This is Olly's photograph of the view from Les Grands Montets. It's the knee-weakening start of an 8km descent into the Chamonix valley, 2100m drop in altitude, which was the highlight of my trip.

You start by clattering awkwardly down the long run of metal steps from the cable car building to a small platform of snow, where you fix your skis and nervously adjust your goggles. From here there's a steep, narrow passage to the top of the first main run; I was happy to side-slip down this with the rest of our group. Now you can see your route, dropping round the back of the mountain with the wide, bluey Argentières glacier on your right, then cutting over a ridge back onto the main slope, which leads bumpily to the top of La Herse, where you can take a gentler but fast red down to the busy station at Lognan. As your altitude drops, the exhilaration diminishes as gradually as the pleasurable anticipation of a demi pression - taken with your piste-conquering friends on a sunlit terrace, boots comfortably propped up in front of you - grows.