Weight concerns have been in the news recently what with rising adult obesity leading onto problems like diabetes and heart problems but never before has someone in the weight watching community directly targeted Val as a problem zone.

Citing issues such as ‘blatent misuse of butter’ and ‘portion control’ as potential reasons for the outbreak the company said that its services would be put to great use in the mountain community in curbing the intake of beer, meat and cheese.

‘Put down your fondue fork’ has been rumoured to be the name of the upcoming poster and advertising campaign as well as a resort wide search for the face of the campaign to make public appearances and raise morale amongst the community much like Jared Fogle who became the poster boy for the weight loss campaign by Subway. The face of the campaign will also keep a blog and be available for appointments should anyone feel like they are going to fall off the keep healthy wagon.

It’s common knowledge that many a seasonnaire out here in the savoie region must avoid the inevitable results of cooking with far too much butter and drinking too much beer, but until know the problem had been thought to be relatively small scale and the only consequences were the inability to wear jeans after february and the need for a personal trainer on the return home.

There have been calls to implement the points system into all staff rotas and for supermarkets to stock a specific lighter options choice instead of roti chicken and ben and jerry’s. The company has also pledged to create small focus groups which meet in various bars around town, serving only Vodka and Soda or Gin and Tonic or fresh juices. There will be no sugary drinks, beer or dark spirits available.

If you’re keen to get rid of your chalet backside that currently has no hope in hell of fitting into your jeans then this might be the kind of regime for you. I mean some guys do like a more shapely bottom and some girls like moobs, but for the most part a bit of abs, bums and tums to tone might do some members of the community some good in the love department.

For those keen to start before the summer on their weight loss campaign in order to avoid the awkward silences when they return home from parents or lovers there will be a fat camp taking place from the 26th to the 30th of April. For contact details see below. The camp promises to be good fun but a great workout with seminars and lectures on maintaining a dairy free lifestyle and how to say no to a demi peche. There will be trained fitness instructors wearing tight shorts in order to help shame camp inmates into running that extra 5 miles. At the end there will be a run from Bourg St. Maurice with the winner having a caesar salad with no dressing for free at a restaurant of their choice.

So for those of you looking to shed those chalet pounds and look like you’ve been skiing all day every day, this new initiative may be just the thing for you. The meetings and complete system will be implemented at the start of next season with all restaurants pledging to not serve anyone who they do not believe to be sticking to the regime and will make name and shame posters accordingly. For information and booking call the local representatives and success stories 0648816503

Remember guys it’s not a crime to ask for help

So we’d been looking forward to it all season and then last week it finally happened. The X Games came to town and took over Tignes for a week, and when we say took over, my god Tignes was owned by the event in almost every single way.

If you weren’t aware that the X Games had decided to grace Europe with it’s presence then where have you been? It’s all every park rat worth their salt has been talking about since they stepped foot in resort in November, and we’ve been excited to see just how the inaugural European X Games fared in comparison to it’s high flying US counterpart.

Of concern to many was the standard of the competion. The X Games is an invitational event and we’d heard murmurings that the big guns wouldn’t be coming out for this little shindig. Thankfully that wasn’t the case with many an extreme sports movie star coming out to prove their worth on the European stage.

The first final to take place was the men’s skiing superpipe. With names like Simon Dumont and Colby West not to mention home grown French stars like Kevin Rolland and Xavier Bertoni it looked set to be a good one, and we definitely weren’t disappointed.

The night really belonged to the French with Kevin Rolland pulling off another great run to add to his US X Games pipe title that he won in Aspen earlier this year. Following close behind him was French teammate Xavier Bertoni who couldn’t quite catch the stormer of a run by Kevin Rolland but was nonetheless very pleased with the silver with the added bonus of it being on home turf. As the French fans surged forward to congratulate their heroes it was a true moment of celebration that wasn’t seen again through the rest of the competition.

Justin Dorey did give a valiant effort to get into bronze position edging out Mike Riddle into fourth. The Wells brothers put up a good fight and surprisingly Byron claimed more points that his older more known brother Jossi.

In the men’s boarding superpipe there was a strong contingent of Finnish riders but they couldn’t break into the top three as the event was won by Iouri Podladtchikov from Switzerland with a stonking 98.00 run to win over Mathieu Crepel and Louie Vito. Markus Malin couldn’t hold his fine form in qualifiers to come out top again and just missed out on the medals in fourth place.

For the women boarding the pipe everyone was wondering whether Torah Bright would be able to follow up her Olympic gold and secure a European title. But sadly it was not to be with Kaitlyn Farrington pipping her by two points to get the gold. The margin was too big for Sophie Rodriguez who couldn’t quite get up into the nineties to challenge for either gold or silver.

For the women skiers in the pipe Jen Hudak was head and shoulders above the rest of the field as the only girl to even break into the ninety scale. The competition was down between 3rd and 5th place with Roz Groenewoud taking silver and Anais Caradeux working her home advantage to hold out for bronze position.

The slopestyle was the event that most of you were able to attend as the pipe finals mainly took place in the floodlight halfpipe at night. The slopestyle ran underneath the Les Lanches chairlift and closed the piste off to us for about a week as they built up the massive jumps and brought in the rail features for the slopestyle.

