Caught myself staring again !?!

How many times have you been caught staring at something, well, how do I say this, that’s gorgeous and beautiful beyond measure? I’d wager that it’s been quite a few times. But is it sad when you suddenly catch yourself doing it, or is it just human nature? No, Méribel hasn’t been invaded by super models, I’m talking about the scenery. I had a spare few mornings recently, after being terminated by some Russians (more on that later), and decided to celebrate where I live and work each winter.

I chose to go for a gentle ski by myself on Sunday, with Canon of course, in the stunning weather that we’ve been having for ages. I stared, ogled, admired, and constantly rubbernecked without limits, I felt very spoilt. Now I know I bang on about the views here constantly, and probably will do more in the future, but hey, what a place to be. Plus I also know that one of the reasons for some of you coming on a skiing holiday is to see the mountain views.

Anyway, before I send you all to sleep with my Hippy tree hugging outlook, please meet Vladimir and Sasha who I first met and taught last winter.

It’s not unusual for this Méribel private ski instructor to travel round to Courchevel 1850. In fact it’s a nice change, because guess what, I can rubberneck at the views to my hearts content whilst driving over !?! Sasha is a very strong skier at the age of fourteen, who adores skiing anything steep, with bumps and preferably off piste in search of powder. His father, Vladimir, likes to ski with his son and enjoys the challenge of improving his performance to enable him to stay with Sasha, and in one piece.

We concentrated on the different techniques required for skiing off piste, on piste, skiing in powder, through a bumps field and down steep pitches. The different options available for steering our skis were also discussed. The weather has been spectacular, but we also had a few days of strong foehn and lombard winds which affected us a little. As you can see here, it was a tad blowy which made seeing the piste a challenge sometimes.

Half way through the ten day booking, Vladimir told me that he bumped into one of his friends from Moscow (a billionaire using Vladimir’s own description) in Courchevel who was also a very keen and motivated skier. Igor (no I promise I’m not making up these names) has a passion for heli-skiing, and had organised to make several trips over to Italy with his own guide, and swiftly invited Sasha to go along as well. This meant their booking with me was suddenly terminated, I was no longer needed, sacked if you like, even demoted, or how about fired !?! Without dwelling for too long, this was when my recent bout of ‘staring’ went off the rails again, just like a heavy drinker reaching for the hard stuff.

At least staring at the scenery is an acceptable vice in society isn’t it? Well that’s what I keep telling myself.

I hope you are all enjoying the amazing spring weather in the UK at the moment, just like we are here. Please don’t worry if you are coming out on a skiing holiday over the Easter break, there’s still plenty of snow about.

Martin

P.S. I started instructing a beginner group lesson yesterday with some lovely people. It seems I’m not the only one who stares at views after all, phew, you should see them.        

Off Piste Awareness

Immerse yourself in the photo above. You are looking down into the Vallon du Saut, deep in the Vanoise National Park, from the Col du Mont Vallon. The air is fresh and chilled; the snow light and powdery. There isn’t a sound to be heard, which is eerie because two snow shoers are looking up, next to the partly-buried shepherds hut in the bottom right corner. This is where John, Gilly and I found ourselves on the last day of their weeks holiday recently. We paused, looked around, and then floated off down through the fluffy powder.

 

As mentioned on my previous post, it’s very special being able to work and share these experiences in this environment. It was John and Gilly’s first real backcountry expedition, what I mean by that is skiing miles away out of sight of pistes and lifts.

 

I’ve a sneaky feeling that they have been hooked by the solitude and the wilderness that I myself fell in love with, many years ago. It’s very difficult to describe this feeling to normal piste skiers, let alone non- skiers. But you see, you don’t just suddenly throw yourself into these situations; it would be way too dangerous. We had been building up to this moment for all of the week.

 

Each day we had been working on the psychological and technical skills required for venturing further afield. Although I had taken John into this terrain a couple of times, down some couloirs, I wanted to introduce Gilly to these same very steep and narrow off-piste challenges. In the end all three of us together skied loads of couloirs, which will remain nameless, where we developed the psychological and technical skills at the same time as enjoying the buzz. I won’t even begin to name the couloirs because it will make us sound like we were showing off and bragging about it. Plus I didn’t take any photos either because to be honest it was all gnarly enough without me getting Canon out of my backpack.

