Having read Weeksy’s Morzine report on here, I thought I would write my own as it tells a very different story. I hope my advice, if anyone finds themselves in the same position as myself, will be helpful.

My partner and I spent a leisurely two days driving from the UK to Morzine, staying over in Les Gets campsite the night before our formal arrival at Ski Morzine Chalet Flo the next morning with Swindon MTB club. After unpacking and having a light lunch we all headed to the Pleney Lift. My partner and I were visiting for the first time and we were cautious not to push ourselves on the first day, so we opted to stay local to Morzine, familiarising ourselves with the town rather than hitting the mountains on day 1. We planned to go to Les Gets the following day for a full day on the easy trails working our way up to the more gnarly stuff as the day progressed and playing around on the bike parks there. Day 2 we were entered to ride the PPDS.

We pushed up a trail which finished at the Pleney Lift. Those familiar with the area will know the jump just before the small bridge. We rode up the trail for about 500m where there is building. We turned around and rode back down the trail. Unfortunately my partner decided to eat some dust and a few rocks after the jump. I didn’t see the fall but when I caught him up, he was on the side of the trail totally concussed with serious cuts to his face. I knew he needed an ambulance and some guys helped him and his bike down to the lift, where upon a French speaking guy kindly called for an ambulance.

Now begins the most stressful week I have ever encountered. After he was taken away in the ambulance, I was left with two bikes with a chalet 1 mile away. I pushed the bikes back and immediately contacted the insurance company by email and telephone. One of the guys with the group I was staying with kindly offered to take me to the hospital. He entered the address in the sat nat to discover the hospital was 47km away.

Without going into detail of what followed over the next 6 days whilst my partner was in hospital and to prevent “my story” from becoming the longest post on STW, I would like to just outline my experience of someone who was unexpectedly put in a situation that she never anticipated.

The stress this situation causes is unbelieveable. The amount of unforeseen problems it causes is unbelieveable. The isolation from your partner is very distressing.

So my advice, if you are travelling to the Alps for mountain biking and an accident occurs is as follows:

1. Accidental insurance is vital.
2. Contact the insurance company immediately. I emailed them because I wanted to be sure my telephone message was going to be acknowledged and acted upon.
3. Ask the ambulance driver to write down the hospital address.
4. Get a business card from the hospital with the address and contact telephone numbers on it – you can telephone and speak directly to the patient.
5. Don’t expect the insurance company to act quickly! It took 2 days for my company to communicate with me on a satisfactory basis. I had to add a sentence in an email to contact me within 2-3 hrs otherwise I was left with no choice but to submit a formal complaint. 2 hours later I had the most helpful, understanding, apologetic person on the phone and I was finally moved to a hotel later that afternoon.
6. The hotel location was at the side of the motorway, on an industrial estate and 10km away from the hospital. The restaurant at the hotel was closed at weekends but I was allowed to order a plated salad. Each day cost me 90 euros: 30 euros single trip in the taxi, 10 euros for lunch, 15 euros for a plated salad and 5 euros for a beer! I had 4 nights in the hotel and it cost me a fortune. So don’t be expected to be accommodated close to the hospital.
7. A green card is vital. Our car insurance advised that we didn’t need one when taking the policy out 2 weeks before we went on holiday.
8. Make sure you check with your car insurance that they are not going to change their emergency contact number whilst you are away on holiday!
9. Dialing the UK from a mobile, instead of using 00 44, drop the 00 and use the + sign.
10. Have a smart phone on contract. You can worry about the cost of calls when you get home. Wifi connection in the hotel gave me a little normality in the evenings.
11. Have a French dictionary or practice charades with the kids before going on holiday! I asked for milk by mooing at the cashier and pretending to milk a cow. We both burst out laughing and I got my milk.
12. Have a small notebook rather than writing stuff on scraps of paper.
13. If the patient is on a liquid diet, just be wary of having too much liquid as it dilutes the sodium in your body and you end up back in hospital for 24hrs.
14. Going with a group is a good idea for the support and help that will be offered. If it had been just the two of us it would have been even more stressful and probably unbearable at times for both parties.
15. Take extra English money in case you need extra cash.
16. And finally, braking with your face is not the best way to stop your bike.

Have a good trip folks. A huge thank you goes out to Swindon MTB club for their support and kindess during the last week. And to Chalet Flo, Ski Morzine who were expectional with coping with a stressed out mountain bike chick!