For the men’s boarding slopestyle some of the big names didn’t even reach the final, but that didn’t matter too much with every single competitor in the final looking to secure a win. It was won by Eric Willett who did a run that he hadn’t even practiced including moves like a double backside rodeo and a switch backside 9 to score a pretty massive 91 points ahead of Sage Kotsenburg and Marco Grilc who got 85.33 and 83.66 respectively. It was a welcome win for Willett who had finished second in Aspen behind Eero Ettala who hadn’t even reached the finals here in Europe.

In the Women’s boarding slopestyle Jenny Jones once again showed a cool head to stomp a smooth 720 on the final jump for a 92.33 score over Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas and Sina Candrian in 2nd and 3rd. In her second x games gold in two months she’s securing her self as the best in the world on the big stage.

For the men’s skiing it was an eventful final with a fair few falls and surprises. Tom Wallisch secured his lead with smooth landings and tight grabs to land all his jumps and edge out the competition. Bobby Brown recovered from two bad runs to ski straight into 2nd place over Jossi Wells who will be disappointed to have only come away with Bronze.

Kaya Turski secured another X Games gold in the Women’s slopestyle ahead of Keri Herman who adds another silver to her collection and Ashley Battersby in 3rd. Once again it was a case of who was solid and making their grabs stick in the air.

It was a great atmosphere and if you managed to stay overnight you will have certainly seen a few of the riders chilling out in the bars. Personally seeing Simon Dumont coming out of Sherpa was a bit of a
surreal moment!

So a hectic three days of back-to-back competition over the valley and from the looks of it many of you have been inspired to lay down some tricks in the park as a result. With lots of entertainment and a few surprises with more park rats that Tignes will see in a long time. Well, at least until next year!

Last week my Dad slipped on the ice in our apartment car park and broke his leg/hip and has been in Chambery hospital since. He got operated on Tuesday and it will be 3 months till he can start to walk. Pretty harsh for a simple slip. My Dad is 68 but he has been in the mountains a lot in his life and is solid on his feet in the ice normally, I also know Wilkie from Surefoot slipped and split his head open, Jono slipped and hit his head. All experienced mountain people. I spoke to Doc Al about it and he says there is a stream of people in his surgery all season with broken wrists etc, all caused by slipping in the street.

Now I know were in a ski resort and as such there is a lot of snow and ice around, so things can be bad out there. I’m just not sure the white road policy is really helping matters although it does make the town look pretty. However if town is trying to attract the wealthier fur coat clientèle with this policy, surely they would prefer footpaths that you could walk on in fluffy moon boots instead of them looking nice. There is not much grace in ruining that coat on the ground and it’s hard to make a plaster cast look fashionable or prevent your lovely friends from writing obscenities all over it. There is also an environmental aspect to this as one of the reasons pavements and roads aren’t salted is because ultimately it ends up in the river systems which isn’t good for the plants and animals and it puts things that I don’t know that much about out of balance etc. Even too much grit can clog the rivers so they try to restrain from using too much of it.

It’s not all bad news though as there are a few things you can do to combat the problem. One way (if not the coolest) is to wear spikes on your shoes, they don’t look the best but they really do work and aren’t just for your grandmother. The same could be said for cat tracks on ski boots, some very good skiers swear by them, but the whole image thing isn’t great. Not drinking quite so much is an option, as although things can happen at any time adding ten pints to the mix can make you less well equipped to counter balance the initial slip. On this note you could also try practising on a balance ball or wobble board to hone your balance skills if you’re getting really serious about it. Shops are also helping the common cause too by chipping the ice outside their fine establishments or building stairs down icy slopes to help you reach them without graciously falling on your backside.

My advice when falling is to just let it happen, you’ve got a fair bit of padding on your bum and it’s less likely to break than a flimsy wrist. I know it’s unnatural but just accept the fall and go down. If you can get up and laugh about it then even more kudos to you. Also on the flip side if you see someone hit the deck then help them up and don’t laugh because karma is a bitch.

If your are unfortunate enough to have a rather simple accident on the piste or in the street there is only one thing you really can do about it to make up a good story and stick to it. You fell in the street? Oh no you didn’t, you fell while taking this incredibly gnarly couloir and you weren’t exactly going slowly.

We are now in the warmer months so things are getting a lot better but don’t let this fool you, a lot is melting in the day and then re-freezing at night which makes it pretty bad and literally like an ice rink. However good the clearing was this would be hard to stop as essentially it’s nature. So watch your backs and wrists/legs/hips/heads out there even if you do think your a mountain goat it’s not always the back side of hells pass where things go wrong.

And if you ever needed a reason not to wear those ‘oh so nice moon boots’ from Ogier it is that the grip isn’t great…

It’s that time of year again! The best skiers, telemarkers and boarders from the premier European ski resorts will be gearing up for the competition that settles which of them is top dog. It is of course Boss des Bosses, the premier mogul event for non-professionals itching to get competitive on some bumps while flying the flag for their resort.

