Christien convinced me that the 3 of us needed to go skiing, and together, we managed to talk Seb into it—though neither of us needed much persuading. On the morning of January 10th, I set off from Hartford, Christien left from Wokingham for an early flight from Gatwick, and Seb departed even earlier from Manchester, all of us heading to Geneva. As luck would have it, we all landed within an hour of each other. Seb had strategically positioned himself at the front of the busy hire car queue, so we were on the road within an hour of landing. The three of us happily caught up, sharing stories since we last saw each other over Christmas, with plenty of the usual lads’ humour that the women in our lives don’t always seem to appreciate.
A couple of hours later, after winding our way through fog and falling snow, we arrived at Les Violettes, the base station at 1500m. We quickly picked up our skis and passes, having learned that it’s always better to get organised the day before so we could hit the slopes as soon as we arrived. After an enjoyable evening with family I hadn’t seen in a while, we crashed early, preparing for the next day.
The weather didn’t look promising at first, with heavy fog, but once we reached 2000m, we were greeted with glorious sunshine that stayed with us for the rest of the day. We skied like kids, stopping only for lunch at the Cabane de Violettes, a favourite spot of ours since the boys were very young. Later that evening, Seb had booked us a table at the swanky Six Senses to celebrate my upcoming birthday. It was so nice to be together, and the food was incredible.
We stayed in my cousin Sandrine’s wonderful apartment in Venthône, who’s also the best host. It’s about a 20-minute drive from the slopes. Thankfully, we’d upgraded the car to a 4×4, as the roads were icy. We arrived around 10 AM to find similar conditions as the day before—low cloud with brilliant sunshine above. There are several ski areas, with the main ones being Les Violettes, Cry d’Er, Bella Lui, and Plaine Morte, which is around 9600ft. Crans Montana is one of the largest resorts in the Valais, and since it was early in the season, we had the slopes mostly to ourselves.
I’ve become more of a careful skier these days, while Christien’s battle cry was always “send it!” This meant that he and Seb would careen down the mountain at breakneck speed, with Christien’s ski app showing he nearly hit 80kph. Every now and then, he’d stop to wait for me, the “snail.” I argued that I preferred to take my time and appreciate the stunning surroundings, either way it was all great fun.
Unfortunately, Seb’s day was cut short due to a flight back that evening. The next day, Christien and I were up early for breakfast with Sansan, as we did each morning, filling her in on the previous day’s adventures. On our last day, the weather was perfect, with not a cloud in the sky. After the avalanche threat had finally been lifted, we headed to the Plaine Morte, which was opening for the first time this season due to the heavy snowfalls. It’s probably my favourite run, although the National run at Cry d’Er comes close. You glide along wide runs and then cut effortlessly through the mountain, with the amazing panoramic view to feast your eyes upon, it’s absolutely stunning.
I had somewhat fallen out of love with skiing, but after this trip, we all agreed to make it an annual event, which I couldn’t be happier about. It was a short trip, but an absolutely fantastic one.
Dream Chasers 