A very important aspect of skiing off-piste is starting to be more responsible for your own and each others safety. This includes being more aware of the avalanche risk, looking for clues of any other dangers, and carrying off-piste safety kit and knowing how to use it.

 

The photo above shows Gilly using her ‘beeps’ and searching for a buried victim, don’t worry not a real person. A beep (also known as an avalanche beacon, or an Arva, or pieps) is a device that is attached to your body and transmits a signal. In the event of someone getting caught and buried in an avalanche slide, other members of the skiing party switch their beeps from transmit to receive. This should allow the searching party to locate the transmitting beeps, ie the buried victim. Once located, the casualty will need to be dug out by using a shovel, another important part of the avalanche safety kit that should always be carried. But of course, this all needs to be done as quickly as possible to give the buried victim as much chance of survival. This means practice, and practice, and practice.

 

One morning we skied to the top of a very attractive-looking couloir over in Courchevel, loaded with fresh powder snow. John and Gilly were licking their lips in anticipation. But instead of us all bouncing down, I decided to turn John’s descent into a beeps searching exercise. Gilly and I skied into the couloir and enjoyed the fresh powder, then we buried a spare beeps in a bag out of sight from John.

 

John did really well with his first real life scenario, and found the buried beeps. Without disclosing his timings, he was surprised to hear how long it took to locate and dig out the ‘victim’. Every second counts in this situation. With John and Gilly now being well equipped, and practised in using this equipment, it completely enabled us to venture further afield out into the backcountry. So with another small dusting of snow just before the end of their week, I felt more than happy to take them deep into the off-piste conditions, knowing that we were all well-equipped, and practised as well. And what an experience it was.

Skiing down into the Vallon du Saut is one of their favourite walks here in the summer months. I suspect that the next time they go for a walk high up in the Vanoise National Park, they will enjoy it even more knowing that they had skied there in lovely powder this winter. ‘Chapeau’ as the French say.

Martin

An Unforgotten Privilege

 

 

I’m not sure what’s going on with me at the moment, because the mountain views here are just constantly stopping me in my tracks. Just look at that view above, taken whilst skiing with John and Gilly last week, mind-blowing. Loads of people ask me if I get used to the views in my office, I’m sure there is an element of that, but boy oh boy not all the time. Earlier this week I returned to England for an amazing short visit, a much needed rest out of ski boots, but also a great excuse to meet up with my wife and her family. I had a great time, but you see the thing is, as my flight got closer to Geneva airport I got more and more excited by seeing the mighty Alps again.

It’s such a privilege to be able to work in this environment every winter, and I’ll never ever take it for granted. Most visitors notice the views and soak up the clean Alpine air. But for every visitor to Méribel, there will be millions of people who never get to experience the Alps for a multitude of reasons. “Where am I going with this post without photos?” I hear you ask. Tomorrow is a Saturday, right? Which means for most people it’s the start of the weekend. But there are a whole load of us, from 7.30am, who will start the epic Coeur Blanc Charity Challenge, see www.coeurblanc.eu . Last month I reported all about the event. Basically the challenge is to use each and every single lift in the Méribel valley in a single day. If all goes according to plan, the team that I’m leading will finish the challenge just before lifts close at the end of the afternoon. No coffee stops, no lunch at tasty restaurants, nothing. If we are lucky we might be able to squeeze in a ‘pee’ stop, time really is that tight. The charity that we are supporting is called SkillForce, if you are able to, and want to, support this charity then please click on this link to contribute, www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CoeurBlancChocolat , every little helps. The target for our team is a massive £50,000.

I think that this challenge is only achievable in decent weather; if it’s poor visibility I personally think it’s a challenge too far. Here’s hoping for great weather, where we will all be burnt to a crisp in the March sun, dehydrated due to lack of drink stops, and our legs will definitely turn to jelly. Tell you what though, it will still be an amazing privilege to be in the mountains. I promise to point this out to every team member during the day as well.

Martin

P.S. Thanks for your understanding for this slightly different post, back to normal next week. I’ve got so much to report on.

UPDATE: Sunday March 18th 17.50 pm.