Boss des Bosses is a mogul competition held between six resorts from around Europe, who all bringing their best skiers to Chamonix to compete for the title. Bosses is a ski run which you will be able to find on the Grand Montets in Argentiere, Chamonix and it’s where our brave competitors will find themselves facing a hefty set of moguls and two kickers that are in no way small.

The competition is about the teams and wanting to win, but it’s so much more than that. There is a fair amount of drinking as well as music and BBQs to keep you amused throughout the day. Season bonding? This is exactly the kind of event that will see you meeting new people and flying the flag for your resort.

The resorts competing are: Zermatt, Verbier, Meribel, Courchevel, Chamonix and Val d’Isère. From that list you can see that all the heavy hitters are coming along, all of them are pretty serious about their skiing and none of them will be fielding a poor team this side of global warming.

Each team has to have nine members, within which you are required to have two girls, two boarders and two telemarkers. Ever tried moguls on telemark skis? You can imagine how tricky it is and how hot a telemarker you have to be to tackle the course. The teams race in pairs, both going down the run at the same time and being scored at the end.

The teams will weedle some pretty legendary skiers out of the woodwork (keep an eye out for Glen Plake’s mohawk). There will be old school people you don’t know as well as some new faces that you do.

At the end of the day they all deserve support for having the balls to take on the legendary slope. The hectic training schedule of late nights, too much drinking and general bad behaviour has to be rigorously adhered to in the weeks leading up to the competition, to ensure the teams are in full seasonnaire prime come the first run.

The resort also has to provide a judge for the competition. As we go to press we are still unsure who the judge will be, and therefore who to ply with drink for their good favour. We can safely assume that it will be someone very capable of scoring and, particularly, scoring well for their hometown. A bit of favouritism never goes amiss.

Boss des Bosses has been running for 21 years. It’s a longstanding event that has everything going for it. You can’t run a competition for that long unless you’re doing something right! There used to be a requirement for a mono-skier in the team, but that’s been abolished now. Mono-skiing competitions are now the exclusive realm of Val d’Isère (but more on that later).

One of the great things about this day is the amount of people who turn out to support their teams. Last year Verbier brought out 4 bus loads of keen supporters cheering them into third place. If you were thinking about going then get yourself booked, as we’ll need all the support we can get.

A nice day out of resort might be just what the doctor ordered anyway!

You also have a great opportunity to meet people from other resorts. Just remember to end whatever activities you get up to in town before the bus leaves back to Val. The transfer from Chamonix to Val leaves little margin in its departure time, and I doubt your boss will take ‘he/she was a great mogul skier’ as an excuse, even if they should.

Here at TME we will be out supporting in force but also using the day to see some friends from other resorts. You’ll be surprised how far word spreads about this big day out. From what we hear from our sources in Verbier, they are once again bringing a big turnout to try and cheer them into first place. It wouldn’t be proper competition without some decent inter-resort rivalry. For those who attend, if you’re able to get through the day without ending up in a snowball fight with another resort then you definitely haven’t been supporting hard enough!

Naturally, a day such as this would not be complete without the few people turning up in fancy dress to amuse us all. Last year there were costumes aplenty and, as this year’s event falls on St. Patrick’s Day, you can expect to see more leprechauns than you can shake a rainbow and a pot of gold at.

Val d’Isère will be taking out a coach load of people and you can get your tickets from the Warm Up. It’s a great chance to get a morning’s skiing in a different resort before the event, with discounted lift passes available at 22 Euros. Alternatively it’s a mere 12 for the simple ride up the mountain to the first beer of the day!

The bus leaves at 6.30am. We know that’s early, but you’ll have plenty of time to sleep off your hangover on the bus or even just get back on it again. It leaves after the prize giving in Chamonix, returning you here around midnight. Perfect if you have the day off (and it’s a Wednesday so we know many of you do) and great fun to boot.

We will be there flying the flag for Val d’Isère. We certainly hope you will be too. Boss des Bosses is part of our history (it started off as a two-way competition between Chamonix and Val d’Isère) and you’ll regret it if you don’t make the time to go and sample one of the premier events of the season. Lots of bumps, lots of jumps and plenty of drinking… what more could you ask of a day out

The cost of a pint in Val can vary from around 4 to 7 Euros depending on where you favour as a drinking spot. There are various Happy Hours to take away the pain of handing over four quid for a drink, but those prices represent the normal cost of a drink around here.

We accept the prices because we have nowhere else to go, but you’d be hard pressed to find anything cheaper in other parts of France. If you like beer, then get used to digging deep into your pockets and handing over your spare change to the apologetic bar man.

So why is it so much more expensive? If you thought your taxes in the UK were bad, then you definitely shouldn’t be living in France. Like Scandinavia, the taxes are significantly higher and levied in a different way to the UK. Take a glance at your pay slip if you work under a French system and look at how much money you’re giving them in addition to all the other taxes that you pay when you purchase anything.

Beer and alcohol, as with everywhere, is highly taxed. It’s all in an effort to dissuade us from drinking the stuff but naturally we still do. When you hand over your 5 Euro you are largely paying the tax man. It’s not just the bar manager being a greedy sod.

