Inversely those who live in Serre Chevalier full time dream of going on holiday. Sounds mental, can you have too much of a good thing, skiing around in the sun, eating at lovely restaurants and checking out the ladies in their loose-fitting salopettes and formless clothing?
Well yes, yes you can, we’ve got bills to pay too. Don’t worry we’re not looking for a handout, although 42% of all you give will go to some sort of charity – it sends cabin fevered long-term Serre Che residents to a place where nobody knows you name.
Usually the twitching starts in the inter season, but can flare up at any time.
I had to leave the valley for a bit the other day, but nature tried to thwart my egress with an air traffic control strike in France, no problem just pay Ryan Air another Eur130 and jet out of Turin instead of Grenoble, but even before that the fates were against me – and I was not alone.
Usually, even in heavy snow, the pass from the Braincon end of the valley to Turin, up and over via Montgeneve, is open. Not like the Lautaret which is frequently, albeit temporarily, and the Galibier which hibernates for most of the winter. So when I left Monetier at 7am, despite there being a couple of fresh inches of snow I wasn’t unduly worried.
Oh I was also in a teeny-tiny Fiat 500 with some lovely Brits – Stuart and Kelly – shout out – who gave me a lift, that’s the kind of lovely people who ski here (and she’s a copper), but that held no fear for us.
So we started down the valley (there will be a point to all this, so don’t click off just yet – you might learn something) and had begun our climb up to Montgeneve when we noticed the car wasn’t heavy enough, even with me in it, to really bite through the snow to the road.
It hated it, so a way in we decided we would have to put the snow chains on. These are obligatory if you rent a car in the winter, and they generally charge Eur10 for having them.
I’m not super manly, I can change a wheel, but for my hetero needs I usally call on Aaron, but he wouldn’t have fitted in the car, so we were on our own.
Stuart smokes Bensons so I thought he’d know how to do the chain things, but after 10 minutes of pulling, pushing and profanity we both decided they were duff and had probably been broken by a former user.
Oddly enough another bunch of Brits in the car behind had also stopped to try and fit their chains at the same place. They too decided the chains were defective and gave up.
What are they chances all the chains in the world are defective? So why not (and here’s the point) take a couple of minutes to check and fit the chains at your leisure as you rent the car to see if you can work them.
It will be easier to have a dry run under cover than up a bleedin’ mountain in the snow.
Oh yes, we made the flight with 2 minutes to spare, thank the Lord a snow plough came past and we slip-streamed it all the way.
Tags: working on the chain gang, Serre Chevalier, tiny fiatNo related posts.
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We made it tho……………….
Good stuff. I’ve got some of those fabric ‘auto socks’ which are OK and get you out of a pickle, dead easy to put on, but you have to take them off as soon as you hit tarmac again. I’m doing a blog for the morning about Kevlar snow chains, which is something I am seeing more and more of in Serre Chevalier.