Here is a Coeur Blanc Challenge update from Hemsley Blog headquarters. Yesterday ‘Team Chocolat’ started their challenge on cue down in Brides Les Bains at 8.30am. On the whole the weather was very kind to us, and we were fighting fit through until mid afternoon when fatigue started to take over. Did we manage to use all of the lifts? Yep, but only JUST. We limply jumped on our final lift, the new Saulire Express, six minutes before it was due to close. It was a very close call, and say it was a long day would be an understatement. No rest for the wicked, I started a ten day booking with a Russian family over in Courchevel this morning, with very very tired legs. Thanks for everyone’s good wishes and contributions. 

Corporate Street

I’m running hopelessly behind on blog posts, so here goes with another one about a corporate booking I was involved with just over a week ago. I’ve been skiing with Captain Chris and his family for many winters now, and he had often said to me that he would love to organise a work trip from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

 

Over the course of last summer he went about ‘Reaching Out’ (here goes with my first phrase of the corporate buzz word bingo) and swiftly moved onto ‘Socialising an Idea’ (I think that means spreading the word, for those not working on Corporate Street!) Captain Chris ‘Got the ball rolling’, booked flights for people and then swiftly welcomed me ‘On board’.

Leading up to the Team bonding weekend, I had to ‘Work closely with management’ (!)……………. STOP………..I can’t cope anymore with this Corporate Catchphrase nonsense, back to normal Hemsley waffle for a bit. In a nutshell, I was assigned to teach four beginners: Vickie, Karen, Sheena and Mark. Whether I’m teaching Accountants, Hairdressers, Bankers, Shopkeepers or Fund Managers, skiing is a complete ‘Level Playing Field’ (!) experience when it comes to learning to ski in Méribel. Surely Accountants are human beings after all aren’t they? At the start of the second morning, one of the team (who shall remain nameless to spare embarrassment in the office), asked me why her clips on her right ski boot didn’t match her left ski boot? I scratched my bald patch a bit, because they looked a matching pair. Just as she was trying to slam this boot into her ski bindings I received a call from Lara who was looking after another small group, “Martin, do you have anyone struggling with their right ski boot?”

Thank goodness for mobile phones, hence being able to re-acquaint the correct right ski boots to their rightful owners. It could have been a long painful day for two skiers, we ended up with a ‘Win Win Situation’ (oh rubbish I’m falling back into Corporate Street). Anyway, being a patient ski instructor I tried to figure out how to adapt my teaching styles to benefit each person, a ‘Blue Sky Thinking’ (here I go again, apparently that means thinking out of the box) approach seemed more appropriate than ‘Boiler Plate’ (I’m losing the will to live again, just go and Google that one if you’re even vaguely interested, because this is getting beyond me now).

One highlight from that weekend for me was watching Mark The Spence build confidence, control and reach the impressive milestone of turning around six ski poles and watching him explode in celebration. I’ve never seen anything like it, the amount of passion that had built up and then suddenly released was quite emotional and humbling at the same time. I don’t care if most skiers can’t relate to this achievement anymore, trust me, it really is a big deal. Mark quickly went ‘From Hero to Zero (boooom, that’s the first corporate buzz word I actually understand). Great effort Mark.

It was a fun three day weekend for Captain Chris and his Team, and a truly enjoyable experience for me. I so hope that everyone has now been converted to this amazing sport in the paradise of the French Alps. This private ski instructor almost feels as though he has learnt a new foreign language as well, let’s ‘Roll It Out Globally’ (that one is completely lost on me yet again). Oh hang on, who’s this steaming down the nursery slope? Oh look it’s smiling Sheena.

“Hey Sheena, how is your right foot feeling now you’ve got your own boot back?”

Martin          

Cannonball

Last week I was back to my usual private ski lessons here in Méribel, with a splendid mix of people. I skied with Guy (pictured above) and Kelly, both from London and owning separate hair dressing businesses. They had skied several times before, but had never really taken the opportunity of receiving individual tuition. But something recently had disturbed them so much so that they decided to book ‘yours truly’. After meeting them at the start of their first lesson, and with further investigation, it soon became apparent what was needed to help them achieve their goals. They were both able to make their way around the mountain, but had no idea what they should be doing on skis and how to go about improving their performance.

