Rememberance Day Trip to Saas Fee

It’s mid-November here in Chatel and there is still no sign of the long awaited snow. A lot of people here are getting quite edgy about this but as I keep pointing out to them, I arrived about this time last year and it didn’t snow meaningfully until the start of December.

my piste.  mine.

In a bid to beat the Movember blues (and the tragic-ness that is my moustache attempt), Irish Matt, French Miche and myself took a day trip to Saas-Fee on Friday as we had heard that conditions were good. Additionally, it was a day off in France for Remembrance Day but crucially, not in Switzerland as they don’t celebrate it, so we were sure of the place to ourselves.

What a day it turned out to be. A 6.30am start in Chatel as well as a few stops for coffee, fuel and breakfast, meant that we were heading up the familiar lifts to 3500m by 9am and we were greeted at the top by fresh powder lines and immaculate pistes.

As is my style, I took the wrong equipment and was struggling to get my GS skis to float in the flatter sections of pow, so I couldn’t hit the fresh snow like my snowboarding mates but we were still having an absolute ball nevertheless.

The only issue at Saas-Fee when you are up on the glacier is looking out for crevasses that have been covered up with new snow. I was feeling a real sense of foreboding the times that I was skiing off piste and I didn’t stray too far into the deep. I’ve learned to recognise and listen to my 6th sense on days like this.

I thought that we would be skiing the glacier all day but it turns out that snow had fallen all the way down to 2500m and that you could ski all the way to the middle station. The pistes were in incredible condition and at the sort of gradient that you could really get your carve on. I was now loving my skis, using them for their true purpose but by the end of the day, I was skiing back with cramp in both legs after making the most of the super grippy snow. You can really feel the difference between real snow and snow cannon snow when you’re trying to get everything out of a stiff ski.

We went for a total of about 5 hours in the end with only a short stop for coffee (CHF27 for 3 Irish coffees – wow!). The lift ticket is steep at CHF68 but with the instructor licence, it was only CHF41 for me! It takes about 1h45m to get there from Chatel and is only a 5 minute walk to the lifts from the car park.

We had a short moment at 11am to remember those who died making our way of life possible for us all and when I think back to how I used to spend the 11th day of the 11th month in the UK, a day enjoying fresh snow in Saas-Fee strikes me as a much better tribute.

online here

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Blogging season begins

I’ve been sitting here reading through the blogs of my fellow Mad Dog Ski bloggers, looking on enviously as they blog about their recent snowfalls and upload snowy images of the hills around them. Unfortunately, if was to do the same, all you would see would be the cows in the field over the road happily munching away on green grass.

this picture has nothing to do with this blog but I thought you'd want to see my new skis..

It has snowed in recent weeks though all of this snow was gone in about 3 or 4 days because it’s been a long hot summer but it’s a good sign and if I look up to the Tete du Linga, there is a white covering of snow hanging on, waiting for winter.

The sound of autumn in the Alps is hammering, sanding and heavy trucks going back and forth as all of the tradesmen are desperately trying to finish off half built chalets and public projects before the winter comes.

I’ve been up to Saas-Fee to ski quite a bit over the summer but haven’t been for the last month or so because I’m not under so much pressure with exams now. I had to cancel all of my level 3 exams because I’m needed for my other football coaching work right up until the start of the ski season. I guess I’ll now have to train in the season and then take the exams at the end of the season. I’m trying to organise for a few of the guys to take a trip to the glacier at Les Diablerets which opens this weekend.

The guys in Chatel are occupying themselves with Movember for the next month or so and I think that it’s safe to say that I won’t be in the winners circle for this given that I grow a sort of First World War ginger fighter pilot moustache. I’m looking forward to the various Tom Selleck’s and Fu Man Chu’s that some of the more accomplished facial hair growers could achieve. Last year, Webby won it with a full on Handlebar ‘tash.

Apparently it’s going to snow at the end of this week so fingers crossed for this and I’ll send over some pictures if it does (and my pathetic moustache growing attempt if you want..).

