| Skiing off-piste with Guides in Val d'Isere
Copyright � Dennis Summerbell (1995)
[email protected]
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I have no commercial connection with any person or company in this report.
The report was written in good faith but may contain mistakes, these
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Its clear from many past threads on r.s.a. and r.s.r.e that Val d'Isere is
one of the worlds top resorts. Personally (for adequately rational reasons
;-)) I've never been very keen on it. However this year (1997) I've been
forced to change my mind.
For the last three years my wife has organised small chalet parties. Her
group has included a former Canadian Ski patrol member from Lake Louise
(Cairine Logan). Naturally we've wanted to show off to Cairine Alpine
resorts that are famous in North America and so far we've visited St.
Antons, The Trois Vallees and this year (despite my personal prejudice) it
was Val d'Isere. My wife and I normally ski mainly off-piste (see for
example my guide to "Difficult and Off-piste Skiing in the Trois Vallees).
Despite being pretty good skiers (by British standards!) we habitually
like to take the occasional private lesson. Avril McCarthy, a BASI
instructor from Sheffield first suggested to us that if we were going to
Val d'Isere we should take advantage of one of the small specialist ski
schools. This posting results from following her advice.
The 1996-97 brochure for Val d'Isere lists 15 ski schools as well as a
number of privateers. While some of the larger schools (eg ESF, Snow Fun)
provide a more traditional range of activities the smaller ones have
tended to concentrate on specialised niches. Whilst in Val I skied with
or talked to scores of skiers who had used the services of two of these
companies: Top Ski and Alpine Experience. Both are aimed mainly at taking
small groups of good skiers off-piste. I never heard a bad word spoken
against either of them and virtually everyone strongly recommended them. I
skied for 5 days out of my 13 with Alpine Experience and I unreservedly
recommend them.
Alpine Experience is a small co-operative of six instructors. Their staple
is taking small groups (maximum 6) off-piste into deep snow. They act as
guides but while they're guiding they also teach. Every one of them is a
French qualified instructor though several of them also hold certificates
from other countries, Chris Souillac for example, though native French
also holds Austrian qualifications. While each of them has their own
characteristic style they have developed a consensus teaching method so
that one can move from one instructor to another without receiving
confusing or contradictory advice. I should also mention at this point
that they all have excellent English. I always think that its very
important to be taught by someone who can express well the nuances of
language because really skilful skiing requires subtlety as well as brute
strength. Each has different skills and strengths and part of the fun is
being able to ski with different members of the company. I skied with four
of them and had the opportunity to watch the other two in action. I
learned from all of them, for example: Wayne Watson (a Canadian from Lake
Louise) is possibly the prettiest skier I've ever seen. He's also the one
most interested in the basics of technique. He's the person you want to
book for a private lesson for sorting out those little technical problems.
He's also familiar to many Brits as he writes a regular column for one of
our ski magazines. TeeJay (T.J. Baird, originally from Australia) is the
man you want to ski with if you want to learn about snow. He'll teach you
how to recognise the best snow, to know why its no good today, but also
why the same snow be worth trying tomorrow. My own favourite was Pietro
Barrigazzi (originally from Italy). Like Jean-Marc Pic and Olivier Carrere
he's a fully qualified Mountain Guide as well as an instructor. I
particularly liked the way we could discuss where the party might go
rather than it being a case of "I'll lead, you follow" However I'd
recommend any of the six and next time I go to Val I'll want to spend time
with each of them. In any case it pays to be flexible because they try
very hard to make up compatible parties that will enjoy skiing together.
The off-piste groups start with parties suitable for any competent piste
skier wishing to sample deep snow for the first time and go right up to
trips suitable for top experts. As I said at the start, I consider myself
pretty good for a Brit (read my 3-V guide and make your own judgement).