You will struggle to find a cheap drink this side of the Channel. There isn’t a Wetherspoons here so you won’t be paying 99p for a bottle of Becks anytime soon. There is also a law which prevents chains from buying up property up here in the mountains, hence why Val doesn’t have a Starbucks on every corner and a few Burger Kings thrown in for good measure.While you won’t be paying a pound for a pint any time before you return home in May, you can be intelligent about where and when you drink.

Bars want your business and will quite happily put on a good Happy Hour to ensure you get a beverage for après. You won’t quite be paying knock down rates but it is possible to get a sub €4 pint in this town if you time it right.

Comparison with prices elsewhere? Biarritz isn’t exactly knocking itself over to make drinking cheaper and the rest of the south of France isn’t going to be a good bet either. As for Paris, the best of British finding anything sub €5. A ski resort has a drinking culture and Happy Hour just seems to be part of the lifestyle. Not so much in Paris where everyone is far too cool to actually admit that they drink beer. Parisiens live on cigarettes and air. Surely everyone knows that!

You may also want to consider the effect of fiscal belt-tightening on the bars’ bottom lines to practically give drinks away. Some bars in town have halved their staff for the year in order to save the pennies, so it’s not going to pay their wages to be giving away beer at less than they bought it for. We’re all trying to get by, and if your best mate works in a bar then think of it as a way to get some money in their pockets every time you buy a drink.

It is difficult to get your head round it being so expensive, especially if you’re from the UK, particularly from the North of the UK where they are almost paying YOU to drink. Pound a pint nights are very common for the Brits but more of a rarity for our continental counterparts.

So yes, beer is expensive and we all complain about it, but you still chose to come out here and we all seem to have a good time anyway. Accept that you are living the life of a pauper in France and paying out of your ears for everything. It’s not the bars being greedy we promise you, and we’ll buy you a drink at Wetherspoons in the UK if you can prove us wrong!

The competition runs from the 10-12th, so they have a mere 3 days to pack in all the extreme skiing and snowboarding. The competition is invitational and the competitors list looks pretty good, so you should expect an impressive show with some of Europe and America’s best throwing down to be the best at the inaugural European X-Games.

The field is mainly of a Scandinavian/American nationality base, but there are a few Canadians, Swiss and, of course, French athletes in there. Great Britain is being represented by the shining light of Jenny Jones in the boarding slopestyle, so if you’re looking for some home grown talent then we’d definitely recommend you getting down to watch that bit of the competition.

Some names you might recognise on the athletes list are: Simon Dumont, one of the finest superpipe skiers in the world. With no Tanner Hall he’ll be hoping to hold off the European competition to win after a bit of a stop-start season. Xavier Bertoni, who by all accounts is having a great season, will be flying the French flag in the men’s pipe so watch out for him to go big on home turf. The young guns like Duncan Adams and Justin Dorey will be looking to stake their claim on the podium as well. Bobby Brown and Sammy Carlson will be representing the USA in the skiing slopestyle but they’ve got a formidable Scandi army to compete with thanks to Andreas Hatveit and PK Hunder from Norway, as well as Henrik Harlaut from Sweden, who are all very capable of medal winning runs.

For the women skiers, Sarah Burke, Grete Eliassen and Jen Hudak will be trying to down the European challenge, but with Virginie Favre from France and Anais Caradeux from Switzerland the women’s competition looks like it’ll come down to who can handle the pressure on the day.

The boarding superpipe is dominated by US competitors with Olympic medal winner Scotty Lago making an appearance. Without Shaun White, he’ll be looking to seize his chance for gold, but the European challenge shouldn’t be discounted with Mathieu Crepel looking to win for the home crowd and Antti Autti hoping to capitalise on some good form for the Scandi contingent.

The slopestyle is a little more even with crowd favourites like Eero Ettala from Finland and Andreas Wiig from Norway looking to challenge for medals, but again you can’t ignore the effect of home field advantage and Mathieu Crepel has all the ingredients to take both medals home for France in the men’s boarding.

Among the women, Jamie Anderson and Torah Bright will be battling it out for the USA and Australia respectively but there might be surprises from the lesser known girls like Arka Pancochova of the Czech republic or Elena Hight from the USA.

In the slopestyle we hope that many of you will be supporting Jenny Jones as she looks for a European Gold to sit with her two from the USA in the women’s slopestyle. Cheryl Mass will be looking to challenge too, but the real competition will be from Gretchen Bleiler who was pretty upset after losing out to Jenny on her own continent.

What’s missing from these X-Games is the snow mobile competition, which is a lot like motocross but on a giant snowmobile. Don’t worry; there are snow mobiling demos every day from 3-4pm if you simply can’t live without it.

And finally, here is the comprehensive timetable. It might change due to weather and other shenanigans, but for the moment this is the definitive timetable. We will see you there!

Ski resorts are like nowhere else in the world. You can get away with behaviour around here that would cost you limbs in other parts of the world. I’m talking about the kind of thing that when you’ve settled down with a proper job or, God forbid, a long term partner allows a half-smile to creep across your lips as you think back to your time here. Now is the time to go a bit wild and push your boundaries, so seize the opportunity you have in the last 8 weeks here and try to tick off everything/one left on your list. There is so much to do out on the mountain that we can guarantee you’ve barely scratched the surface. It’s not all difficult and plenty of it is achievable in the next two months.