But is he okay now? That’s all that matters!

Sorry to hear you had a fraught time. I had a friend who, on his first trip to Morzine, managed to snap a bit of bone in his back. Was kinda weird watching him fly away from Les Gets in a helicopter…

He’s fine now but I think we out him off biking. Oops

Mountain Biking is a dangerous sport and, sometimes, it goes wrong. Either you get hurt or you damage your bike. Be prepared to cover both eventualities and always have insurance etc.

Hope you both return to the Alps – its fab normally!!

Rachel

Jesus Christ, that sounds like an absolute nightmare. Well done for getting through it. Oh and lots of useful advice also 😉

Hang on – I forgot to ask – how’s the bike???

😉

Been there done that. 2009 I spent 5 days in hospital in thonon having tibia pinned, munqe chick sorting everything out and spending 200euros round trip on taxis visiting me.

Hope he’s okay long term.

I took MC to NYC that autumn to apologize for ruining the holiday. Worth dropping a hint when the dust has settled? 😉

allthegear – I’ve just laughed my head off at your comment. 😀 The bike is fine, the chain came off, no damage what so ever. However, his oakleys was a different matter. He was quite upset at loosing his nosepiece. I even went back to the site of the accident to do a search, he was that concerned. Me – I parked that priority in the “Home insurance” file to deal with when we got home. I put it down to the concussion.

Had been wondering whether to get a full face helmet for my morzine trip…just made my mind up!!

I’m off there thursday and I will think of this thread every time I start thinking I’m the biking god and get cocky. I’ve got a full face helmet, elbow and knee pad protection and I’m gonna wear them the whole trip and feel pretty thankful I’ve made the investment.

Hi jester, mbswindon member here. Really hope your partner is doing much better now and your stress levels have reduced somewhat! Every time it came up in conversation I had a shudder through my body, felt for him with such a nasty injury so early on and indeed yourself at the hassle you were going through.
Although I was lucky enough to sit in the passenger seat of your car for part of the journey home!

Thanks for the story. It does just go to show what can happen and it is a great reminder. I hope that you both get over this and get back out to Morzine. You will not have seen it but there is some great riding out there. I reckon that you must need another holiday now at home just to get over the last “holiday”. I hope your partner gets well and back on the bike soon. I guess he owes you a dinner or something now.

Jesterthefirst, I really feel your pain, as CTM mentioned above it happened to us in 2009, wants worse is he wasn’t riding like a t*** or outside his comfort zones, it was a simple crash where he didn’t unclip and snapped his name. It was a horrifically stressful week, Mr MC being 45 mins drive away it costing me 180euros in taxis to get there and I could only withdraw 200 euros a day from my cash card, so another tip ensure that you can withdraw a decent daily amount.

Try flying home with 2 bikes in bags, a cripple in a wheel chair, 2 85 litre rucksacks and 2 handluggage! Mr MC sat out the front of airport in ambulance whilst I ran around like a blue arsed fly collecting bieks from left luggage, but 2 bikes on a trolley don’t go in the lift! it’s an endless list of stresses etc, we had to fork out probably £1000 upfront and that was WITH an E111 card!

Ensure you have insurance! Very good post with some top advice. Hope he’s okay now, it brings me out in a sweat thinking about that week, but as as mentioned I did get a long weekend to NY in November to say sorry/thanks. x

Great post under rubbish circumstances… Glad you two are getting it all resolved slowly but surely. I was very much aware when out there that circumstances like yours above are but a fraction of a second away from being a reality. I was lucky that i was there with 2 great mates and if anyone had crashed, the other 2 would have done exactly what you did and sorted everything out while the patient recovered.

We made sure we had both EHIC cover and also specialist MTB in the Alps cover before heading off and had printed off all the documentation etc.

Absolute horror story and a great reminder of what can happen

Glad you got it sorted though

I’ve just returned from 9 days in the Alps, which included the PPDS – awesome event – but its a great reminder of what can happen – even if you’re riding within your comfort zone

I hope your partner makes a speedy recovery

a 6 day stay in hospital for a cut face and slight concussion? 😯
how badly did he cut his face?

Someone’s got to say it…ride within your limits?

No offence…

Cynic-al it isn’t always about riding in your limits, when Mr MC snapped his knee in 2009 it was nothing to with riding in his limits, he crashed on the 10% within the Le Pleney run which he has ridden over 100 times and he lost his front wheel on a breaking bump and foot didn’t unclip from the pedals.