Back into the weekly grind and self discovery.

The summer is finally over and the brain exhaustion process that are football summer camps is finally over and I can get back into some sort of normal weekly routine whilst I wait for the snow to arrive.

Looking after 20 mini footballers and 2 assistant coaches was not the most taxing work I have ever done but stressful in its own way especially when you consider that you are responsible for parents’ most precious things ie. their children for 7 hours a day. Luckily, most of the kids this summer have been great and I’ve only had to tell a couple of the kids how it is over the course of 6 weeks of summer camps.

After the summer camps, I had a very welcome week off which I spent most of in the pub in the absence of anything else meaningful to do and now I’m back into the weekly routine of autumn term after school football coaching. This means afternoon sessions on Monday through Thursdays with long weekends from Fridays to myself.

The odd thing about these after school sessions compared to the summer camps is that they are only an hour or two of actual football coaching. Obviously the travel time and set up means that it all takes much longer but in terms of the actual session, it’s a wonder that we actually get as much done as we do. It seems so short compared to the endless hours of summer camps.

You have to plan your sessions so that they are short and sharp so for example, yesterday’s session was a quick 10 minute warm up game to get everyone moving, 2 x 15 minute skill sessions and then some small matches at the end. It helps if it’s all related to so that one theme blends into the next and there is a chance of skill improvement by the end of the session.

From a personal progression point of view the football coaching, I’m sure, is going to assist enormously this winter with the ski teaching. In addition, I’ve also started to fill my autumn evenings here with visits to the local boxing club on a Tuesday night, French lessons on a Thursday night as well as playing for the Val d’Abondance Football Team on Friday nights (particularly difficult as this is entirely in French.)

The boxing is very interesting from the perspective of learning a new skill and coming at something from the perspective of a learner. Most of the year I am teaching something, be it football or skiing and to have to learn something new from scratch is a really useful insight into learning and the ways that people learn.

I have discovered that I am not very comfortable just throwing myself into something new but prefer to talk everything through and understand it mentally before I try it, through fear of looking like a muppet. This also draws a parallel with French as I will only talk French in public if I am confident that I am one of the best French speakers there amongst the English. If other, more experienced English Francophones are there then I am effectively a mute for fear of making mistakes. It’s very frustrating and also the same with skiing for me. I went out of my way in Saas in the summer to ensure no-one saw me make mistakes and this is something I need to get over really.

Anyway, enough soul searching, I have yet more new skis, this time anticipating a powder season to come. Scott Pure, 193cm and 101mm underfoot with a snazzy ‘venturi’ tunnel thing at the back which apparently makes them float better. They are seriously big and there had better be a bunch of pow this season or these bad boys aren’t going to see the light of day.

big boys

I’m not sure if 5 pairs of skis is too much really but the only pair I could realistically get rid of are my Head Supershapes but I can’t sell those as they are the skis that helped me change my life to where I am now, so they will be going on a wall or in a sentimental corner at some point.

Bring on the snow so I can change the tracksuit for a ski suit. 3-months and counting.

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What do you do in summer? – an open letter to Misplaced Person

Dear Christa

Loved your last blog entry, goading the collective ski related bloggers for their inactivity.

Since I regard the 7 months of summer as little more than an extended wait until the 5 months of the year here when everything is covered in snow (except last year of course), I just couldn’t bring myself to write about the trivialities of my existence when it’s not ski season.

Also, being an capitalist at heart, I don’t usually write unless I’m getting paid for it, hence the ski related topics of my efforts this season. That said, I often trawl the other blogs that I find amusing/racy and am also disappointed by the lack of activity.

Since you asked though, here’s a rough list in no particular order of all the stuff that I’ve been up to since the snow went;

1. Coaching football

Now my main job in the months from late April until December. Somehow, I’ve become a football coach working for a company that does after school football and summer camps. Compared to ski teaching, it’s much more difficult due to the lack of ‘dead time’ that you don’t have. By dead time, I mean time on lifts, time chatting theory, time spent skiing from one place to another. With the footy coaching, it’s full on and the summer camps in particular have been pretty draining, especially in 35 degree heat. Frankly, the last thing I want to do after getting home from coaching is write and normally I detour to the pub – see point 4 below.

