Take Ski Gear to Snow. Not to Kruger

I really didn't think though the practicalities of what I was doing when I made the trip up. South Africa in summer, a few days in London, followed by a week of skiing. Hmmm... Needed Sleeping bag for Kruger tour. Ski gear for skiing.

Heck I didn't even get smart about it. I could of probably asked Darren in London to take my ski gear to London with him. But no instead I lugged ski gear all through South Africa. Oh well.

Finally after a whirlwind visit to London I was off to snow. To make the effort of carrying ski gear worthwhile. Megéve was the ski venue of choice this time around. A small skiing region on the French side of the France-Switzerland border. Next to Mont Blanc. For those not familiar with this ski resort shalt I just show you the photo of the pretty decorated tree in the town centre to give you a better understanding.

Yes the tree is decorated with 3000 pieces of Swarofski Crystal apparently. Yes the town was absolutely loaded. Yes you really had to turn a blind eye to the prices of food and drink on the ski hill sometimes. But the skiing was awesome. Even at the end of March.

The venue was perfect. A great choice by my ski buddy, and long time friend Sandra. Cobblestone lanes, and quaint shops to explore off the hill. And nice long ski runs with hardly any chopped up snow to ski on during the day.

Having not skied with Sandra before I was a bit anxious at first. But I was relaxed to find that we both had a healthy sense of self preservation. Enough to agree on a similar level of ski runs. Mainly Blue with a few Reds thrown in. 


Not to say everything went perfectly. On the first day I had a fall on my thumb. One of these moments where in seemingly slow motion you watch something bad happen to yourself. As my thumb landed onto the snow I was sure it was going in a direction it was not designed to. Straight after I felt a sharp pain in my glove. And then immediately I moved to thinking to myself, "do I really want to take the glove off? After all I'm a fainter".

The good news was I didn't need to faint. There was no compound fracture. Based on the fact I could still put a glove back on, I could still ski. Sure that theory might seem a bit unsafe, but for me it worked. I skied the week without further injury. Thanks to wiki I later assessed the injury to be a "Skier's Thumb" injury. Now, weeks after the event I'm not so sure if was broken. After all I'm an accountant not a doctor. It's still not 100%. But at least it's not purple.

Also after my effort on the first day I handed over map reading rights to Sandra. We established I am useless reading a ski map. I had no idea on how to get myself back to the starting point.