Soldeu (Andorra)Who was to tell Enric that at five o’clock in the morning the police would come to look for him at his house and take him out of bed, focusing him with a flashlight directly on his face? It had been a long day in Andorra. The town of Soldeu was preparing to organize, for the first time, a World Cup event. It was the first time that the Pyrenees hosted an event of this nature and no one wanted to look bad. But that day in February a very strange meteorological phenomenon occurred. Suddenly a hurricane-force wind blew, knocking down all the infrastructure that had taken days and days to assemble. They called for submission to bring in all the volunteers. But there was a key figure they could not locate, Enric Barbier, the station’s technical director. And since they weren’t picking up the phone, they decided that a patrol would alert them.
It has been ten years since a historic day for Andorra and in the Principality they wanted to remember it, not only because it was the first big challenge of competitive skiing in the country, but also because the Soldeu-El Tarter sectors are candidates for the 2027 Ski World Championships. “We probably have the most powerful and revolutionary dossier, but it plays against the fact that the World Championships have never been held in the Pyrenees. the candidacy, in reference to the vote that the International Federation of Skiing (FIS) will do this month of May. Andorra doesn’t have them all, but it has already warned that it will keep trying, and if it can’t be for 2027, it will run again for the 2029 candidacy. , the director of Ensisa, the company that manages this Andorran ski area.
At a time when the Pyrenees aspire to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, Andorra is opting for the most important event organized by the FIS on the calendar, and which has a not inconsiderable budget of 39 million euros. The Olympic and Andorran candidacies have nothing to do with each other, but it is undeniable that without the Principality’s persistence in organizing high-level international skiing events on its slopes, the Pyrenees would be much more complicated to do. worth as much as possible its Olympic. “Historically, the Pyrenees were understood as a destination for beginners. Not only in terms of competition, but also in the field of tourism. This has changed over the years. We have been able to reverse the situation and today we can say that we are first level, that we have nothing to envy anyone “, points out Conrad Blanch, the general manager of the 2012 World Cup, now retired.
Enric Barbier remembers that anecdote with laughter. “They scared the crap out of us … the woman still remembers it!” But that night the wind gusts exceeded 100 kilometers per hour. “We talked to old people in the area and no one had ever seen anything like it.” Beyond dismantling the infrastructure they had enabled, it put at risk the work that had begun many years ago, when Andorra, with Soldeu at the helm, opted for competitive skiing. At the turn of the century, the Principality had flirted with the idea of hosting a Winter Games, but the proposal was quickly discarded as it had neither the infrastructure nor the capacity to organize them. At least alone. That’s why they changed their strategy and tried their luck with the European and World events, which are organized in different seasons and last a weekend. More or less the same as Formula 1 or MotoGP.
The road from Andorra to the FIS
Andorra was a newcomer and it was difficult for him to enter the circuit. They tried a World Cup in 2006 without success, but they did organize a European Cup event in 2008. It went well and they repeated the following years, until the FIS trusted Soldeu for the test of 2012. A great staging that, in reality, was double, since Andorra, in addition to the corresponding test, should also host the race that had had to be suspended a week before in Courchevel ( French Alps) due to lack of snow. “I was working on the flat and I didn’t have a landline,” says Enric. “And I’m in the habit of never sleeping with my mobile phone on. Conrad (Blanch) did not locate me, and the Civil Protection had no choice but to propose that a police patrol come to pick me up, and he told them yes. “And I woke up with a bright light focusing on my face.”
“It was a frustrating day,” they recall in Andorra. The organization called all the volunteers to the ranks to fix the damage and try to get it ready for the test that Friday. And they got everything ready, on time. But in the end, because of the wind, the test had to be suspended anyway. “It was a hard blow.” Luckily, the wind subsided on Saturday and the races scheduled for the weekend could be contested. Those that, technically, referred to Soldeu. Courchevel’s, therefore, was permanently suspended.
Andorra will fight against mythical stations
Today Enric is still at the station, and has experienced first hand how Andorra has been gaining weight in the FIS. They hosted the European Cup finals in 2014 and 2015, again hosted a World Cup event in 2016 and, in 2019, the World Cup finals. “That was our summit. We didn’t plan to go any further. But the FIS congratulated us and encouraged us to apply for the World Cup. We discussed it and decided to take the plunge,” sums up David Hidalgo. In May, Soldeu-El Tarter will have to fight against legendary stations, such as Crans Montana (Switzerland), Garmish Partenkirchen (Germany) or Narvik (Norway), but even if he does not win in his first attempt, he knows that sooner or later he will succeed. the goal. Meanwhile, this year it is hosting the European finals again and next year, the World Finals. Skiing in Andorra is no longer just for children.