We’ll start with the things that don’t require you to part with your hard-earned. The Espace Killy, in case you hadn’t noticed, is rather large. There is no way you’ve covered it all since the beginning of December. With this in mind, The Mountain Echo hereby challenges you to have placed your piste-toned buttocks on every single lift that this resort has to offer by season end. It does bear mentioning that the All Mountain Piste Badge is on offer if you combo it with skiing every run in resort in a week. There are some pretty obscure ones, particularly up on La Grande Motte and at the high end of Solaise, and if you’re a boarder you won’t be able to do the 3000 poma lift, as the pisteurs have banned gays on trays. You’ll also need to deliberately take two, or even three, lifts instead of one at times, like the chair lift route back from Brevieres; safe to say that once you’ve done it you can award yourself a well-earned pat on the back and get ready to regale your sharking target for the evening with your latest mountain tale.

The days that will really stay with you are the bluebird powder days and the perfect sunny days with your mates. Frequently, these can involve spending hours building a rather small kicker (let’s face it, you won’t be building a red size jump in a day) and then taking two runs over it before deciding you don’t want to kill yourself and hitting the Folie to work on your goggle tan. You should also end up with a couple of sick photos which, if taken from the right angle, make it look like you’re hitting 30 ft of air, landing with not a scratch on you. Even though you probably ate more snow than Frosty the Snowman, it’ll give you the perfect story for back home after the season is over. A variation on this theme is to head up the hill for a BBQ in the snow with your mates. You might want to wait until the weather warms up but once it does, going out the back of your flat or finding somewhere nice and quiet to fire up a BBQ with lots of food, and one or two beers, can’t be beat. It’s difficult to take a sunny day off, but it can end up being a nice change of pace, and if you’re clever the food won’t leave your pockets emptier than a Steven Seagal matinee.

Another Espace Killy rite of passage is climbing through the eye of the needle. If you’ve been living with your head under a rock this is the large rock with a giant hole in it that looks like, you’ve guessed it, the eye of a needle. You can get there via the Palafour lift from Tignes Le-Lac and then the Aiguille-Percee. Pick a blisteringly hot day and head up to grab yourself a Facebook profile shot just waiting to be exploited.

If you’re feeling exceptionally keen, you could try batting for the other team i.e taking up skiing if you’re a boarder and vice versa (what were you thinking, you sick ####). It’s time consuming and frustrating, but it’ll be well worth it when you can give the answer ‘I go both ways’ to anyone who asks you if you ski or board. If you’re looking for a challenge to end the season then head down this route. It’ll bring the unexpected back to the mountain and you’ll definitely go home tired and sore (in a good way) every day.

We’d also recommend trying some touring while you’re out here and considering staying overnight on a slightly longer trip. Never do this without a guide because it can be pretty dangerous, but if you club together with a couple of mates to split the cost you won’t regret it and you’ll be taken out of your comfort zone to parts of the mountain that you’ve never seen before.

There are so many things we could have packed into this article: parapenting, snowmobiling, nailing that trick in the park, day trips to other resorts. It’s completely up to you whether you want to end the season in a blaze of glory or allow it to gently peter out while you follow the same trusted routine again and again. We know which we’d prefer… anyone up for helping us build a tiny kicker?

Only the keenest skiers will be up on the hill in bad weather. That is undeniably true, and most of us will always have that thought in the back of your mind that you’ve still got plenty of time left for those epic days where you are on the lift at nine and only just making it to après at five. As a result, it’s very easy to call it and sit twiddling your thumbs in the flat wondering what exactly to do, but believe us when we say there is plenty going on in town even when it’s snowing.

Our first port of call would have to be the new sports centre. Shinier than a new copy of The Mountain Echo, this place has everything you could wish for to satisfy your sporting needs.

The swimming pool is its pride and joy and you can see why. You can lounge around in the various Jacuzzis or seating areas and look out onto the piste with the smugness of someone who isn’t about to lose feeling in their feet. Alternatively, you can get active and get in the pool itself. We had heard rumours that the water was a bit cold, but after extensive on site research, we’ve concluded that the people who say it’s cold should man up.

There are also saunas and steam rooms available, but you’ve got to pay a little bit extra for those. Having said that, if you’re planning to spend your whole day in the water, then it could be worth the few extra pennies.

Thankfully the sports centre isn’t just about the pool or the gym, as if you tried to stay there for a whole day you might get a little bored. There is also a great area for climbing with a full wall as well as a small bouldering wall, providing something a little different to get your veins coursing with adrenaline. You don’t need your own equipment. Shoes and harnesses are provided, but if you’ve never climbed before we might suggest one of the tuition sessions so you don’t drop your best mate off the wall when you aren’t concentrating.

As its name suggests, there are also basketball, badminton and squash courts. With classes on offer in the studio, it’s one of those centres that offer pretty much everything. If you can’t bear to sit around when the weather is bad then allow us to direct you there to burn off all the excess energy.