2. VTTing

I admit to twice having been mountain biking and I still don’t get the attraction. Perhaps it’s because like any sane and normal person, as soon as I got a car when I was 17, I sold my bike and never looked back. I actually used to race VTT’s when I was younger and I know I’ve still got all the old skillz BUT, it just looks like a money pit and potential injury minefield to me and I’d rather spend time on point 4 below. The first time I went, we went to Les Gets and did a load of downhill stuff which I admit, was rather fun. I then stupidly got all excited and signed up for something called the PassPortes du Soleil, which is essentially 70kms of uphill biking round France and Switzerland, cleverly marketed as riding round France only going downhill. Never again and if you are reading this and thinking of doing it, consider yourself warned.

this VTT for the PassPortes - knife to a gunfight mate

3. Playing Vets football

And I don’t mean playing football with M. Jacob the vet from Abondance, I mean a bunch of 35-years + French ski instructors, Butchers and Pompiers running about on a Friday night and generally thrashing the pants off other local sides like Morzine, Brevon and other obscure towns you’ve never heard of. The great bit about Friday night football is that it’s played on better facilities than I’ve ever played on in my life (for some reason Chatel has an unused UEFA B standard floodlit pitch) and the whole game is played in French. There are a couple of other English chaps that play (well, actually 2 are from Yorkshire) and we seem to be working our way into the team on merit, with myself falling back to my old favourite role of number 5, generally kicking strikers and cheating, with the others bossing midfield and creating numerous chances up front. For the team, it’s also quite social and everyone goes to eat together afterwards and sink a load of beers (see point 4 below).

4. Drinking (& BBQ’s)

Now we’re talking. Pretty much since the tourists left at the end of April, there has been a lot of drinking going on and in many ways, I’m a little bit over the remorseless drinking culture that has permeated the summer over the course of the various village fetes, happy cow competitions, birthdays and god knows whatever else we have celebrated this summer. The lack of work at this time of year leads to many of the usual suspects (of which I count myself) constantly in a state of, or topping up last nights drunkenness . This said, in many ways, there is little else to do so you’ve got to be a little disciplined and me working summer camps this year has meant that I’m out of town for 4 days of the week which leaves me the weekends to either go do something different or watch the test matches in the Avalanche and get pissed. A pleasing development though was the Chalet that some friends are renting just by the river which has a most excellent garden, river fridge and oil barrel BBQ, meaning a whole new (and cheaper) way to get wasted.

river fridge - surprisingly effective

5. Pitch and Put golf

A interesting development this one, given the presence in the village of a European Tour caddy that plays a little bit, as I did when I was young. Ever since we found out that the course record for the Golf de Loy (6 holes – par 18) is 17, old man Chris and myself have been hammering the golf looking for a new record. We are not helped by appallingly kept greens and a fiendish 5th hold which is only 30-yards long. It completely proves my point though that regular golf is at least 12 holes too long.

some big numbers on this card

6. Ibiza

The less said about this the better but I went to Ibiza with the Essex boys for 4 days and destroyed myself to the point that it took me 3 full weeks for my digestive system, sense of smell, cuts and bruises to recover fully. I’ve been on boys holidays before but this one was so far off the scale of what was normal and so hedonistic that it will be interesting to see exactly how much larger we can have it next year when it’s actually a stag do and not just practice. It was wonderful though to get back to the home of dance music and actually hear some proper stuff in its proper setting.

the only photo that made it back from IBZ

7. Cricket

They play cricket in Switzerland just so you know. There’s actually a league and everything, so much so that I had to get my cricket bag sent out here. Swiss cricket is heavily Asian influenced so there is limited room for a Chris Tavaré type player like me here. Most of the time, the Indian and Pakistani boys just tee off from ball 1 and I’m getting used to seeing some very big totals to chase. Luckily, I seem to be in the side for my wicket keeping, which for those that know me, will indicate very well the level of one of the best clubs in Switzerland….

