We decided to try out a different ski area, so we went a few minutes up the valley to Balme. This is where Ivy injured her knee 2 years ago and had to go to the ER on the first day of skiing. Like the area we skied Sunday and Monday, it starts with a gondola to get you higher up the mountain, then there’s a second set of lifts from that upper “base.” This resort is above the tree line and completely exposed to the valley below, and it’s in full sun all day.
Despite the nice temperatures, there was a vicious wind in the morning. We braved it a few times to go on one of the upper chair lifts and enjoyed a nearly perfect red run called “Ecuries”: newly groomed snow, so smooth and deep that it felt like floating on water as you skied.
This resort has a lot of t-bars (or whatever they’re called now—they aren’t “T’s” anymore, but round disks that go under your butt). They were ancient and had a rough start with no warning. It was so strong that it picked Ivy off the ground and then threw her sideways! I thought maybe Ivy just got off to a bad start, but then I got on the t-bar and the same thing happened to me! I almost fell over and I think my inner thighs are bruised. After that one try, we said no on any more t-bars here.
Then we headed over to the other runs on the next mountain over. After a long traverse, we skied down the Vallorcine side of the resort a few times, with a stop for lunch in the sun. Then back to where we started for a bathroom break. I swear, French ski resorts don’t believe in bathrooms. I’ve been in some places where there were no public restrooms anywhere and only one paying bathroom in the entire ski area. This resort had one public restroom in the entire upper area. To get to it from the other side, you’d have to go up and over a mountain. Not very convenient.
Towards the end of the day, we ended on the red run we had started on. The wind had died down and we had a few glorious runs. We played in a natural half-pipe and got some good jumps in. And, unfortunately, Eric and Inga did a jump that ended badly. It wasn’t a big jump but the landing was tricky. Eric face-planted and dislocated his shoulder. Inga tumbled down after him and hurt her shoulder, fortunately without the dislocating part. We came across them as they were still both sprawled out on the ground. Eric had just put his shoulder back into place. Ugh. I told Eric, “No more stupid stuff today!”
We were all feeling exhausted, so we ended about an hour before the lifts closed. We skied down the long red run “Les caisets” instead of taking the gondola back down. It was slush at the bottom. The total vertical drop of what we skied today was 733 m (1462-2195 m altitude).
Ivy and Zari still had plenty of energy to build a snowman. I made oven-roasted broccoli and tortellini with alfredo sauce. This apartment has a big stack of French Calvin & Hobbes books, and the four kids have been reading through them. Dio and Inga started drawing Calvin in all sorts of funny situations, including skiing and eating cookies.
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