If you’re more of a sedentary type then the natural suggestion would be the cinema. There are two options: improve your French and go and see a showing in the native tongue of Val d’Isère or go to one of the English showings which might prove to be a less taxing and more enjoyable experience.The cinema is also kind enough to put on extra showings during the daytime on bad weather days, so you don’t have to wait until 5pm for your cinematic fix. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the movie while the crazy folks outside huddle together to shield themselves from the elements.

If you’re brave and think that you might be able to drive better than ski or board then you can wander towards La Daille and take on some of the Audi driving experiences. Personally I think I’d rather be on my skis than behind an Audi TT, but I’m also a girl and don’t give cars too much thought.

Next to that, if you wrap up warm you could give some ice karting a spin. This is pretty brave on a weather day because you’ll be in an open go-kart with questionable steering instead of a warm, safe Audi. That said, it’s pretty fun in bad weather and certainly adds that extra bit of excitement to the experience.

Weather days often find many heading back to the comforts of their duvet, but if you are able to drag yourself into town you might want to rent a DVD to watch while you’re underneath it. The Phillips shop does DVD rental and has loads of English films, so if the cinema is too much for you but you don’t really fancy doing nothing then either find a nice friend to get a DVD for you or don some jogging bottoms and grab one for yourself.

I know it sounds boring, but weather days are fantastic days to clean. I realise I sound like my mother but when there is nothing that you’re really missing out on then what better time to get the bathroom shining and the living room looking like someone could actually live in it again. Grab your marigolds and think how good you’ll feel once you’re done.

Frequently on weather days I find myself bar hopping, mainly looking for entertainment and hot chocolate. The bars will be busy in town simply because everyone is avoiding the mountain, so you can guarantee that you’ll find someone around. Try not to get too drunk though because if it’s snowing and the weather clears you don’t want to be missing an epic day on the mountain.

There are also a variety of bars around town that have board games. It may sound silly but an intense game of monopoly amongst friends can enjoyably while away the hours, especially when there are forfeits involved. While we’re talking games in bars, we couldn’t miss out pool or table football. You could take the day to train for one of the leagues in town, make a mid season entrance into the standings and then surprise everyone with the skills you have managed to acquire when the weather is bad.

So next time there is a day that even Arctic explorers wouldn’t be seen out in, we suggest you take a pro-active route and actually do something with your day. Rope a few friends in and you’re probably going to have a bit of fun. Childish behaviour works wonders when you’ve got nothing to do, so we’d definitely recommend regressing a few years and just enjoying yourself. No-one will be looking down on you for not skiing, so ignore that duvet and do something different. God knows, you might even enjoy it

This strange phenomenon that comes into resort around February and hangs over people for a few weeks is something that can’t be avoided. Most people will feel at least a touch of it, and for some it will just make them want to retreat and go home. Mid season is the point where you probably feel most tired and most disinclined to do the things you loved back in November when this all began.

Mid season blues can manifest itself in a variety of ways. For a lot of people it just makes you feel like you can’t be bothered to do anything; can’t be bothered to go out; can’t be bothered to ski; can’t really be bothered to do anything. You then end up in your apartment for days on end, only leaving to go to work. That’s not healthy for anyone.

A lot of people will snort at the idea we’re proposing here. You’re meant to be in a ski resort having the best year ever and we’re talking about a mild form of depression. Based on the number of sad and stressed faces floating around town in February every year, there must be something to it, and if you don’t believe us you only have to eavesdrop a little bit and you’ll hear someone talking about it.

For many people it manifests itself as a sensation of being a bit trapped and bored in resort. To tackle this, the best thing to do is to take a little day trip somewhere, even if it’s just down to Bourg to smell some seasonnaire-free air.

If you have a friend with a car who is either willing to drive you somewhere or would be just as pleased as you to get a bit of a break then get them involved and drive somewhere further (but not too far) afield. Meribel isn’t insanely far away and offers a wealth of skiing and fun that has nothing to do with the Espace Killy, while still retaining that lovely ski resort flavour.

If you’re feeling down in the dumps about skiing and really can’t be bothered getting dressed and ready for some fun on the snow then you just have to push yourself to get out there. Get a big bunch of mates and plan a really good day on the slopes to remind yourself exactly why you’re out here and why this is miles better than being bored at home. There isn’t an easy fix for this one except to suck it up and get yourself out there smelling the crisp mountain air. Good weather will help you get out of your funk so pray to the weather gods for some sunshine and head out on the hill to work on your goggle tan.

If it’s all gotten too much and you want to go home, then if you have the funds and a bit of time off to play with then perhaps that’s the right option. I’m writing this while sat in an airport, and while there’s a reason why I’m going home for a few days I’m really looking forward to seeing my parents. Once I’ve eaten the biggest beef roast dinner my mother can muster, I’ll doubtless realise that I live in a backwater, much prefer Val d’Isère and all the people in it and will be raring to come back.

