Saint Gervais
Saint Gervais
At the foot of Mont-Blanc
Saint Gervais is a buslting ski resort in the Haute Savoie French Alps close to Chamonix and the foot of Mont Blanc. The famous "Voie Royale" departs from Saint - Gervais and is renowned to be the most direct access to the summit.
More than 400km of ski slopes
At the heart of the Evasion Mont-Blanc ski area Saint Gervais offers 400 kilometres of slopes towards Megève, Combloux, and Les Contamines with Le Bettex offering direct access to the Evasion Mont-Blanc ski area.
The
resort also benefits from 30 kms of slopes on the opposite side of town in Les
Houches/Saint-Gervais, accessible by the Mont-Blanc Tramway, one of the oldest
rack and pinion railways in France.
Evasion
Mont-Blanc is the third largest ski area in France with 219 ski runs, 107 ski
lifts and 850 artificial snow making canons helping ensure the ski area is open
from the end of December until the middle of April.
Hotel Val Joly
For
my visit I stayed at the Hotel Val Joly, a small family run hotel 20 minutes
walk from Saint Gervais. The rooms are comfortable and furnished in a simple
yet beautiful way. You can book half board or room only and pay for any meals.
I chose room only and sorted out my own breakfast. The restaurant at the hotel
offers evening meals from the menu or a set three course option for 20 euros
which is different every evening. Typically consisting of soup, main and dessert the owner of the hotel certainly knows how to cook. With the exception of two
evenings, when I wanted to be in Saint Gervais, I ate at the hotel. All the
family speak English but since I speak French most of our conversation was in
French. Only on a handful of occasions did I speak in English. The hotel is on
a bus route but don't rely on the buses turning up ! I was late for my ski
lesson one morning because the bus didn't come and they only run every 35
minutes.
Why I come
Finding
a ski instructor and coach who suits you is hugely important. An instructor who
understands how you think, the way you learn and wants you to achieve the same
goals as you do is massively important. Not only that, but training should be
fun and enjoyable.
I
have been fortunate enough to find two great coaches both of whom are BASI
examiners: Alessandro Cambon (who lives close to Villars-sur-Ollon in
Switzerland) and Will Roberts (who lives in Saint Gervais).
I
come to see Will for one reason, and one reason only, coaching.
Coaching
Having
done a day of coaching in January I returned for further coaching the second
week of February booking 2 hours on Monday, 2 hours on Wednesday and 4 hours on
Thursday with that last day aimed at a fun day of great skiing.
At
my last coaching I had just recovered from a chest infection and skiing all day
in heavy snow had made me really ill again. However, this time it was Will who
would be ill.
Monday
greeted us with heavy snowfall. Just like my last coaching. I texted to make
sure we were still training. We were.
Not
long into the two hour coaching session I took a real tumble on to the snow.
Will not only called out to me 'are you ok?' but even skied over to me and
repeated the question. This told me I must have really smacked into the snow.
As I picked myself up, dusted the snow from me and re-attached my ski that had
come off we were both metaphorically scratching our heads; neither of us knew
why I had fallen. At least I'd not disappeared into a snow covered hollow
again.
When
I fell I had landed heavily on my right side with one of my ski poles
underneath me. Initially I thought I was alright but as the session progressed
my side started to really hurt. At one point I was close to stopping and
abandoning but because it was only a 2 hour session I kept going. I wasn't
enjoying it though. Will didn't seem to be enjoying it much either.
The
following evening I got a text message through. He was ill. Unable to do any
further coaching with me he offered to move me to one of his instructor
colleagues or refund my money. I was not happy. This gave a problem. Will is
the only one of his team who is BASI and I still had a technical resit to do.
It's why I choose him and not any of the others. I opted to be placed with one
of the other instructors on Wednesday (either Ollie or Giacomo) and asked for
Thursday to be refunded. Since I didn't know anything about the other
instructors I let Will choose knowing he would opt for the one most suitable.
Giacomo
On
my last visit one of the Freedom Snowsports instructors had walked past me at
the bus-stop whilst I was waiting for the bus back to Geneva Airport. Tall and
very good looking ... 'who was that' !!?? When I got back to England I jokingly
said to Will I needed to book a lesson with them. Using https://www.book.ski/team/
I identified
the mystery instructor as one of the Italians. When I had skied on the Monday I had half jokingly
again said I might book a lesson with them.
Having
opted to be placed with one of the other instructors for Wednesday (either
Ollie or Giacomo), and leaving Will to choose which one, he placed me with
Giacomo; the instructor who had walked past me at the bus-stop.
Was
this based on what I had said ? Possibly. Or chosen for being the most suitable
instructor ? Almost certainly
Giacomo
teaches in a very simple, easy to understand way. There was no mentioning of
the BASI manual or Alpine Level 1 criteria. My 2 hours were spent as someone
having instruction because they wanted to improve their skiing and not because
they had an exam to pass. It made a refreshing change. At the end of the lesson
I booked another for the following afternoon.
Guided
by Will as to the contents of my lesson we worked on my long turns and carving
using easier runs the first morning before moving onto black runs the following
afternoon. My long turns had somewhat been forgotten about in recent months as
the focus had been on short turns. There is so much to remember. I've had to
write it down !
It was quite funny when Giacomo realised who I was. 'Do you post a lot on the website ? ... now I understand'.This is true. I do comment a lot (and I mean a lot) on the Freedom Snowsports Facebook page. It's a sort of you help me and I'll help you type of thing.
It was quite funny when Giacomo realised who I was. 'Do you post a lot on the website ? ... now I understand'.This is true. I do comment a lot (and I mean a lot) on the Freedom Snowsports Facebook page. It's a sort of you help me and I'll help you type of thing.
I
had a fantastic week with Freedom Snowsports, Will and Giacomo. Thank you to you both and
get well soon Will !
Next:
Technical Resit
Previously:
Freedom Snowsports - Back to Will
Return to New Generation
December 2018
September 2018
March 2018
The Beginnings
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