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"Cloud rises up the valley, swamping the small hamlet of Arinsal. Hot and humid on arrival the mountain weather soon took hold. We cruised the main drag window shopping electronic emporiums, sport shops and expensive watches. Glimpses of snow capped peaks at 2900m and a trail from nowhere to nowhere. Mostly it was steep. Fred Durst was on German MTV while it rained outside."
We hung around, new tyres ready to buzz like angry African killer bees on hot dry trails. We hung around while more cloud spilled over the high passes delivering stinging rain that made the tarmac steam. We hung around catching glimpses of a cool downhill and patch of snow at 2000m, the whir of the zoom lens going in and out for company."
Mostly we hung around."
Back in 2001 I wrote these words as we passed through Andorra chasing the UCI downhill World Cup circus up to Vars, France on a 4 month mission for chainsmoke.com. For a couple of days we looked for trails we knew were out there, in the clouds, behind the rain, up in the mountains. We didn’t find them.
We didn’t really expect to return to Andorra some 5 years later and this time wholly by accident while escaping the misery of bunk beds, tolling bells and drunken roadies. So it was an unexpected pleasure to find bikes, riders, working lifts, sunshine and the Vallnord bike park.
Andorra is a principality situated in the Pyrenees between France and Spain and is only accessible by the one main road that follows the y shaped valley from border to border. Tradition holds that Charlemagne granted a charter to the Andorran people in return for their fighting the Moors. In 1278 a conflict arose in between the French and Spanish resulting in the signing of a paréage and thus Andorra's co-sovereignty between the French count of Foix and the bishop of La Seu d'Urgell, in Catalonia, Spain.
Given its relative isolation and difficultly of access, Andorra has a thriving tourist industry which forms the basis of it’s economic survival. The winter season being the busiest time for the 70,000 Andorrans. The capital, Andorra La Vella, is a seething metropolis of tax free shopping, which comes of a bit of shock when you spend a week up a quiet valley.
That quiet valley is where you’ll find the Vallnord bike park. La Massana, home of Commencal bikes, is frequented by some esteemed locals namely Cedric Gracia and Anne Caroline Chausson and has a cable car leading up to the 2000m Vallnord Mountain Park, the starting point for a Maxiavalanche.
We spent the last open day of the park riding some lines designed in part by Cedric and Anne. The bike park consists of 3 downhill runs, a freeride trail, a couple of xc loops and a wood park. The downhill runs are red and black graded and are steep singletracks with tight switchbacks in and out of the trees. The trails are rocky and the tightness makes them quite technical in places. If only we had come equipped with pads and D2’s, we would have appreciated them more.
The freeride trail graded blue was faster and smoother and pretty nice until it joined up with a red downhill trail to get back to the cable car. Shame it didn’t run down on its own.
We rode some of xc trails over the back of the hill, these were quite smooth and fast with some lung busting climbs, which we attributed to the altitude as they were graded easy.
The absence of fireroads in Andorra is a pleasant surprise and no doubt due to the lack of timber felling. It wouldn’t take long for them to deforest the principality with all the wood they need for chalet building. This does mean climbing is either by singletrack, road or cable car. A few wide tracks do exist in the ski area’s where piste maintenance is evident.
Apart from Vallnord, Soldeu in the north has a series of marked trails running from the cable car station. We didn’t get the chance to try them but they looked busy with downhillers from the car park.
After another short trip we exited the hidden kingdom over Pas de la Casa and were greeted with light sleet and views of the first autumnal snow topped peaks. The first evidence of winter is a majestic site.
If you ever happen to be in Andorra by intent or accident take your bike, your iPod and your rain coat - something for all weathers.
