Boondock Puffins

We should probably have known what to expect when one of the top reviews on TripAdvisor was a 1* with the comment “so dangerous, how is this allowed?”

Nevertheless, this did not stop us from embarking on a 3km run down a mountain on a children’s sledge.

You go to the bottom of the Palafour ski lift in slots from 5.30pm until about 7.30pm (depends on sunset timings usually), and you get given a sledge with variable levels of brakes, a helmet, and a smile of acknowledgement as you wait for the lift that you will have a memorable time in one way or another.

As we were walking over to the lift, we bumped into 2 teenagers we teach coming back. Their review? “It’s a bit sketchy” and “Watch out for that bit on the piste with the bumps… I straight lined it and my sledge broke in two!”. Not necessarily the ringing endorsement for we might have hoped.

Having paid our €12 each we were all set.

We actually arrived as they were shutting it down, but the chap in charge of the lift happened to have gone to school with one of our French friends and so let us up on the last lift. This meant we had the run to ourselves.

The initial 500m were all but death defying. Getting the hang of cornering, slowing down, aiming for the 40m tunnel… all of these were a steep learning curve (Eliza ended up missing the tunnel initially!) but after those crucial meters, we were all speeding off down the mountain, giggling like 5 year olds. There are some very steep sections, and some very windy sections, both of these increased the level of hysterics. By the end of the run, your arms and shoulders are knackered from holding up the brakes, and your ribs and abs hurt from laughing so much.

As we’ve said, you have to wear a helmet and this is provided by them. It is also highly advisable to wear good gloves (these we’d remembered) and goggles (we didn’t have these but would recommend in the future!). If you’re up for an adventure that makes you stop thinking about anything else in your life as you hurtle down a ski run in what feels like a death trap, we’d say it’s worth it.

As a celebration afterwards, we headed to an excellent burger, chips and cider/beer supper at the Marmot Arms. The ultimate end to a great evening!