8. Boxing

Slightly coupled with number 6 and the gradual realisation that I’m getting on a bit, last week I started at the local boxing club here in Chatel. Not quite sure what my aims are for this, other than getting slightly fitter and learning something new but if it means that I’m more confident getting my shirt off in Ibiza next year then it would have served its purpose. (we all know that ski instructing doesn’t keep you fit)

9. Summer skiing

The skiing you know about from other blog entries but this may drop off a little now that I’ve had to cancel my ISIA exams in November to accommodate football coaching work. The massive benefit of summer skiing being so close is that if you can be bothered to drive the 1h45m it takes to get there, you can have a great time and feel like you are in another world, if only for a day. I’m actually going there tonight. (see point 4 above)


So there you go Christa, that’s what I’ve been up to (unless you want to hear about how amazing my new Kindle is and my brother's wedding). Told you it wasn’t very interesting but I consider myself chastened and I will attempt to blog more, if only to keep you from slitting your wrists about your various cat related troubles..

Yours in blogging

Dave xxx

Chatel, August 2011

More summer skiing...

Another week off of football summer camps, means that I’ve been up in Saas-Fee again this week for another 3-days of skiing and training.

wish you were here..

The conditions have been great this week and apparently my timing is excellent as it was raining all last week. However, temperatures have dropped and the sun has come out, making for bulletproof pistes in the morning which hold up well until lunchtime. In fact yesterday, the pistes were still hard and great for carving turns all the way until the close at 1pm.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve got to practice the stuff that I’m rubbish at which means I’ve got to spend time in the moguls which here in Saas, means zip and rut lines that you have to fight to stay in, rather than picking from different lines.

Last year on my level 2 exams, this was the thing I found the hardest and although I’m better at it now, I’m still struggling. Perhaps it’s the choice of skis, as I only brought with me my super stiff GS skis which although I am learning to love them, they aren’t exactly ideal for quick short turns in the bumps. That said, I’ve had a couple of real breakthroughs in terms of technique in the last 3-days and I feel really good about my skiing today.

Of course, with the glacier only open until 1pm, there is plenty of opportunity to do other things and in the times that I’ve been here, I’ve hiked up mountains, had my butt kicked at tennis and played beach volleyball and golf (real and mini).

The curious thing about Tennis at 1800m is that the ball flies further than if you were at sea level so you have to adjust your game accordingly. This said, the fact that the village is so high up also means that you’re getting fitter without knowing it too…

online here - http://maddogski.com/eatsleepski/saas-fee-summer-skiing-0

Back in Saas.

So I’m back and so is the ski season. The summer ski season that is. This summer, I’m going to be making regular trips up to Saas Fee to prepare myself for my BASI Level 3 exams in Zermatt in November.

Atomic SL's - Surprisingly good in the pow :))

The technical level of skiing for this is a lot higher than the Level 2, so I need to be ready and a one week pre-course warm up in Zermatt just won’t cut it as far as preparation is concerned.

It’s been really cool being back in Saas Fee. This time last year, I spent 9-weeks one a gap course with the Warren Smith Ski Academy in Saas Fee which lead me to my current life of teaching skiing in the winter and teaching football in the summer. Being back in the toytown village of Saas with the electric cars and familiar faces from last summer has been great.

The journey up to the summer skiing on the glacier takes about 45-minutes, 2 cable cars and a funicular train before you emerge at 3800m gasping for breath. There are about 40kms of piste to rip and a great park with masses of kickers, rails and a pipe to keep the park rats happy. The Glacier opens at 7am (!) and finishes at 1pm when it gets super slushy so it means plenty of early starts.

I’m here working on the technical elements of skiing, things like refining short turns and making them more dynamic, as well as hammering long turns and bumps. One of my coaches from last year, Scouse, had a look at my skiing and kindly mentioned that it had improved massively after a winter of skiing which is reassuring and has given me extra confidence that I’m heading in the right direction.

