The cool thing about where we live is that we are only 20mins away from the mountains. In winter this is great if we want to get some sun and also for winter activities like sledding & skiing.
One place that we go to if we want to go sledding is St. Cergue.
DRIVING UP TO ST. CERGUE
Before driving up to St. Cergue, it’s important to be prepared. The drive is super winding, with tons of hairpin turns. Going up mountains for sun & winter fun has a lot of benefits but one of the downsides is the winding roads with steep ravines on the sides.
- Excellent snow tires are a must – if you don’t have good ones and get into an accident, insurance might not cover you.
- If you suffer from motion sickness, like I do, you can
- drink motion-sickness medicine at least 30mins beforehand
- Use motion-sickness bands (where to buy: for kids & for adults)
- Decide to drive so you won’t get dizzy
- Locals will drive fast, but don’t let this pressure you into driving faster than you are comfortable with. It’s better to be safe. If someone wants to go fast, let them overtake you when possible or go into a rest stop so they can go ahead.
READ MORE: 6 TIPS FOR DRIVING UP THE MOUNTAINS IN WINTER
WHAT TO WEAR WHEN SLEDDING
We didn’t have everything before, as you can see in the photos, but these days we are more prepared.
- SKI SUIT – Usually it’s a 2pc pants + jacket, but can also be a onesie. It’s water & wind proof to keep kids from getting wet when sledding & rolling in the snow.
- SKI GLOVES – This is important so his hands don’t get wet, cold or wounded while sledding
- SKI HELMET – This is not required many people sled with only a winter hat on, but collisions are totally possible & we went to keep his head from serious injury so I highly recommend wearing one. – especially for kids.
- WATERPROOF SNOW BOOTS with good grips. Avoid UGG boot-type of shoes that barely have any grip, because it’s a sure way to slide in the ice and get injured. One time I saw a woman in Chamonix using UGG type boots hurrying to her car & hitting her head so hard in the pavement she couldn’t get up. An ambulance had to be called because people can die after hitting their head so hard.
WHAT TO BRING FOR AFTER:
Usually after sledding, everything that had contact with the ice is pretty wet. So we remove the wet ski suit & gloves and he already has jogging pants and long sleeves underneath.
- We just put his UNIQLO UltraLight Down Jacket on him.
- Knitted gloves (optional)
- Knitted hat (optional)
- If his snow shoes are soaked we also have leather sneakers to change to.
WHAT SLED I RECOMMEND
As you can see last year we had more success with the cheap sled that we bought from DECATHLON. But the truth was it’s near impossible to control & has a tendency to roll over which isn’t safe. It doesn’t easily stear or break. We saw so many kids spill over on it in the sledding area of Col de la Faucille.
When we finally learned to use the Hamax Swiss-Bob in the correct direction, we realized it was so much easier to bring (very light & compact), easy to maneuver, super fast, and super fun! Now we won’t need to bring a bulky sled when we go up the mountains.
SLEDDING ST. CERGUE DECEMBER 2021
We arrived quite late in the afternoon so it was not very bright but what was nice was there was not many people sledding. The parking lot was super frozen so it’s important to be very careful getting out of the car. This is the type of slippery ice that you can really get injured on.
As you can see there is also a playground beside where people sled but it was super cold.
We walked around the school to find a way to safely sled.
There was an ice hockey rink too.
This is the spot we found to easily sled down… people with kids eat early here in Switzerland so there were barely any people.
DiploBaby and I had so much fun! At first we didn’t do so well with the Swiss Bob sled because we didn’t know we were using it wrong. LOL! This was heaven!
It was such a beautiful night out without many people so we weren’t so scared of colliding or hitting anyone. If it’s crowded I recommend wearing a helmet for snow.
BUVETTE DE SPORTS
The in-laws got a bit too cold so they went to this small Buvette. Unfortunately because it was a Sunday they only had drinks to serve. No hot food. That’s the way it is in Europe… we were even lucky they were open on a Sunday & serving hot cocoa.
The in-laws appreciated the blankets. Poor DiploDog was freezing despite his fur LOL!
All in all it was a fun time with the family, making memories!
As DiploBaby was talking to this snowman, he fell on the stairs.
Good thing it wasn’t a bad fall. Snow looks really nice but when it melts it turns to ice which is super slippery.
DiploBaby loved this lit-up pine tree. It’s really like a winter wonderland here in Switzerland.
Time to go and find some food for dinner!
SLEDDING ST. CERGUE FEBRUARY 2023
This winter season, we only got to St. Cergue in February and I have to say it was a huge difference from when we went last Winter in December 2021.
I only went a few times on the sled and only had my hat on. But ideally, I should have my skiing helmet on. it was just such a warm day for it!
It looks good in the photos here, but in reality the snow was brown & sinking coz it was melting.
You can see that it was a bit muddy in this video, but we still had loads of fun!
WATCH OUT FOR SLIPPERY ICE
Here we are trying to get up to the parking. It was a bit tricky because the snow was slushy. TD had to be really careful not to slip because it took him a year to learn to walk again after his limb-saving bone graft surgery. Stairs with melted snow are very slipper so we hung on to the banister for dear life, just to get up.
How lucky are we that we can just drive up 20mins and be able to enjoy some snow fun? We are just about 17mins away from Geneva, so if you are there in winter, this is a fun activity to do with your kids.
OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:
WHERE TO PARK IN ST. CERGUE
6 TIPS FOR DRIVING UP THE MOUNTAINS IN WINTER
WHERE TO EAT IN ST. CERGUE
MY GOOGLE REVIEW OF MAISON DE VILLE
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