MegèveSki

Jaillet, La Giettaz and Combloux

We figured that Mont d'Arbois would be busy this weekend, and Chris had skied there quite a bit. We decided to save Rochebrune until tomorrow, as we need to have an early day to drive to Geneva. So that left Jaillet. Chris has never skied that side and we've only skied it once, with Jonathan on day 3.

We decided to head over to La Giettaz (see the earlier post for notes on pronunciation) first thing, ski there, head back for lunch at the top of the main Jaillet lift and then ski Combloux in the afternoon. This worked well.

We dropped down to the Christomet lift and were the first or second people on it. Since it was so quiet we hooned down the red Coq run which had a lovely steep section at the end where I tried (and almost succeeded) at the "keep the same line and the same speed even though the gradient has just taken a dive" thing... I managed to hold my line and speed for almost two thirds of the way down the face before a allowed myself to get slightly back at the end of a turn and my speed increased. Ah well, try again next time. Back up to the top of the Christomet lift and down the long windy blue, Tréffèannaise run - I'm sure they bought too many piste markers for this run, yeah it's long and it's amusing that the piste marker starts at 64 or whatever but the poles seem so close together that it looks like they could have used half the number of poles... Tréffèannaise was quite fun today. The snow was better than last time, and it was less busy, so we could take it faster and the sharp turns and bumps made it a little like a baby skier cross course - that and the fact that I was right behind Chris and we'd jockey for position going into some of the turns. I managed to break the pole strap on one of my poles. I planted the pole to push along one of the flatter sections and suddenly the pole strap was around my wrist and the pole was stuck in the ground behind me.

My poles are the Goode carbon poles with the adjustable height handles and "special" clips that allow the poles to be connected directly to the expensive Goode gloves that results in a fully connected situation that seems far too dangerous to me... Anyway, the poles also allow you to connect a strap to the "glove socket" and that can detach if pulled too hard - there's a slidey thing to prevent that but that stopped working years ago... I've been having "premature release" problems with one of the poles for a while now, the strap just comes off at the most inopportune moments and I almost lose it, etc. So at first this problem appeared to be just another inappropriate release. Unfortunately the plastic of the "glove socket" had broken and the strap was now permanently released.

I've had good customer service from Goode in the past, I sheared one of the poles in half in Chamonix and they replaced it free of charge. So I suppose I could have tried to find a Goode dealer and see if they'd replace the grip; instead I thought about the problem until lunch and then fixed it myself at with several cable ties (you do carry a selection of cable ties and a small set of tools whilst skiing, don't you?).

Once at the bottom of the Tréffèannaise we took the Torraz chair to the top and, once again, marvelled at the views. We spent some time hooning down the various reds and blacks from the top or Torraz. We stopped for coffee at the bottom and then started on our journey back for lunch. Back to the top of Torraz, down the Boenet blue, up the Charmots drag and down to the Bonjournal drag. Back at the top of Christomet we took the blue, Chevreuil back to the Pres lift and then skied back to the top of the Jaillet bubble for lunch at the La Face du Mont Blanc.

After lunch I did the cable tie thing and ended up with a pole with a strap that wouldn't detach again...

I quite like the look ;) I may do the other one even if it doesn't break...

After lunch we skied the reds down to Combloux. Mainly skiing off of the Essertons, Crève Coeur II and Bachais chairs with one trip lower and back up on Beaureguard. An afternoon of much hooning...

Combloux run a "Handi Ski" programme which enables disabled people to experience the mountains in reclining seats on skis that are controlled by a skier from behind. They chairs look a lot like the ski-bob things that disabled skiers can use to continue their sport, but these are assisted so that the rider needn't control the chair in any way; they're just along for the ride. We saw three of these this afternoon and some of the lifts have special gates so that the chairs can access them. It's nice that Combloux are providing this service and that people who would otherwise never get to experience the mountains in this way can do so.

We finished the day with a run down the red under the Jaillet bubble. As expected it was busy - it's a run home and we were taking it at home time... We hadn't expected it to be scrapey and icy at the top though, the snow was probably the worst we'd skied all day. I guess we'd just been spoilt by the great snow on all the other runs that we'd skied.

Today was the first day I'd skiied without my knee support on and everything was fine. I had a good day and was very pleased with the extra level of control and balance that I have from my new stance. Now that I understand the feedback that the skis, my boots and my feet give me it's relatively easy to correct problems early and the result is a much more comfortable and controlled ride.