So there we were, late in the morning on beautiful bluebird day, it had just snowed, I had just turned 32, we were in Verbier (which is a reasonably worthy contender for the Goulaszes’ Meilleure Station du Monde Award) and we’re having a coffee rather than ripping up the slopes? It takes a lot to break a Goulasz! Even more to dissuade him from skiing on his birthday! And as I sit here writing this post I still can’t believe that I would be admitting that on that 2nd morning in Verbier I was too ill to get up the hill.
Rewind back to the previous Thursday and it’s possible that my body could have been weakened by that Yellow Fever vaccination or the Hep A booster? (Just in case you were wondering, no the Yellow Fever jab wasn’t for Switzerland… sure they all look as if they’re a little disease ridden but I’m advised it’s not a high risk zone :)). Maybe the all night session with Garth et al on the Saturday night prior had taken its toll? Hmmm… there’ll all good possibilities but I still reckon the culprit was that faaarking 47kg ski bag!!
I know what you’re thinking. And sure, you’re right! It’s all our own fault... we have entirely too much ski gear and we really do need to do a big cull. I’ve been telling Nic for weeks that we don’t need more than one pair of undies each – I don’t know why she won’t just turn them inside out? And that pair of skis of hers... honestly it’d really be cheaper for both of us if only I went up anyway :) – kidding sweetie... hmmm I think I may have just become an eligible bachelor again ladies. Anyway, despite not wanting to take too much rubbish away with us (and of course leaving a whole bunch of other stuff back in London in any case) you do end up finding yourself thinking you could do with this and that and given that this 6ft ski bag of ours seems to be comprised of antimatter or something you just find yourself saying “yeah of course it’ll fit... you take that 78th pair of undies sweetie”. I guess then we shouldn’t have been too surprised to find that following the longest tube interchange of my life at Green Park, where we were actually asked who it was that we were dragging away with us on a couple of occasions, when we checked in at Heathrow the ski bag weighted in at 46.8kg. I’m still amazed that they didn’t make a fuss about letting us on the plane.
The next 11 hours of transfer saw all sorts of special privileges being afforded to Mr Ski Bag. I mean not only did he manage to take up at least 4 seats on the multiple trains that we needed to take to Verbier from Geneva but I’m sure I also heard every courtesy being extended to him as he muscled his way past unsuspecting commuters – I’m sure “Attention, degage” is a courtesy... at least that’s how we chose to receive it. Following an exhausting day of cursing our luggage we arrived at “The Bunker”.
Now, I know that we claim to be ‘Traveling the World in Style’ and we’re forever being greeted with “vous etes toujours en vacances” (or ‘you guys are always on holidays’... some of which is true I suppose) but the less glamorous side of seeking to do as much as possible on a shoestring is staying at the most modestly priced accommodation in a place – one that boasts invitation only bars that sell 50 pound mojitos and cater to Russian oligarch’s mistresses’ tastes by offering 5000 pound cocktails. (I’ve no idea why we weren’t invited into this place. Had they not heard that we were coming?) Anyway, to set the scene “When it reeks of Funk, You know you’re in The Bunk” was where we staying in Verbier. And when I come to think of it, although the graffiti warnings inside this remnant of the Cold War (it really is a converted old bomb shelter) referred mostly to mysterious skin diseases, it is possible that there may have been an altogether different bug that I could have contracted here – I think I prefer my ski bag story though.
We spent all of 4 days in Verbier although only managed to get up for one day due to bad weather (which meant we didn’t actually get to see all of the resort either due to lift closures etc) and me picking up that mysterious bug. A rating really shouldn’t be put on Verbier but we’re not sure it’ll be the Meilleure Station du Monde.