A happy benefit of having been here before is that I’ve been able to stay at a friend’s place here in Saas. The friend in question is Maria Ramberger, Austria’s top ranked SnowboardCross racer who is also here training for the whole summer. It’s been great catching lifts and catching up with her and generally blasting around Saas glacier at high speed. She also cooks a decent pasta.

It’s been a refreshing few days here, almost like a mini holiday and it’s been great to be on skis again. That said, I’m a complete convert to summers in Chatel, which I never expected. I was expecting summer in the Alps to be one long wait for winter but in many ways, the scenery, the sunsets and barbeques are even better than the skiing and drinking of winter. With summer skiing less than 2-hours away it seems I’ve got the best of both worlds.


Online here at Mad Dog Ski.

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Why don't tourists ski 'good' skis?

For a little while now, I’ve always wondered why tourists ski the skis that they do. The majority of them go into the hire shop and get given whatever the ski tech recommends and even the better level recreational skiers end up on something that is a compromise for the piste, which let’s face it, is where the majority of skiing is done for the average skier.

Set up and ready to go

I’ve been banging on to anyone who will listen that what some of these better skiers need to really enhance their week on the slopes is a proper performance ski like a top level slalom or GS ski. Most people I talk to about this, mainly other instructors or ski techs, all tell me the same thing – recreation skiers wouldn’t be able to handle them, which is why they don’t ski on them and why hire shops don’t stock them.

To put this to the test, we went to Snowline in Morgins and grabbed 3 sets of slalom skis from the rack, (Snowline being one of the rare hire shops that actually hold a stock of high end skis) and headed up the hill at Morgins in the Portes Du Soleil.

The testers for the day were Rich Walker, Ross Jackson and myself, all ski instructors with the Morgins Ski and Snowboard School. None of us had actually skied a full on slalom ski before because normally when we are teaching, you need a fairly soft ski and depending on if you are teaching beginners or not, perhaps a twin tip so you can go backwards more easily. Rich skis a Head Peak 78 for everyday use and Ross uses a Salomon Tornado x-Wing. I switched all season between some Head Supershape Magnums and an old pair of Salomon 1080’s.

To be honest, conditions weren’t great for testing skis, it was snowing and there was a small covering of fresh snow on top of end of season slush. It was pretty wet and cold but being the professionals we are with a rare day off and some new toys to play with, we got on with the job in hand.

The skis we tested were the Elan SL Waveflex World Cup, the Head iSL and the Atomic SL D2 – all in 165cm length. The radius on the skis varied from 11.4m to about 12, so in theory, they were all pretty similar, all we had to do was ski them to find out how they went and for me certainly, put my theory to the test and try to feel if a recreational skier could ski them.

Once we started, there were a few apprehensive turns from the testing team which then progressively became more aggressive and shorter in turn shape. After that, the whooping started as the team felt the angles and turn shapes that this collection of amazing skis could create. It’s a bit of a cliché but it really did feel like being on rails, these type of skis are not interested in skidding turns, just carving them and many times, it felt like just being along for the ride.

On the second or third run down the backside of Morgins, Ross, who was skiing the Atomics, got flipped in the same style as you see on the TV when guys get high-sided from Moto GP bikes. I was watching from below and it looked like he loaded up the tails of the skis too much and got flipped over the top. It was enough to make Rich and myself slightly apprehensive when it was our turn to ride the Atomics. Once, he’d dusted himself off, Ross compared the difference between what we normally ski and the slalom skis like the difference between driving a VW Golf and a Ferrari (when he has ever driven a Ferrari I don’t know – or a Golf for that matter.)

There was snow.  Just not in this picture.

