Peter White (see below) had his own story to tell.

The transfer times from Geneva up to Méribel in those heady days before the Albertville Olympics used to average seven hours on a Saturday. Once I remember an eleven hour journey over a distance that should have taken two and a half hours. It was chaos on a single carriageway - irate gendarmes battling with frustrated drivers who would file off on to parallel mountain roads in search of a short cut only to find themselves unable to rejoin the main road because the traffic was stationary and refusing to let them back in.

People would climb down from our vans to stretch their legs and take a walk. At three miles an hour they could beat the traffic with ease. Well you can guess what happened. Peter had picked up seven passengers at Geneva, and rattling and banging his way towards the mountains had stopped dead at Albertville. Darren, who was holidaying on his own and was not part of the main group, asked if he could walk for a bit as he was feeling queasy. What a good idea! They all got out, except for Peter,  and started weaving their way through the traffic.

Eventually the traffic began to move again and one by one the punters climbed back in. Five hours later at one in the morning they arrived in Méribel. No one had thought to check the numbers. No one noticed that Darren wasn't there.

'I thought I was cooking for seven' says the chalet girl. 'Where the hell's Darren?'

Everyone was so spaced out by the appalling journey they'd forgotten about him. They all went to bed.

Just before lunch the next day Darren turned up at the chalet. No one knows where he slept. I'm not sure if anyone bothered to ask him. I wonder if he ever skied again.

Ski Jungle Blog - Transfer Time