When he ruptured his tricep tendon in Betwys in May 2011, it was nothing to do with riding within his limits. He front wheel washed out on a wet rock and a flat section and he came down hard on his elbow.

It’s easy to say as there are a lot of people riding like muppets out there, just remember not all the time though.

lol

he lost his front wheel both times because he was riding outwith his limits.

totally disagree with Cynic-Al’s preposterous question tho. Where would the fun be in riding within your limits all the time?

GW – he broke his jaw in two places and had surgery 24hrs after the accident. The concussion was very bad – he was on a different planet for at least 45 minutes. He also had 8 stitches dotted around his face and chipped two teeth.

Another tip – print the insurance policy off and take it with you so you can refer to it.

The accidental cover included £500 dental treatment but we are not entitled to this in the UK. As his chipped teeth are not an emergency then we will have to pick up the cost of the dentistry.

The car insurance would not recover the car because it did not have a mechanical fault.

Also, the biggest shocker was the cost of the channel tunnel for a single trip back. The insurance flew my partner and myself back from Geneva to heathrow which left the car and the bikes/gear stranded in Morzine. Fortunately one of the Swindon crew volunteered to drive the car back. We came via the ferry so had a return ticket but our volunteer was already booked on the tunnel with his friends so we bought a single ticket so he could still travel in convoy with them. £174 for a single ticket bought on the day of travel in day light robbery imo!

Edit – we are visiting an oral consultant tomorrow in the local hospital and he is making a good recovery although the low sodium levels are making him very tired.

Ooooft! 🙁

good to hear he’s recovering well

Really sorry to hear this. I just got back from Morzine and have a similar story. My friend crashed on his first run in Les Gets and broke his collarbone and a few ribs. Luckily we have a doctor in our group(with a big bag of drugs!) and the French dealt with him quickly and efficiently.

Sounds awful! Was he wearing a full face?

Tom – no! We are gnarly fit xc riders, hence why we took it steady on the first day because we didn’t want to ride out of our depth before getting to know what the riding was like out there. Unfortunately we only got to ride 500m.

Jesterthefirst I feel your pain, hope he is recovering well and that you are not too stressed. It is amazing how many people on here often chance it without insurance! Has to be at least £1000 we forked out up front to claim back later!!!

MC – I guess we were lucky then. We haven’t paid anything out upfront regarding the claim. The insurance warned us that we might get a bill for the ambulance call out and trip to hospital but we didn’t see one.

The money we paid out wasn’t covered by the insurance, hence my post to warn others of the potential personal cost in case this happens. We do get £20 per day for each 24hrs spent in hospital but we have to claim this money when you get back to the UK.

My partner has read this post and saw about your trip to NY. There’s been no comment yet but at least the idea has been planted 😀

Sorry to hear your story. A wake up call for full face helmets, I know its tempting to ride lite, but damn is it worth the risk.

We wear these in the Alps

Lightweight full face lids with great airflow.

Sounds like a right rigmarole, gutted.

But surely the worst time/place to practice jumping your bike is on holiday??

The female of the couple whom I and a group of other mates stayed with when boarding in Les Arcs this year broke her leg badly on day 2 and was carted off to hospital. My mate didn’t go and see her once and didn’t even stay in on the last day when she was brought back to the apartment! He said there was no point spoiling both of their holidays…!

Guess that’s what happens after 30 years of marriage.

I hope the injuries are better soon and you’re all ok.

I came off on the Pleney in 2006 – 5th run of my first day – pre-jumped into a steep section & the front wheel landed in a braking bump, compressed the forks & spat me over the bars.

I awoke to find a 14 year old English lad dragging me off the racing line, whilst everyone else was using my rear wheel to pop a jump off..!!

I rolled down the hill, brushed myself off & did another 3 or 4 runs, but something didn’t feel right. I got back to my mates apartment, had a few beers, crunched some Nurofen & went to bed. I awoke in the night for a pee
& couldn’t move, and had lost all sensation of touch in hands & all over body. I was terrified – my 1st child was due in a month & I genuinely thought I’d crippled myself.

Anyway, down to Thonon I was driven to find I’d fractured my L2 vertebrae – the bruising was spectacular!!!

The feeling in my hands gradually returned after a few days but I still have patches on my back, right arse cheek and hip that haven’t sorted themselves out.

