Yesteryear, but yet today!

 

Many years ago as a holiday maker, before I dreamt about becoming a ski instructor, I was lucky enough to travel the world following my passion as a skier. I loved so many things that all alpine countries offer. But ultimately I began to choose my favourite ski resorts, and continued to re-visit them as often as I could.

 

I bet you can’t guess which ski resort featured highly in my list? Yep, Méribel of course. However a noisy neighbour, Val d’Isere, was a close second on my list, only one and a half hours away on snow-free roads, not that we’ve had much of that this winter. It was almost a flip of a coin that decided on where I ‘ended up’ living and working each winter. Méribel won the toss, and certainly no regrets, so Val d’Isere was soon forgotten about. But was it? Everyone goes through the 'grass is always greener' thing, yours truly isn’t any different. So when the chance came along recently to work over in Val, I jumped at it with ridiculous energy.

 

Val d’Isere was where I launched myself as a holiday maker into having focussed private lessons twenty years ago, along with dabbling in the then new off-piste environment. A group of high mountain guides called Alpine Experience looked after me, notably a lovely chap called Wayne Watson. This background massively helped my start into becoming a ski instructor. Fast forward twenty years….Each morning last week my colleagues Slippers Jackson, Bryan and Dave would meet for a hearty coffee before starting work in a cafe called La Gourmandine. More on that later.

 

One of my groups was a very strong standard of skiers concentrating on ‘All Mountain Performance’ at a high level of red/black pistes and beyond. So with the conditions that we have had this winter, steep black bumpy pistes and off-piste was the main focus. My memory bank of the terrain still existed from many years ago, plus feedback from fellow professionals. Also more on that later.

 

It was a dream come true, many years ago I was being guided around by respected instructors and high mountains guides. Only this time, after years of training and numerous strict exams, it was my turn to show the sheer and utter beauty that the finest of the French Alps could offer. For some of the week we were very lucky to experience amazing skiing conditions in low avalanche conditions.

 

Some of the Val d’Isere off-piste classics were covered: the Vallon de Cugnai, the Tour du Charvet, the Vallon Perdu and the legendry Mattis trees. I won’t even list the epic pistes covered by Nick, Nicki, Sally, Chris, Mark and Mairead. It was an incredible week where I was able to share my love of off-piste to those who hadn’t previously dared give it a go, and what a buzz to see their enjoyment.

 

I know I’ve been guilty with banging on in the past about having the best job in the world. But to be able to go full circle as a client many years ago, to then being able to show, and share, the love with like-minded people is something else. Please don’t think that I’ve suddenly become an off-piste junky. I also had a brilliant group of blue and red piste skiers, I’ll never forget the same emotions experienced with Janet, Sue, Lee and Carole.

 

Since leaving Val d’Isere, from one extreme to the other, I’ve been with the green piste skiing Dublin ‘Gooney Birds’ in Méribel who have featured on this blog a few times before. Once I’ve recovered from their visit, I’ll report back…..

Martin

P.S. I’m one of many instructors who love a strong French coffee in the morning. Each morning last week in Val d’Isere, I’d meet with Slippers and the others for our early morning chat. Every day I’d spot Wayne Watson in La Gourmadine for coffee, but chickened out of talking to him, stupid really because he is such a legend. Wayne has had such an influence on me in the past. However one of his colleagues at Alpine Experience that we spoke to most mornings about snow and safety conditions was Henry of ‘Henry’s Avalanche Talks’ who you may have heard of on the local radio here in Méribel. He was a lovely relaxed chap readily happy to share knowledge. What a week!.

P.P.S. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Val d’Isere last week, awesome skiing conditions and experiences. But boy oh boy the weather conditions we had on our last day was some of the most brutal, nastiest and evil I’ve ever had the pleasure of !?! However myself, Chris, Mark, Mairead and Sally still managed to get a positive day. The shelter of La Daille forest just kept us sane, before the authorities closed the mountain. No photos I’m afraid, frostbite would’ve taken hold….

Me, Me, Me……part 1

 

Just over a week ago I had an amazing experience, skiing with a highly respected professional photographer, Polly Baldwin of Dynamic Pictures. As a Christmas present, my wife had organised for me to have a session with Polly.

 

Polly for many years has been working very hard building a reputation in the UK, the French Alps and around the world as a passionate and conscientious photographer. Her academic background resulted in achieving a Ba (Hons) in Fine Art Photography. Her partner is also a ski instructor who I have known for over a decade. Her name had been mentioned to me for many years, but I had always chickened out of contacting her for a few reasons.

 

Time to own up to you all, I don’t have a huge amount of self-esteem about either ski instructing or photography. We are all different; some people like to bang on about themselves, some people are brilliant team players, and others go about their business in their quiet own way. So for me to meet an amazing professional photographer, whose partner is also a ski instructor, was a little intimidating. Being nervous is a natural emotion to some.