Once we had ridden all of the skis on the same routes, we sat down with a hot chocolate to discuss our thoughts and answer a few questions from me. Here is the feedback on each of the skis;

Head iSL

In general, everyone thought that this was a ski that they could ski every day because it was the softest of the three. Everyone who skied it really liked it but it felt a little like a compromise because it was so easy to ski. Surprising, given Head’s dominance on the racing scene. Everyone rated it third for stiffness but I end up skiing it back down the hill and started to like it more the more I skied it. The iSL rated second and first amongst the team for smoothness and it was easy to vary the turn shape for short or long turns and they were good in the bumps.

All in all, a good ski but felt a little soft for what was supposed to be a full on SL ski but crucially, one that perhaps an advanced recreational skier might be able to handle and even have fun on. I expect there are degrees of Head iSL with the stiffer versions only making it to racers and sponsored pros.

Elan Waveflex SL World Cup

Personally, my least favourite of the group but I think this was the ski being too good for me than the other way round. The Elan was the only ski in the group that was (in the words of Rolf – Snowline boss) ‘a proper World Cup Ski’. It certainly felt like it when I got to use it first. For some reason, I couldn’t get it to turn into turns properly and felt like I had to force it to turn more, but I quickly understood that this was because I wasn’t physically good enough to bend the ski to make it do what I wanted it to do.

This feedback was also reflected by Rich and Ross who rated it first for stiffness and said that it only felt like it would turn in mid-turn. Where the Elan was a winner was on edge grip where everyone rated it as a winner with Rich saying it was ‘solid and grippy’. In fact, after the test, Rich continued to ski the Elan so I guess he was more comfortable on it than anyone.

In summary, probably the best ski here but so good that even relatively advanced skiers struggle to find out what it can offer.

Atomic D2 SL

Everyone’s favourite of the test and I liked it so much that the next day I bought the pair we tested here. A great ski that offered a combination of the characteristics found on the other two skis. As mentioned before, the carbon plate that runs along the top of the ski making the ‘twin deck’ seems to eliminate all of the chatter that you sometimes get back through the ski and makes for a smooth ride and amazing edge hold.

Both Ross and Rich said this was a ski that they could use every day but when you really wanted to crank things up a notch, they offered great control, grip and they were FAST. Pointing them anywhere near straight down the hill, they just took off. They rated second from the testers for stiffness and top for smoothness. I had a chance to ski them since both on a BASI Alpine coaching course and recreationally and they really are a revelation. Long turns and high speeds are handled with ease and short turns are like being in a centrifuge.

Summary

I asked the question, ‘could you recommend these to a recreational skier?’ and the answer from Rich and Ross was the same. ‘Very advanced and/or expert recreational skiers only’. We tried to look at this from the perspective of a recreational skier but a lot of the time, we were having so much fun on these amazing skis that it was difficult to remain focused.

Be warned though, these skis leave you tired. They ask for more input from you and because they are shorter and quicker to react, they demand that you are more balanced and athletic in your skiing. I wouldn’t want to ski them back down the mountain after a two hour boozy lunch in a mountain restaurant.

As a whole, the skis were much more responsive and were challenging to us and our ski ability. Rich said that he felt you had to be ‘on it’ all the time with these skis and that it would be difficult to have a hangover day or a lazy day leaning back on these that you can get away with on softer skis. We all agreed that you could you use the Head’s every day and perhaps the Atomics if you didn’t want the risk of ski school clients running over the aggressive graphics.

Incidentally, I had the chance to try out my theory of good recreational skiers skiing good skis when my ‘project’ for the season Lightning Bob and I went skiing near the end of the season. Bob is a ski tech and a fairly decent skier (especially after all of the free tuition he’s had from me) and we swapped skis on a busy Easter day in April.

Bob loved them and is now a convert to what I would call ‘proper skis’ after an hour on the Atomics. Up until then, he was taking different skis from the rack in the shop every time he went out. I could see when I was following him that he wasn’t skiing the Atomics to their full potential by any means but he was having loads of fun and the grin on his face was enough for me to know that he had seen the light.


Many thanks to the Snowline shop in Morgins for the skis for the morning and to Rich and Ross for giving up their time to test.