Skiing is more dangerous than you think

And that's how snow is made

I happened to find myself in the A and E department of Briancon hospital the other day as my five year-old had managed to knock herself unconscious falling over in the playground at school.

I got back from a morning ski to anxious and guilty looking in-laws who confessed she’d been carted off to hospital by the pompiers with the siren on and all the trimmings. After some explaining it turned out she’d slipped bashed her head, got up too quickly and done it again resulting in unconsciousness.

So after lunch I went down to see what the brain function was like, fortunately living in Monetier that sort of thing, even if reduced, wouldn’t be noticed. She was fine, bashed up face, but we just tell people she’s got psoriosis and we get a wide berth.

Anyway, that’s why I was in A&E. She was under observation for about four hours and in this time a constant flow of broken skiers kept coming through the door. Probably every ten minutes someone was coming in. My wife had gone down with the firemen – lovely boys, all volunteers who double as ambulance drivers as well – was quite shocked at how many people had managed to break something – and this is when Serre Chevalier is quiet, I dread to think what it’s like when the pistes are busy. Probably the worst was a kid of about seven/eight who snapped his leg just falling over at his school.

The snow is quite hard and flat meaning you can get too fast too quickly, just be careful up there I don’t want to see any of you in A&E. Still on the bright side if you’re going to damage yourself there are not many places with as much experience in dealing with the various breaks, fractures and sprains as our very own Briancon.