But within seconds of meeting up with Polly, I felt relaxed and we were soon chatting away about all sorts of things. To be in the company of someone so relaxed and yet so professional was a lovely experience. But why was I so nervous about meeting Polly?

 

In her line of work she gets to meet many high-end skiers, including skiing with and photographing other instructors. Some of us instructors are paranoid about how we perform on skis, and others just get on with polishing their own egos !?! Got to be honest, I was worried about being compared to other instructors.

 

But Polly soon put me at ease, gave me a wink and told me to go skiing without a care in the world and enjoy myself in one of the most stunning environments in the world. Great advice, and often easily forgotten.

 

It was an unusual situation for me to be in front of a camera; normally it’s the other way round. This tied in nicely with shared experiences as wedding photographers. We soon compared our experiences of wedding photography, with Polly being a veteran of many around the UK. After being involved with nine weddings last summer as a photographer, it was refreshing for me to talk to someone else about the industry and how to improve further. Polly offered me priceless advice, and I can’t wait to put it into practise.

 

Just like any passion, in this case skiing and photography, it was amazing to share it with someone else and I can’t wait to have a second morning with Polly. Speaking of passion, I’ve just come back from a week in Val d’Isere of incredible work and skiing, a report to follow soon. Plus, tomorrow I start six full days with the ‘Gooney Birds’ again from Dublin. No rest for the wicked.

Martin

P.S. As an instructor I hate the way I’m technically skiing in these photos. And even though I’m at my lightest weight in years, it seems I have a pot belly in the photos as well, rubbish. Polly says it’s a feature of skiing in a fat fluffy toasty-warm puffa jacket !?!

P.P.S. All photos are owned under copyright of Polly Baldwin, see www.dynamicpictures.co.uk for details.

Happy Hour

 

Finally we’ve been enjoying some stunning weather, after what felt like weeks and weeks on end of snow storms. Some of my regular readers may remember I’m a sucker for sunset photography. So with the shortest day of the year three weeks ago, my time was running out for realistic attempts. Last winter was my first go at capturing Mont Blanc, and I wasn’t happy with the result with a particular viewpoint I had in mind. But the trouble is, sunset is well after 5pm now here in Méribel, which is also after last lift up the mountain.

 

I was hoping for luck and good fortune, especially because my viewpoint was right next to a Security hut occupied by plenty of pisteurs. It’s their responsibility to close the mountain safely, i.e make sure there’s no-one left up there. But the above shot of Mont Blanc, taken at 16.45pm, just doesn’t cut the mustard colour wise. One by one the pisteurs came across and spoke to me, I explained what I was after, and we all instantly bonded with mutual respect of the love of the mountains. Mind you, I’m sure my red ESF ski instructors uniform helped as well. They all soon whizzed off home after radioing down to their base about me still up on the mountain, and left me stood next to Canon. Within minutes it all got frantic with the colours.

 

This next shot, although a different composition, was taken only 21 minutes later at 17.06pm. Landscape photographers call this period of sunset ‘the happy hour’, you better believe it. What a magical experience all by myself in total silence, granted getting freezing cold, but very special all the same looking across to the highest mountain in the Alps, in the middle of the biggest ski area in the world. I was given strict instructions which piste to ski back down to Méribel, and by what time, in order to avoid the battalion of piste bashers on their way up.

 

Even skiing down during ‘Happy Hour’ was stunning. I stopped again a few times to take it all in. The above viewpoint is looking down the valley with the top of the Olympic chairlift on the left. And then just a few moments later the lighting behind the Saulire peak completely changed.

 

Although compositionally these last two shots are weak, it gives you an idea of the colours experienced during ‘Happy hour’. But you know what? Again I wasn’t happy with the results, I needed another attempt from a much better viewpoint. So Plan B was hatched with the forecast being just as good the next day. This time I headed much higher up, very high in fact, which worried me about any pisteurs generosity about allowing to stay so late on the mountain. I found my spot, off-piste just below a ridge out of sight from any pistes miles above Méribel Mottaret. I set up my equipment, with Canon feeling happy perched on his stable tripod. But then at about 16.55pm, just as ‘Happy Hour’ was starting, I heard a swoosh of snow and a pisteur said hello to me before he spoke in his radio. How the hell did he find me just like that? We started chatting about the view and the colours for photography. He was very excited about our environment, he then continued talking about the full moon earlier on in the day and also how they had spotted a herd of Bouquetin (Ibex) through their network of binoculars. Ah, binoculars, didn’t think about that. Anyway, he wished me luck, then dropped off over the ridge to ski back home off piste!?!

