was super steep and techy. Rock slabs were everywhere and line choice was wild, everything was loose and while not being my kind of track, I finished glad that I had made it down and no doubt learnt a trick or two about riding the stuff. Funny how ramping up the technicality of a trail means that the moment you hit a less difficult section which previously you wouldn’t ride, all of a sudden it seems rideable. A strange type of progression by fire but effective nonetheless.

Tired bodies mean an early meal and an early night.

Day 5

Skyfall trail

This was the big adventure of the week. I have to admit that I had gone to bed aprehesive about this one due to the nature of the ride and my concerns that my problems with arm pump would excessively hold the group up but I was reconvinced at breakfast by the guide Keev. We set about buying lunch and snacks and preparing for an all day descent.

The drive up to the road head had an ominous feel to it with not much chat between us and by the time we got to the pass, we were not far from the French border and high in the mountains. A quick coffee and a check of the map and we were off.

The push up to the radio mast was not as difficult as I had envisaged and it didn’t seem a long time at all until we reached the top and took photos at more than 8500 ft.

The next hour was a ridge traverse to where we were going to start our descent and was a mixture of up and down. At this height, you could feel the altitude with each breath being a little hard and the downhill bikes feeling twice their weight.

As we got to the start of the descent, we met some walkers whom seemed a little bemused by the idea of some crazy bikers not only making it up there but also planning on heading down into the valley. They even got up to watch as we dropped into the valley, dancing down the loose surface, allowing forward momentum to carry us through. The trail was technically tough, very steep and you had to have faith in your bike and allow the forward momentum of your slide to guide you through the rocks while constantly fighting for grip. It pretty much felt like riding on marbles!

This certainly wasn’t a trail for the faint hearted and probably would have suited an enduro bike better but with a combination of riding and carrying we made it down an impossibly steep section and lunched at a beautiful remote lake resplendent with amazing scenery and handfuls of hopping frogs.

While I chatted with Keev our guide, sat on a rock, the French walkers descended and lunched by the river. We certainly weren’t prepared for the naked swimming or sunbathing which was a little bit of an eyeful!

We set off for the hardest push up of the day which took about an hour and left us all flat on our backs gasping for air at times but this led to the final descent through the forest and back to civilisation. It certainly was interesting to see how the riding changed as we got lower into the valley, moving from loose and rocky to rooty and smooth.

We soon found ourselves at the road, cooked from the sun, dry of mouth from the heat and exhausted from the exertion.

It is without a doubt that this was a big adventure and one I was glad to have undertaken. It had the feel of the origins of mountain biking where you went looking for natural trails which sometimes you could ride and sometimes couldn’t. It was however very technical in places and certainly shouldn’t be undertaken lightly.

That night we had dinner with the head of Vallnord bike park and the Ministry of Tourism for Andorra who were both warm people with a passion for biking and developing the destination for more visitors.

Day 6

Soldeu Bike Park

This was the final days riding and a late start for all largely due to fatigue and alcohol! Most of the group went back to Vallnord to ride the world cup track there but Carl and myself headed to Soldeu to film some more. Sadly, despite Carl aiming to be fit to ride on Friday, this wasn’t to be and thus he continued to roam the bike parks on foot while I rode. Unfortunately the upper lift at the bike park was closed for maintenance so my hopes of riding some of the trails up there were dashed and I had to make do with the lower reaches of the bike park, which still offered a lot of variety.

By 4pm we were undertaking the necessary but melancholy experience bikers have on their final day of their holiday as they pack up their machines for the journey home.

The whole group went out in the evening for a meal at a mountain restaurant which came highly recommended. Once sorted out, the food was great but the service had the comic air of Fawlty Towers. With a 6am start the next day, a final (huge) rum and coke was supped in the hotel and I retired at about 1am.

For more info on Soldeu and Vallnord Bike Park check out our listing on MoreDirt

Been on an epic trip recently or got one in the pipeline? Let us know in the comments below!