Don’t see going home as defeat. No-one is going to come up to you at the end of the season and claim you aren’t a seasonnaire because you took a trip home in early March just to get a taste of some home comforts. Accepting that some time at home might make you feel better when you come back is an intelligent and mature decision (not that I can be called an expert on either quality) that you shouldn’t regret.It’s time to beat those mid season blues. Pound out your frustration in the gym, on the slopes or in the pool. Activity is better than anything for you and will get the endorphins pumping, which will in turn break you out of the sort of general malaise that only the true genius possess and the insane lament. Here at TME we require you all to be on good form for photos and Insider stories. Happy seasonnaires equal happy times in the TME office.

Don’t think it’s not happening and don’t stress yourself out about it. There is always someone to talk to: your friends, your employers or even people at the English Medical Centre. They are all here to help and no one will laugh at you. Sharing is at least taking some of the load off your back and you won’t feel so alone. February can be a hard month. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be and remember that the next legendary moment of your season is probably right around the corner.

For most of us they are either an overpaid group we see from time to time or a big expensive chunk of our holiday that has to be done to make the holiday a pleasant experience and our skills up on the hill better but there are always two sides to every story so we’re having a look from their perspective.

Most instructors started their journey with dreams of being the next downhill race trainer for the Swiss team or back country guiding in Chamonix with hedge fund managers after they had completed the endless number of exams and testing systems. And did we forget to mention the speed test against some of the fastest people in France, well you need to ace that before you’re even ready to take on a bunch of snow ploughing kids in bright onesies.

Reality however is always a little bit different to the dream, some will have got lucky and will be dining in the finest restaurants and sipping champagne while being paid to take their clients out on an exclusive heli-ski but to be quite honest there just aren’t enough rich bankers in town to finance the small army of instructors that are here in Val d’Isere so for most of them they will be very familiar with the village chair and small infants instead of the Tour de Charvet with the head of a Swiss bank, so here’s a little view from the other side.

A comfy pair of boots is essential. Don’t get on your high horse about having 160 flex factory race boots on your feet as a relic to your dreams of downhill glory, if they hurt then those 8 hours will seem like 80. You will find the odd few who are still clinging onto their stiff race boots but the majority will have at the very least, a pair of custom fit boots that took hours to fit but are now like slippers on the slope. When our boots hurt we have the luxury of making a decision to return to our apartment or chalet and swap them for a pair of trainers and some fine après ski, not for the loyal ski instructor, they ride through the pain and manage to keep upbeat all the way through it.

More vital equipment comes in the form of a pair of warm gloves. You can’t skimp on a pair of gloves from TKMaxx at this point. You need to spend a little bit extra to keep the use of your thumbs because you need your hands to draw pretty pictures of turn shapes in the snow when it’s minus 30 temperatures. It’s the same premise as the boots, after 2 hours with cold hands as a punter we can go into a restaurant, have a good whinge to whomever we are skiing with and then drown our sorrows in a Vin Chaud. For a ski instructor the closest they will get to a break is to take little Jimmy into the restaurant before he wets himself.

Can you imagine having a ski instructor who was the most boring person on earth? Would that person realistically inspire you to improve your skiing or boarding talents? We can pretty much bet that you’d be asking for an instructor swap before you can say ‘lean forward’. A boundless enthusiasm and good chat will get you through your lesson, and of course if you like someone you’re just that little bit more inclined to do what they say. For most male instructors, getting the ladies in their group to fancy them a little bit will make the lesson and the tips that
bit better.

Ski and board instructors also have the talent to have a smile an American beauty queen would be proud of, and the same smile can be held solid no matter what the situation. The weather’s crap and your client is having a fit at the top of a run because they are certain they can’t make it down, keep on smiling and offer encouragement and tadaa it will probably come right in the end. There is no room for impatience or a bad attitude here, the clients see straight through it and then they start hating you for it. Teeth whitening however is optional.

Nannying skills are also a vital piece of kit, 14 kids in an overbooked lesson where 3 are crying, 2 keep battling to literally ski on the ends of your skis and the rest are lying across the nursery slope in various contortionist positions. The ability to be a good replacement for mummy and daddy for a morning is a vital skill that will avoid tears of both the child and the instructor.

In the same theme the ability to handle a parent is key. You must not forget what child belongs to each parent and have a detailed report prepared on little Molly’s progress so it can be charted over the week and then the results calculated for your tip. Parents are generally a pretty docile breed and are usually just glad that they’ve had a morning where they’ve not had to sandwich their little darling between them in case of a fall, so glowing reports of children are very much appreciated, even if they know you might very well be lying through your teeth.

They will also have cultivated a series of answers for the following questions; what do you do over summer? Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? Do you want to do this forever? These questions are asked at least 3 times a week and there will be a carefully crafted response that depends on who asks and what they might want to hear. It’s all a case of knowing your audience.

An instructor will also have fine-tuned their ability to avoid a hangover or at least mask one very well. They are rarely seen around town after 8pm but every now and again someone will buck the trend and make it out past 1am and will have to utilize all their skills the next day to mask the fact that they might have had a little bit too much to drink i.e. more than one beer last night.

And finally you might want a bit of skiing ability. The hoops you have to jump through to teach in France mean our ski instructors are some of the best qualified in the world. They know what they’re talking about when they give you hints and tips, so treat them nice. They’ve spent thousands of pounds on courses, training and doing all the required bits to be there for you on the hill so if someone says ‘trust me I’m a ski instructor’ I’d take their advice.