Following this we went on the most beautiful train ride in the Swiss Alps from Verbier to Chamonix, France. We had done the drive in the Summer and traveling in the winter by train was no less spectacular, with Chamonix’s peaks and many glaciers making it a unique and extraordinary place to be at any time of the year. More importantly though this is the alleged home of mountaineering, it was one of the first places to host the Winter Games, it is the place that always features on Warren Miller videos not to mention the place we had finally decided against for last season due to its more cumbersome ski accessibility – you’re a good 45min to an hour from getting up the mountain in the morning. To the die hard however this place is awesome – the steeps of Le Grand Montets, Flegere and Brevent, the rock formations, the possibility of absolutely crazy (I can hear Finfin saying “It was like a... a knife edge” in the background) descents, the don’t forget your passport and peanut butter sandwiches free-riding, the extreme rock climbing up sheer rock faces and needles etc do make this a truly exceptional place. Great resorts and if you can remain patient this place has a real and fantastic non pretentious vibe too. It was awesome to hang out with Garth and enjoy the next 10 days there in a Hostel in Les Pelerins.
Of course other than just being an amazing place to hang out and go skiing Chamonix Mont-Blanc is home of the highest lifted point in the world, Aiguille du Midi (though this may have just been overtaken by Kashmir), the highest mountain in Europe and one of the most famous off-piste runs in the world, the Vallee Blanche. The ascent of 2800m from Chamonix to the peak of Aiguille du Midi – the start of the run, was also a great place for Nic to try to conquer her fear of heights. We started the decent from the top with one of our group and our Guide Lillian both wearing crampons and all of us roped together in order not to accidentally slide all the way to the bottom of the valley – I was of course the only one in the group to slip on the icy ridge... not at all helping with Nic’s vertigo. The run itself on top of the glacier with its crevasses and seracs and magnificent scenery is something not to be missed when in the area and we’re stoked to have been able to do it.
From Les Pelerins there was just one last 1km walk to the train station at 6 in the morning with Mr Ski Bag before our final transfer back to our surrogate home in the mountains of Val d’Isere. Greeted by Phil at Bourg St Maurice, we were delighted to arrive back to see friends and the village covered in 1m of snow. A special thanks to Phil and Alex for putting us up at the Hotel for the first couple of days before we could move into our apartment. Speaking of thank-you's, a huge thanks also to Magalie for sorting out our lovely studio apartment. (What a step up from last year –mezzanine bedroom, flat screen TV, washer drier, dishwasher and most importantly right in the centre of town.)
Anyway, between the first days of skiing we also managed to run into Paul and Debbie from Mountain Rooms (while visiting Philippe and Simonetta who we worked for last year) who we found to be desperate for a couple of Chalet Hosts – for their 5 star, 3 storey palatial ‘vieux village’ 10 person Chalet. Knowing full well that there’s no challenge beyond our superhuman abilities, it was the fact that we had trusty, never miss a ski trip (and No, I don’t read your blog!) Garth and Arek and Kasia from Poland on their way for the Easter weekend that had us saying “we’d love to help out but only after the weekend”. Despite this of course, as luck (or perhaps the financial incentive of 2 ski passes to the end of the season for working the Easter weekend) would have it, we found ourselves saying yes to running our own Chalets for a couple of weeks. I mean how hard could it be? ‘Roast red onion, sun dried tomato and pear tart with puy lentil cream; Roasted rack of lamb with gratin and trio of steamed beans served with roast garlic and olive jus, and; Lemon Brulee with poppy seed shortbread’ couldn’t be that hard to pull off? Could it? (With Garth moving into our cool little studio with us it was time to practice, as that’s what we ate on our first night for dinner at Chalet Goulasz).
Having now hosted five amazing dinner parties for high paying guests, while at the same time skiing and partying with our guests Garth, Arek and Kasia (apologies again for having to work over the weekend guys) – not to mention the local crew – we pick up our season passes this afternoon having spent our first day by ourselves in our little Chalet of an apartment on our day off. Setting tea-towels on fire, dropping whole pepper corns into a children’s bolognaise, putting salt instead of sugar into the satay sauce and many burns and cuts to the poor old hands have all just been part of the fun :).
The conditions here are absolutely fantastic, the snow was too deep to ski off-piste just a few days ago, we managed to find a few days of work to help pay for being here and we look forward to an amazing 6 weeks of skiing to the end of the season. Look forward to telling you all about it next time!
Sante!
