Friday 14th March Grand Bornand skiing

Off to the high Alps
see all photos »

Up early to go skiing. We head to Seysell where Gael lives. It is a gorgeous medieval town on the edge of a river – narrow streets and a lovely old bridge. We drove through breath-taking scenery to Chinallion…

We are having car troubles but fortunately we have a nice new car to get around in while it is sorted out. John & Audrey's home is huge, they have everything set up well (if you want to locate it on a map, look between Geneve and Lyon for a town called Artemere (5 min away), or Culoz (10min), or Belley (15min)). They leave a car here for use when they use it once, maybe twice a year. It is challenging to try to get a car sorted out in French. Thank goodness we have Gael to help sometimes. Today we headed towards some higher slopes, near Mont Blanc (Europe's highest mountain of 4810m) and got everyone skiing. It was a very eventful day in the end at the Grand Bornand Slopes not too far from Chamonix. Isaac decided to go flying instead of skiing, and ended flying off the edge of a steep drop. We had made a few runs of the green (easiest) level and decided to try the next level (blue). Isaac was doing really well. But he turned, made another turn, then another, but he picked up too much speed and could turn and ended up going straight down. He dropped just before the precipice, but it was too late................ I was higher up the slope and just watched my son disappear over the edge at great speed. I had no idea what had happened to him, how far the drop was. Was he splattered on rocks, on the top of a chalet, on top of other people? Was he dead............!!! You can imagine what it was like, the dread you felt. All I could see below was car park, cars and roof tops. I got down and there was another ski track that he landed on. He would have dropped 5m in total (over 10m horizontal distance), probably fell 3m before landing. He was disoriented when I got to him. And he couldn't move his left leg!!! We had the ski patrol attend, then a few more patrols. They called for an ambulance and took him down the slope on a stretcher. Then we took the ambulance to the doctor's surgery where he had X-rays of his pelvis and left leg......both x-rays revealed NO BREAKS. We said a lot of prayers and they were answered. He's seems to have a serious strain of his adductor muscle. It scared the life out of me. I am very very happy we still have our Isaac in one piece. He's walking, but carefully, favouring his left leg. As to the rest of the clan, they all had their first day of skiing and they all loved it. Naomi's first day and she looked very stylish, making good turns left and right. Not bad at all. They all want to do it again, even Isaac. As for me, I am again hooked. We had perfect conditions today, we all came home with sunburnt faces, after having skied in t-shirts. I'm going to have to return the the slope next week, because in the confusion of Isaac's scare, we left all thei Apres boots at the ski hire shop! Great - I think I'll get there very early and spend the day skiing. Naomi’s bit : The geology in the Alps has me gasping. It is phenomenal to see the wonder of nature having been so impressed by all the manmade structures in Paris etc. And the skiing was pretty terrific. (despite Isaac’s mishap) So many things I did not understand about skiing. Such as how hard it is to get ski boots on, and how much stuff you have to get sorted (a bit like having a baby again with all the gear required - only all of you need it!), and how you just have to get good at it really fast because getting up off the ground is so terribly difficult and most of all, now I know where the producers (or whoever) got the idea for the Thunderbirds. First I feel like a Thunderbird trying to walk in ski boots (thank goodness I didn't pass one of those reversing mirrors - I would have fallen over laughing I think and that getting up really was a challenge after the thirtieth time - I was helping up fallen kids - honest), and then I saw a tall lanky guy in a blue ski-suit with red and white trim. He was definitely a Thunderbird. A few Penelopes in pink or lemon yellow - ski suits really do look funny - maybe next time I will get over the people watching and get into the snow a bit more.

Alps
see all photos »

Next time? I am not 100% sure I could think of skiing as a real holiday. After all there is all that effort involved and many holidays don't require such organised days ... but it was a bit of a thrill. And that was just staying on the learner slopes. I stayed off the real thing. Shamelessly used Kate and Michael as my excuse not to push myself. But I am curious to try it a bit more. And Andrew seems very keen. Will see what he thinks after having another day.