 

Off to work we went; explaining the importance of being balanced on their skis, finding and staying on the sweet spot of the ski, and ensuring effective and energy efficient steering (i.e. turning). It was amazing to hear their feedback on what they were feeling, and incredibly satisfying to hear them say that they didn’t realise how simple and straightforward skiing could be. The other thing I loved about my time with Guy and Kelly, they were both such good company. The number of subjects we spoke about, and laughs we shared, was never-ending. We also found a new nickname for Guy, Cannonball. Can’t think why?

 

I also had the pleasure of skiing with Cassie for five mornings. Cassie’s partner has been skiing for thirty plus years, and Cassie had skied for….. approximately a couple of hours at an indoor snow slope the day before flying out to Méribel. So effectively, a complete novice.

 

Now the thing is, some of us completely forget about the emotions that people go through when they first arrive in the high mountains. Cassie and Richard arrived in the dark of night, the evening before I met them. So when Cassie and I went up on her first bubble ride, you should’ve heard her gasp at the beauty of the mountains in front of her! We started patiently on the nursery piste, building skills and confidence. Richard kept checking on our progress, hoping against hope that Cassie would fall in love with the sport of skiing as much as he had. We gradually progressed onto a green piste. But all the time she kept saying with emotion ‘Wow, look at that!’

 

This could either mean looking at the view in front of us, or the ability of someone skiing past us. It didn’t matter, she was just blown away by the whole experience. ‘Hey Cassie, do you think you are hooked yet by the sport of skiing?’

 

I’ll take that smile as a ‘YES’ then. Now don’t get me wrong, every morning on the way down to Chaudanne to collect my skis and boots I think how lucky I am to work in such an amazing office. Every day I get to glance across to the other side of the mountain and think ‘Wow, that’s not a bad view today’. But to hear someone else think and say the same thoughts, with such passion, is quite sobering.

My workload has continued at a crazy pace since meeting Guy, Kelly and Cassie last week. I’ve got loads to report on, and am running out of time. Last weekend I had a three day corporate booking, which was a fascinating eye opener. And since Monday I’ve been skiing with John and Gilly. But then this Sunday coming, I fly back to the UK for a short break to catch up with my wife and her family, can’t wait. But before I disappear again from cyberspace for a while, let me leave you with another beginner skier that I’ve enjoyed the company of, amongst others……… will report again soon. Live with passion.

Martin

Community Service – Part two

I hadn’t planned talking about another Community Service, but I wanted to share last week's experience with you all. This time the route was slightly different, i.e. starting right at the top of the Olympic ladies downhill run on the ridge of the ‘Face’ black piste, then continuing all the way down to Les Allues. With the endless streak of gorgeous weather continuing, a stunning sky was expected. We had a chunk of time to kill between the end of work and when we were due to check in for our twilight chairlift rides, so I took the opportunity to catch up with colleagues in one of the local bars.

 

But you know what it’s like, when enjoying a drink - time whizzed by, and before you know it you end up running late. Apologies to the shocked looking holiday-makers as some of us raced out of the bar in a panic, in our ski boots, sprinting across to catch the 6.15pm registration for Community Service. We went from a crazy mad few minutes, to absolute serenity once on the chairlift. The above photo is of my friend and Méribel Ski Instructor colleague, Ian Saunders, on the Olympic Express chairlift enjoying the peace of the mountains. When we got to the top, still hiccupping, we were all treated to an amazing spectacle.

 

As some of you know, I love a good sunset, and boy oh boy was it another good sunset? One of the many things that attract ski instructors back to mountains every winter is being able to work in this incredible office.

 

So to be able to share this moment with friends and colleagues after a long day at work was another lovely moment. No rest for the wicked though, we were soon ordered to head off over the abyss, yep, skiing down one of Méribel’s steepest black pistes in the dark.

 

I can’t tell you how ‘interesting’ it was bouncing over huge moguls without seeing them. Oh and another issue to deal with, my hiccups from the team bonding beer earlier! Let’s put it this way, holding my breath to get rid of them wasn’t an option !?!

Live with passion.

Martin

P.S. I’ve also just finished another brilliant week of private instructing in Méribel, I’ve dealt with a few ‘Cannonballs’ and ‘Oddballs’!