ALC News

Here's something special happening this season with ALC in Les Gets and the Portes du Soleil:

We have great news that we can give our clients the opportunity to ski with a top class ex World Cup & British Team member, Alain Baxter.

For those of you who don't know who Alain is, he is our most successful slalom skier in the past few years and only recently retired from competition at the end of last season at the British Champs in Meribel. He also in the last few years has taken part in TV's 'Superstars', winning both the individual and the team titles. Since then he has been involved in BASI working toward the ISTD Level 4 award and has also made the 2011 Interski Congress Team, an event that occurs every 4 years. This time in St Anton, Austria.

Our time with Alain will be brief and occur in early February, so if you fancy the opportunity to ski with Alain in the PDS area then get in touch. Spaces are limited so the people in the session get to spend the whole day skiing in a small group and have lunch in the mountains with Britain's most inspirational skier!

Autumn Roundup

First off went to the BASI AGM in October, where a good turnout of members showed but not a great percentage of the 5000 we have. I got to deliver some on-snow sessions for the members interested in Telemark and also for Snowheads in the evening after the meeting. I really enjoyede the skiing there as I haven't been to Hemel since the 90's when it was a dry slope, so sliding on real snow was a bonus. Got to see loads of old and new faces in and out of BASI and was fortunate enough to get voted onto the Board of Directors as Telemark Director. I think this will be a great challenge for me in the next few years and have lots of plans to take Telemark into a new era! So watch this space!

Also in Les Gets the snow is already falling, albeit just flurries but it definitely feels like winter is around the corner. Who knows, if more of the white stuff falls then maybe the resort will open early!?

Then in early November travelled to Austria on a bus full of mates (playing stupid games all the way for 8 hours: if you had to choose between having antlers or a bushy tail which would you have?) to Hintertux for the Trainers' Conference. Great snow, good fun and with the help of the other Trainers got the plan going of how to move Telemark into a new era. Trying to give Telemark a separate identity to Alpine and the usual misinterpretation that it's 'just alpining with a lunge' that someone (who should know better) was heard to say recently!

Had a great night in the bar at the bottom of the gondola in Hintertux, where the lunatic DJ musician Helmut plays, fantastic bar with a brilliant atmosphere that always makes me think, why are bars in France not like this? that same night another of the Trainers, Pat and me got the guitars out and had a sing-along in the hotel, not quite in Helmut's league but with a little help from some of the others kept it going into the early hours.

So for now back to normality, waiting for the snow and being entertained by our Cocker Spaniel Lyla, who's a real star. Especially in the snow - she's a nutter! Putting the finishing touches on the house, putting snow tyres on the car and chopping wood for the fire. Roll on winter, see you in the PDS!