Chamonix Ski Day 5: No skiing? No way!

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Eric kept asking, “I know the doctor said I couldn’t ski…but do you think I could go if I’m really careful?” I kept saying, “The doctor said no skiing. When you kept asking, she kept saying no. You’re supposed to keep your arm immobilized for 3 weeks.”

So I set off with the 4 kids and left behind a very disappointed husband. We went back to Les Grands Montets, definitely our favorite of all the Chamonix resorts. It’s on the north side of the valley and is much higher than the other resorts. It also has skiing from the very top to the very bottom. Some of the other resorts have the option of skiing to the bottom, but the bottom run is often closed due to lack of snow. Not at Les Grands Montets.

We went back to winter today, having skied in spring yesterday. We did a few blue runs to get Ivy ready—she has to “reset” every morning, but it’s been going more quickly every day. Then we hit the big long red runs. We alternated between doing the long one from the upper base down to the bottom, and the other long one from the very top to the upper base.

Eric joined us at the bottom for lunch, goofing off, and a mini ski lesson.

As we were finishing our next-to-last run, Eric called: “I’m on the gondola and heading up to you!” On the gondola, as in with skis on? Yes, indeed. We joined him at the top of the gondola and he was all set to go skiing. I’m usually a calm person but I have to admit, I got very upset. We’d had so many conversations about this already: the doctor was very clear NOT to ski and that he needed to immobilize his arm for 3 weeks. Thankfully we got down the hill without any issues.



I had to catch up on some work, so I walked down to the bakery/café to use their wifi, for the price of a delicious pain au chocolat. I also bought baguettes for tomorrow’s lunch.

Inga and Dio made snowboards for their stuffed animals Indy and Dolly, then they did Olympics on a big snow mountain outside. I’m amazed that the kids have energy left to play after a full day of skiing!