Review

Just in case you were in any doubt that you’re in ski country the nice people at The Avalanche have given you a hint in the name of their bar, seems a curious choice though, since an avalanche is the last thing you actually want to happen whilst you’re skiing. It would be like having a pub at Daytona called "The Car Crash" or one at Aintree called "The Horse that Fell Over, Broke it’s Leg, and had to be Shot".

Curious name aside, it’s a pretty decent pub, specialising in entertainment of the musical kind with live bands on most nights of the week. Obviously Andorra doesn’t feature on many international bands tour schedules, so chances are you’re not going to know whoever steps up on stage. Thankfully you’re not subjected to the obscure back catalogue of someone who’s spent too long in the rarefied atmosphere of the upper mountains, instead most bands play their preferred selection of well known covers to keep the drinkers entertained and get the sing along started. When there isn’t a band playing a DJ is on hand to keep the atmosphere lively and the absence of tables positively encourages extravagant dance moves.

Like La Cova Del Drac next-door, The Avalanche isn’t interested in showing the football, but it goes a little further than its neighbour with its provision of pub games by offering not only a pool table but a pinball machine and a Fussball table as well. If you do fancy a game of Fussball be careful about playing the locals, especially if there’s money involved, as their skills are formidable. It would wrong to suggest that Andorrans are wankers, cause clearly they are not, but they do seem to have the well-developed wrist muscles of a 14-year-old boy who has just discovered the vast uncensored content of the Internet. Actually, some Andorrans are wankers, specifically the employees of the ski hire place in the Gondola station who seem to delight in treating all their customers with the same contempt a French Vineyard owner shows for Happy Shopper Wine.

The Avalanche also has a snowboard arcade game, presumably for snowboarders to demonstrate their skills with impunity by challenging the skiers to a contest and then either being really good or being really crap and falling back on the old "it’s nothing like the real thing" excuse. All of which seems entirely pointless when there is a perfectly good mountain right there, the fact that by this stage it’s probably dark and everyone is pissed should just add to the excitement, why bother with the artificial imitation when the real thing is so easily accessible?

Review by AJS