 

So there I was all by myself, getting cold, but happy looking across to the Dents de Burgin and Saulire in the fading light with a much better viewpoint of Mont Blanc behind. Again the speed at which the light transforms is pretty quick. There was only seven minutes difference between the main photo at the top of this post, and this final sunset shot.

 

What a way to spend your time? Although that was a bit of a long chapter on where I live and work, it hasn’t been all play this week. I’ve had the pleasure of skiing with a couple of Russian lads, a Russian mother also a lawyer, and four scuba divers from London.

 

I had a couple of morning sessions with Nick, Jo, Catherine and Leo. We spoke about the benefits of being balanced correctly on our skis, and how to accurately and simply steer our skis. It was a really fun couple of sessions with them, but quite how we got onto doing tricks with our skis I’ll never know.

 

One of the tricks was trying to jump into our skis together at the same time. It’s soo cool when it works, and not when it doesn’t.

 

But Nick seemed to have fun trying with the others in hysterics.

 

They all improved very quickly during the sessions, and benefitted from the amazing weather and snow conditions. It’s a skiers dream at the moment.

 

Also this week I skied with a professional photographer called Polly Baldwin from Dynamic Pictures. My wife’s Christmas present to me was to have a session with Polly, and for me to be in front of a camera lens for once, instead of behind it. More news on that at a later date. On Saturday I head over to Val d’Isere to catch up with friends and colleagues for a week which I’m really looking forward to. Don’t forget to look out for your next ‘Happy Hour’ where ever you are. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Martin

Les Villages

I’ve been skiing with John and Gilly this last week, and to say we’ve had an amazing week would be an understatement. The story of this winter season so far has been regular heavy snowfalls, with this week being no exception. It’s literally snowed every other day.

As soon as we met up last week, it soon became apparent that neither John nor Gilly has had much experience of skiing in the powder. So what a baptism of fire it’s been for them both! We began by speaking about the differences of skiing in the fluffy stuff compared to prepared pistes.

In fact we probably skied just as much off piste than on piste. They had plenty of new experiences as well in terms of skiing new areas. Most of the time skiers tend to head straight up to high altitude to find the best of the snow conditions. But this week we had many more options available to us. Often the weather was so poor (or brilliant, depending on your own stance on heavy snow storms) that meant the best conditions were much lower than normal.

We enjoyed a few off piste routes below the Altiport area. We also skied the piste down to the hamlet of Raffort countless times, not often open or advised below the resort, but it was in amazing condition. We even skied all the way down the piste/itinerary to Méribel Les Allues in lovely deep fresh snow. But one of the highlights of the week for us was to follow the infamous itinerary all the way down to the spa town of Brides Les Bains miles below on the valley floor, which is at a ridiculously low altitude of just 600 metres.

I have only ever skied down there twice before, in all of my fourteen seasons here in Méribel (or should I call it the Méribel Valley now), because it is rare to have snow at such low altitude. But what a treat. We started our off piste descent at Le Blanchot restaurant just below the Altiport piste, and followed the route to the hamlet of Le Plantin which is located on the road between Méribel Village and Courchevel La Tania.

 

We crossed the road, naughtily on skis, and continued down through the massive forest that lines the valley.

There’s something very special about skiing through a snow-laden forest in complete silence away from the busy festive pistes. Words can’t quite do it justice, but we did try as we continued on our way lower down the valley.

Tree-lined track after tree-lined track, shepherd hut after shepherd hut, even the odd cluster of bee hives were negotiated. The occasional hamlet was skied through including Le Villaret and Hauteville, or Sticks Ville as I call it !?! But then finally we reached our destination, way down in the depths of the dark valley at this time of year in Brides.

This trip was one of many highlights of the week. I wasn’t only guiding John and Gilly around some of my favourite areas in snowy weather like this. We worked hard at our ‘performance threads’, took video footage and immediately put into practice  new skills, and visited a few quiet, quaint and secluded gems of mountain restaurants as well.

A couple of afternoons with rare clear weather allowed us to delay our last ski home. We stopped for a final hot chocolate of the day, watching the sun go down on the western mountain horizon. The light at this time of day is just beautiful, often missed by people rushing down the mountain to happy hour offers in town. Whilst watching the light transform the landscape, John, Gilly and I celebrated our success of the day. What a way to finish a day on skis. This view is of the Mont Vallon peak in the final light of the afternoon, taken from the quirky Choucas mountain restaurant just below the mid station of the Saulire bubble.

An epic week, in epic conditions spent with lovely people. Even though I’m a little weary from the festive period, I couldn’t ask for a better life. One of my dream jobs just keeps getting better and better. Happy New Year everybody.

Martin

P.S. Oh, I bet you can’t guess what the weather is doing outside as I tap away on my keyboard? Yep, how did you guess? It’s still dumping down with snow yet again as heavy as ever. What a season this is turning out to be.