Hello and good morning! I arrived back last night from my six-day trip to the Pyrenees. Along with 44 Brewster kids from both campuses, I chaperoned the school ski trip to Astún, a resort just north of Canfranc along the Spain-France border. With me came a science teacher from the other campus, Alex, and an admissions officer from our campus, Rocío. We joined three monitors/chaperones and the owner of the company, who arranged the trip for us. I’ll go through and explain how it all went, but I’ll give you the punchline first. Overall, it was a great trip, and the kids behaved really well! I’m exhausted and a little sick, but I had a fun week in the mountains.
We met early on Sunday morning at the downtown campus to load up and catch our bus north. It was about a six-hour drive, but with stops, it took us about eight. The kids were glued to their phones for most of the ride until we hit the mountains, when somewhat sarcastic screeches started every time we saw snow. Driving up the mountain pass, we caught glimpses of the Pyrenees towering overhead, and soon arrived at the absolutely packed ski area. Iván, the owner of the tour company, said he had never seen the resort this packed. It was a holiday weekend, and the weather was gorgeous, but it took us forever to pull up to the hotel, dodging kids and cars all the way up. We made it and unloaded our own mountain of bags up the multiple flights of stairs to the hotel.
We stayed at a hotel right at the base of the mountain, which was overall incredibly convenient, though up a tall flight of stairs to get down to the snow. After some initial shock, the kids settled into the task of carrying up their massive suitcases and settling into hotel rooms. That night, we had a buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant, and the monitors organized some games and activities before we sent them all to sleep. I’m not quite sure how much sleep happened for the kids, but I was exhausted and luckily wasn’t kept up too late.
The next morning was probably the worst two hours of the trip, gear collection. After wake-up knocks down my hallway, I headed downstairs for breakfast before we rushed everyone over to the gear building to get boots, poles, skis, helmets, and snowboards. Many of the kids hadn’t skied or snowboarded before, and the weight and bulkiness of the boots was a shock. They split off into leveled ski groups with instructors, and we were free to ski! Skiing was definitely the most relaxing part of the day, which was an odd switch from my past ski trip experiences. Alex and I headed up the first lift and worked our way across the mountain, checking out the different areas.
I’m not sure if this is a Spanish or European thing, but they have green, blue, red, and black runs here – and no fun shapes corresponding to each 😦 Another big adjustment was the lack of trees defining trail boundaries. The base of the mountain was at about 5500 feet, and the summit around 7600 (the lower limit of the alpine zone for the Pyrenees). Distinguishing between trail and off-trail took some careful looking at grooming patterns and learning the many different colors of poles which marked ski area boundaries and trails. It took a little getting used to, but after a day or two started to make more sense.
The snow was generally crunchy in the morning and slightly icy in parts (nothing like the northeast ice slabs, though). But the 50°F sunny days quickly melted off the crunch into powdery and sometimes a little slushy terrain by the late afternoon. The landscape around the resort was by far the winner for me on the trip. We had amazing views at the top and bottom of the mountain of the Pyrenees, including the ridge dividing France and Spain. At the top of one lift, we were less than 100 feet from the border!
On the first afternoon, we drove into Jaca, the “city” in the region. About half of the group opted to go to the spa for an hour before joining the rest of us in town to walk around and explore the historic citadel and city center. After wandering for a while, we headed back up to the resort for dinner.
We ate all of our meals buffet style in the hotel, and while it wasn’t quite the “ski food” I’m used to, there was a good variety of options. Breakfast was generally pan con tomate (classic Spanish toast with tomato – add a little olive oil and some ham and its possibly the most Spanish thing to exist). Lunches and dinners had a few salad options, veggies, meat (often breaded and fried), fish, pasta, and lots of pastries and cookies. The crowd favorite was chicken wings!
On the second night, we went in town to a rock climbing gym with some bouldering, a rock climbing “playground” area, and a few top roping walls. I stayed at the top rope area and helped click the kids into and out of the belay systems. One student made a bet that if I climbed to the top, she would try out climbing. I quickly hopped into a harness and scrambled to the top. She, dismayed, asked if I was a climber, and I told her I had climbed for a few years. She did get on the wall, though! A major win!
The next night, we went ice skating in town, which was by far the most fun I had. The skates were absolutely terrible. I’m not even sure they could be called skates. These horrible plastic things with three weird clips that dug into my feet, I’m not surprised that half the kids quit after about twenty minutes. But I had a few more wins teaching some kids how to ice skate. A few of them were terrified of getting on the ice, which I found hilarious. I skated circles around them, taking video and photos.
At this point, a few of the older kids jokingly expressed their frustration that I was good at all the sports we were doing. I reminded them that if they kicked a soccer ball my way, they’d quickly see how wrong that was. But it was fun to have the whole trip be sports and activities that I was pretty good at (don’t worry, I didn’t show off too much). Anyway, I got a kick out of it considering my younger brothers consistently (and probably correctly) call me a NARP (Non-Athletic Regular Person).
By the end of the trip, I was absolutely exhausted and had been fighting a cold for a few days. On our last night, we gave the kids some extra free time to pack (which they did surprisingly well!). We celebrated the week with certificates and t-shirts from the tour company, and I was gifted a very warm hoodie! The kids had a karaoke battle while I escaped to the corner of the downstairs room with wifi to catch up on some emails and book fights for April Break (Semana Santa ~ holy week leading up to Easter).
On the last morning, we trekked down with all of the stuff again to the bus and started the journey back into Madrid. We made a stop at Canfranc Station and tried to convince the kids it was a fascinating historical site. They were much more excited to buy snacks for the ride at the grocery store. I did find it fascinating – the combination of a train station converted into a luxury hotel, and WW2 history did it for me. Apparently, the Nazis passed an estimated 86 tons of gold (much of it looted from occupied France) to Portugal and Spain through this station in exchange for tungsten for armor. It was a vital travel corridor and a hub for spies. I haven’t found any historical fiction written about it yet, but maybe it can be a project I’ll add to my “Big Ideas for the Future” document to research.
Anyway, we arrived safely back in Madrid after only one minor mishap (I did have to dispose of a bottle that used to hold water, and now held something else… after a student needed to use it emergently while we were on the highway. He did leave it in its trash bag on the bus instead of throwing it away himself…boooooo). Besides that, it was a pretty easy ride, and I got in a lot of reading and a few bits of my med school application while we drove.
I spent the evening in bed re-hydrating myself with about 2 and a half liters of a Spanish drink called Aquarius, which I’ve found works basically as well as Pedialyte and is a fifth of the price. Anyway, I’m looking forward to a free weekend to catch up on work (med school application, research, and planning for the week ahead). And next weekend, I’ll be meeting Manny in Lisbon for a quick trip – more on that soon! I hope you enjoy the photos! Much love to everyone!
P.S. Two additions to the photos from the week before in Madrid. 1) I co-hosted the Yale Club of Madrid’s February event with Hannah at a restaurant that was recommended by a colleague. We had about 15 people come through, and it’s always interesting to meet Yale people in Madrid. There’s a huge mix of people, but everyone has fascinating stories and experiences to share. 2) Jessie, my society friend, came and visited with her mom, and we went to a fun cocktail bar with crazy drinks and glasses!
Abe Tolkoff 