I now wear armour a lot out there, particularly a well fitting spine protector.

Wow Mildred that’s a scary story!!

I was meant to be doing a few weeks guiding; it was going to be my foot in the door with a view to having a career change. I felt an utter nob end. I was out there a month recuperating. The break had joined within about 7 days, but the soft tissue damage took ages.

I drove home on my own and was so full of drugs that I cannot recall one moment of that journey, except that I ended up in Brussels city centre without any idea of how I got there.

Guess that’s what happens after 30 years of marriage.

I think that’s what happens when you’re a callous git. Knowing someone for a long time is’nt really an excuse, is it?

I know I certainly couldn’t ride whilst Crashtestmonkey was in hospital I certainly didn’t feel like it.

Sorry to hear of the injury and the aftermath, and pleased to hear of the recovery.

I have a chalet in Morzine, and at the height of the summer it’s not uncommon to hear the medical helicopter several times a day. It’s one of the reasons that I wear a pressure suit and full-face helmet if I’m doing any sort of even vaguely serious riding.

(1) The proper equipment is VITAL. My wife’s cousin came out to do PPdS with us last year on a Specialized FSR XC – a perfectly fine bike, but utterly unsuited to the conditions (size of brake rotors, type of tyres, suspension travel), which made things a lot more difficult. He didn’t have a great time as a result, and crashed out repeatedly as a result. On the other hand, I stuck a friend of mine on a stick-tyred 190mm travel DH bike the other week and trundled down some easier runs into town with now problems. The bike gave him the confidence to ride through braking bumps and the like, whereas I’ve seen any number of people crash out on these. Obviously there are those who can ride a penny farthing down Mont Blanc, but in the realm of mere mortals, something with a slackish head angles, large brake rotors, a decent amount of travel and high-volume strong-sidewalled tyres will make things a lot easier.

Body armour will probably not stop major injury, but it will reduce the severity. A full-face helmet will not prevent a broken neck, but will ensure you lose fewer teeth, probably don’t have a broken jaw, and will likely avoid concussion.

(2) Mountain biking in the Alps is NOT like riding in the UK – it’s a much higher-consequence environment, both in terms of likelihood of crashing, possible severity of injury and financial consequence.

(3) Insurance is massively useful, but will not cover everything at the time. Even if you can claim back later, make sure you can access a reasonable sum (think €1000) in the event that you’re delayed/need to buy tickets etc. Just make sure there’s space on your credit card and you’ll be fine.

(4) Learn to ride the terrain. Sounds condescending and obvious, but it’s not meant to be. If you ride mainly in the forests on mud, then big rocky sections in the Alps will be a massive shock. Either ride them in the UK (Peak District etc) and get used to them, or take it easy when you get out here. And even crashing on a gravel path can be horrific, as due to the gradient you’re often travelling faster and will slide further. It’s worth getting a guide (even at the €200 it will cost per day) to get you up to speed.

If you’re going to ride the higher-risk areas on an XC bike (and why not – it shouldn’t all be lift-assist) then ride well within both your and the bike’s capabilities.

And you’re on holiday, sure, but take it easy and build up. You can really injure yourself in the Alps (other mountain ranges are available, obviously), and a quick afternoon stroll through Morzine in summertime will reward you with the sight of many plastered/strapped arms/legs/shoulders, plus more gravel rash than you can shake a stick at.

Well said Nickf – respecting the mountain makes the riding and trip much more enjoyable

The amount of people milling around Morzine with various plaster casts is alarming

The amount of people milling around Morzine with various plaster casts is alarming

+1. Very sobering when you first turn up and you see them walking down the street with arms in slings.

The accidental cover included £500 dental treatment but we are not entitled to this in the UK. As his chipped teeth are not an emergency then we will have to pick up the cost of the dentistry.

Insurance firms, you’ve got to love them. If only making a claim was as simple as buying the insurance in the first place. To the OP, how were they apart from this? Name and shame if required.

Well said Nickf the amount of people on here who harp on about “oo if you crash you must’ve been riding like a d***” it so far from the truth!

Definately true what you say.

Sobering reading this thread. Going out for my second visit next week, and will be on my hard tail, albeit built up tougher than usual. Will be doing more PDS/XC type stuff and green and blue DH only, but am seriously considering purchasing a full face as accidents do happen even if you ride within yourself.

Healing vibes, just got back from Les Gets last night and was shocked at the walking wounded on the way back!