Today (19th May) Altitude director Jon West went skinning around the slopes of Verbier.  There had been about a foot of fresh (rather heavy) snow ! Although the skiing was hard work due to the snow being quite heavy (to say the least) everyone still managed to enjoy some fresh tracks on the slopes below Ruinette! A great day was had by all :-)

A Bisse is a man-made watercourse built to provide water for irrigation.  The first ones were constructed in the 15^th century when the retreating glaciers caused a water shortage to the towns and villages down in the valley.  The gradient tends to be very gentle and they make excellent and sometimes musical guides for walking in the mountains.

The walk is accessible from the end of spring until the end of autumn and can be joined from various points along the route. By taking the télécabine to Ruinettes one can walk downhill along the Bisse to the centre of Verbier, admiring the scenery and the mountain air for minimal effort!  The Bisse is filled with water at the beginning of the summer season and is maintained by a mountain ranger.

As an added bonus there are some wooden sculptures by the noted artist William Besse along the trail – some are almost hidden while others are more obvious.

Summer is coming…

So the season’s end is on the horizon and all of us are doing our level best to squeeze the last drops of fun from a terrific winter.   At this time of year we are all a bit weary, have a few aches and pains and perhaps even the odd scar.  However tense your legs and you’ll notice a strange apparition forming.   A network of patterns seem to materialise, mostly on your thighs and round your knees.  These believe it or not are muscles, touch them, they’re real, and as you probably recall, pretty hard earned.  What’s not quite so obvious are the muscles you can’t see, your core muscles.  Usually encased beneath a snugly layer of fat, often nurtured by beer and fondue, the core muscle group are your central powerhouse.  Spend enough time skiing and you can be fairly sure they’ll be quite well developed.   However with summer approaching and the prospect of the ski’s returning to the back wall of the garage for five or six months, how can we help retain this hard earned form so that we can hit the opening of next season running…..or sliding so to speak?

The first thing to do is keep your basic aerobic fitness up.  This is actually easier to do in the summer, for as we all know, going for a run or playing an outdoor sport is a lot less daunting sans blizzard.  Secondly, try and maintain the strength in your legs.  Hiking, particularly with some weight on your back, is a terrific way to do this.  An ascent and a descent from a hilly walk, cultivate strength in all areas of your legs.  Thirdly, and I can’t recommend this strongly enough, join a gym, particularly for the purpose of enrolling in classes.  We all know it’s hard to motivate yourself on your own, but joining a class is a great way to maintain that motivation and achieve your goals, with the added benefit of meeting new and if you’re lucky, attractive people.  I recommend some kind of core work shop and a kettle bells class.  Kettle bells are particularly good as they work the whole body, with a strong focus on the core and legs.

Enjoy your summer wherever your headed and we look forward to seeing you next season.

James Craig

Foam rollers can be purchased from most good sports shops, however you can make one yourself. Simply take a towel, fold it up into a small rectangle, then roll it up tightly. Bind it firmly with rubber bands and voila, a home made muscle roller. Place the roller on the ground and carefully move yourself back and forwards over the painful area. This acts as a very affordable massage and it is a very useful tool for fast recovery, allowing you to get back on to the mountain and enjoy the rest of the season.

So remember, muscle tension, simply roll one out.

The snow, particularly on the lower slopes, is getting very slushy in the afternoon heat, therefore a fresh dusting and some colder temperatures will be a welcome change.  However, there is still great snow coverage on all aspects for this time of year, great spring skiing in beautiful sunshine, just don’t forget the sunscreen.

This will include the staff wearing the below uniform and reciving special deals on Skis and clothing :-)

While fun and adventurous, it’s also very physically demanding, and many capable and fit skiers struggle with the rigours of this kind of skiing. The reason being is that a wider variety of muscle groups are engaged compared to Alpine skiing. To put it simply, walking up a hill before you ski down it, is more tiring than getting a lift up to do the same. Here are some tips to make life a little easier:

• After a day’s touring, you may feel the strain in your hamstrings and your hip flexors, (the muscles at the base of your pelvis). A good preparation for touring is to quite simply simulate the activity by walking up and down steep hills.
• Before setting off on a tour, incorporate some hamstring stretches into your warm up routine, a good one is to lie on your back, link your fingers behind your leg just below the knee and push your heel towards the ceiling, when you feel the strain, hold for fifteen seconds, swap legs, then repeat three times on each leg, progressively stretching further each time.
• To warm up your hip flexors, lie on your back and with straight legs, perform some short scissor kicks as if you’re walking.
• Another thing to remember when touring is to regularly hydrate and pack plenty of snacks, a fruit and nut mix is perfect as it has a good blend of quick and slow release energy.

Stay safe and happy touring.

Outside of teaching everyone’s been training hard, wasting none of the off hours and putting in those last few turns before the BASI exams in a week’s time. That’s not to say we haven’t been training hard off snow too. We cheered on the lads in the six nations, supped a few choice drinks in the Farinet (whilst trying & failing to catch a glimpse of Prince Harry) and engaged in sunset drinks at 1936 after a chilled social Saturday afternoon a week back. Boast of the week was Simon claiming he could boot ski the whole way down from Ruinette (which we almost pulled him on)… followed closely by Archie’s shout of “180!” followed moments later by both his ski tips impaled in the snow and his body very far from an upright position. Classic.

For me, though I don’t have BASI exams coming up (having passed my CSIA ones in Andorra before half term), I’m going to be skiing hard and making the most of the next few weeks of training. Once everyone’s on course I’m somewhat tempted to join  the dark side and see what it’s like to scoot around the mountain (read, “fall over a lot on Les Essert”) on a board. If anyone fancies giving me a few tips about how to stay upright that’d be wonderful!

All in all it’s been a great few weeks with no doubt more to come!

As usual here’s a few images of the weeks gone by. First one of the icicles up at the top of Mont Fort.

Next, some of the group (and friends), relaxing at 1936.

And finally a panorama of Verbier taken on the ski down from Attelas. We really do live in an amazing place!