But several of the other clients were clearly better skiers than me
(Duncan and Jumbo in particular come to mind). In fact the best clients
were at least as good as many instructors I've encountered, but they still
use Alpine Experience, partly to benefit from local knowledge, but also to
take advantage of the added safety factor of making up a strong party.
One of the most impressive features of Alpine is how well they work
together. I was particularly impressed by the way they co-operated both in
planning and on the mountain. In the evening prior to deciding on a tricky
route for the morning they'll discuss possibilities with clients, download
the latest weather forecast, consult with each other and then make a
decision on the trip. On the mountain the more basic groups tend to head
for the same general area, once they get there the advantages are obvious.
They exchange information with each other by radio so that the weaker
groups benefit from the experience of the class thats just skied a
particular slope. In the event of there being a significant emergency this
system would no doubt much facilitate the rescue process.
Now just a few details. Alpine's mainstay is the four hour off-piste class
with a maximum of six students (260FF each with a reduction if you book 5
or more trips). If your lucky enough to book in a group and turn out to be
the only taker, the lesson goes ahead (you effectively get a one-on-one 4
hour private lesson). If for any reason you need to cancel a booking
there�s no fee �You pay for what you get�. In practice, at least providing
you�ve got a respectable address, you pay retrospectively, they prefer
payment in cash. They provide avalanch transceivers within the price and
will arrange hire of other requirements for a particular trip (taxis, wide
skis if preferred, lifting heal bindings and skins etc) at your expense.
In fact my best trip with them was my first trip using a lifting heel and
skins (a modest 300m climb to reach an untracked glacier snow field 11
days after the last snow). In practice 4 hours means 4 hours. We met at
08:45 and were on the first lift up the mountain at 09:00. We often had to
race down the last stage to make the pre-arranged restaurant only a few
minutes late for the 13:00 stop time. Usually they try to have an agreed
lunch restaurant so that its usually possible to meet up with someone for
the afternoon. They also do two hour �technique� classes in the afternoon.
I think that they�ll do these for any standard of skier on-piste. So if
you have a friend or spouse stuck in a "normal" ski school class with 16
other beginners it might be worth checking if Alpine are running an easy
class that week. (I met beginners with that class size in some of the
other schools.) The afternoon fee is 150FF. They also do a few specials,
for example I know that Pietro was running an afternoon telemarking class
during my second week. Alpine have an office in the evenings at Jean Sport
which is on the main street 150 meters in the direction of Le Fornet from
the Main (Tourist Office) Square on the South (Church) side of the road.
(While I was there they had an arrangement for a 10% discount for clients
purchases and rentals at Jean Sport.) They can be contacted at Tel: (0)4
79 06 28 81; Fax: (0)4 79 06 15 27. In peak season its safest to book in
advance. They are constructing a Web page but as far as I�m aware its not
ready yet.
One final bonus: if in the end things do not go according to plan Pietro�s
wife (Sue Reed) is one of Val d�Isere�s best known physiotherapists.
While I used and recommend Alpine I should make it clear that I skied and
talked with numerous skiers who were equally enthusiastic about Top Ski.
Indeed many of them regularly skied with both: on some occasions choosing
one because it was organising a particular trip (eg a helicopter drop in
Italy); or sometimes simply because the other one was heavily booked that
day and didn�t have a suitable vacancy. (I never saw them break the 6
person rule except when a single party had booked the guide.)
Historical Note: Anyone who�s been skiing as long as me will remember that
almost all Alpine ski resorts used to have a one company monopoly
teaching. In France usually the ESF. Back in 1976 Patrick and Jean Zimmer
broke away from the ESF and attempted to form Top Ski. Because of
resistance to this move they had to fight to survive in the courts.
Eventually they won. The victory paved the way for competing ski schools
throughout the European Union and has transformed ski teaching, nowhere
more so than in Val d�Isere.
Dr D. Summerbell, NIMR, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA.
email: [email protected]
Tel: +181 959 3666 X2366
Fax: +181 913 8527
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