Day two – Skiing St Gervais – OUCH!
On day two we decided to ski St. Gervais.
St. Gervais is located just ‘outside’ the Chamonix Valley. Basically, take the road back towards Geneva and take a left (i.e. follow the signs). St. Gervais is only about 20 minutes from Les Houches.
The ski pass we have (the Mont Blanc) covers St. Gervais, however, the actual pass will not work with the ‘gate system’ at St. Gervais so you have to purchase (3 euros) a St. Gervais electronic card pass that then gets credited from the Mont Blanc pass (the St. Gervais pass can be ‘re-charged’ on subsequent days). From the car-park/ticket office we took the main gondola to the ski area.
Skiing St. Gervais was great fun. There were some really interesting and challenging runs. There was also a good mix of terrain and a good number of lifts. The conditions were good. The mountain was well groomed with some areas of ice.
On the last run of the day (it is always the last run of the day!), 150 meters from the lift down (it was not possible to ski out due to poor snow cover on the lower runs), on a green run, I hit a patch of ice which just swept my feet from under me. I hit the ice hard, the bindings didn’t release and I bent my left leg behind me. I was able to ski the last 150 meters but by the time we had got the lift down I was almost unable to walk.
Once back in the car I took some ibuprofen….
I have spent a painful evening limping around the chalet (and catching up with the blog), luckily Tracy and Mike had already decided to invite us to dinner that evening so I didn’t have to go out. Looks like this may be a hospital visit…. I will see in the morning.
Trail map of St. Gervais – map
St Gervais, France – map it
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