I mean we aren’t saying that you need to go and congratulate the next ski instructor you see on what a fine job they are doing, but perhaps as you sit there and seethe into the only drink you can afford for the evening as your ski instructor buddy orders up a round (but not for him or herself! They have work in the morning) think about the cold feet and hands, the fact that they are in fact highly qualified to mop up kids who have wet themselves or need a nose blowing and the fact that they have to be up at 7am no matter the weather, no duvet days for this crowd.

I will confess to feeling the tiniest degree of confidence this time around given I grew up in the decade concerned and, at last check, am a guy. The roughest of guidelines that I’d been set still resulted in many painful omissions as I searched for a list that was so watertight you could have stored a Berocca in it. Apologies are therefore due to Top Gun, Full Metal Jacket, the Untouchables, the two Star Wars films released during the decade, and many more ruled out on the basis that someone lacking a Y chromosome might not see them for the works of genius that all Mars dwellers would generally agree them to be.

Beginning with the easiest of the easy, if you haven’t seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off you may as well leave resort this evening. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how good John Hughes was as a writer, before he jumped the shark and penned Home Alone, and Ferris is his best work, closely followed by The Breakfast Club. That takes out two early sitters.

Eddie Murphy was at his zenith, and while Trading Places might be a re-working of the Prince and the Pauper, casting Dan Ackroyd across from him and watching the scheming Duke Brothers try and manipulate both their lives puts it ahead of any of his other offerings that decade. Ackroyd also co-wrote Ghostbusters with Harold Ramis and they then sensibly gave all the best lines to Bill Murray who delivers them as only he can. I wanted to take the chance of putting Caddyshack in, as any film that pits Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield on the same screen warrants a place at the table but a film about golf is too niche to be everyone’s cup of meat.

Tim Burton’s penchant for the quirky and macabre that spawned the Batman films first manifested itself in Beetlejuice. It’s too silly for you to think of it as a proper horror film, but Michael Keaton has never been better and with Harry Belafonte on the soundtrack you can’t miss. Gremlins might be slightly darker but, while it would have to fall under the horror genre, I challenge anyone not to laugh as they sit in a movie theatre singing along to Snow White.

I’ll make the worst pun of any article this season and throw Cocktail in the mix, on the basis of Bryan Brown’s lines alone. With Tom Cruise headlining, many of them may be largely ignored as people of both genders go weak at the knees, allegedly the way he likes it too. The action film looked like it was going to be a challenge, but the Indiana Jones franchise rendered that inert. I think the first offering, Raiders of the Lost Ark, just edges the Last Crusade, with Harrison Ford taking on the Nazis as they search for the Ark of the Covenant. Before that epiphany, I was stuck trying to reconcile Back to the Future as an action film. I can’t, but it belongs on the list. A DeLorean, time travel, Johnny B Goode and there’s a love story in there somewhere if you look hard enough, even if it’s a slightly troubling one between a teenage boy and an eccentric old scientist.

That left a British film still to find and, given most of the offerings from the British film industry in the 80s, I was back to finding something a guy would watch. I thought I was boned again and sat there wondering how I had left myself in this situation. Thankfully, while all the Monty Python movies were of a 70s vintage, John Cleese wasn’t quite done with the silver screen, and A Fish Called Wanda rounds out the list. Written by and starring Cleese, the film is taken to another level by Kevin Kline’s bumbling ex-CIA agent character. I can’t remember anyone winning an Oscar for a comedy role before or since, but I wouldn’t argue for a second that he didn’t deserve it.

Having taken on this most foolish of Texas hedges I had squared up the bet, restored order to the world and given myself something to look forward to next time I’m in New York. Over the course of a season here, you’re clearly going to have hungover days, flat light days and morbid fear of what/who you did last night making this week’s Insider days. Nannies, hot tubs, broken sinks and nether region dwelling mogwais (it’s still there) set aside, you probably haven’t seen some of the films mentioned over the past fortnight, due in large part the majority of you not even being the glint in the milkman’s eye when they were made. I’d strongly recommend, even if it’s just to spot where several of the Family Guy outtake scenes originate from, working your way through them over the second half of the season.

As you are in a ski resort we here at Echo Towers presume you have some interest in snow and ice and people partaking in snow sports, so we have compiled a small guide to Vancouver 2010 and who to watch out for as well as the chances of the not so snowy country that many of us call home a.k.a the UK.

We obviously can’t fit in everything, so at a guess we’re going to say that the skiing and the snowboarding will be of most interest to people. So we’ve stuck mainly to that, and hopefully you’ll be able to watch at least some of the games at a bar around town.

Skiing
February 13 – Men’s Downhill, Ladies Mogul Final
February 14 – Ladies Super Combined (Downhill and Slalom), Men’s Mogul Final
February 16 – Men’s Super Combined
February 17 – Ladies Downhill
February 19 – Men’s Super-G
February 20 – Ladies Super-G
February 21 – Men’s Skier Cross, Men’s Giant Slalom
February 23 – Ladies Skier Cross
February 24 – Ladies Giant Slalom, Ladies Aerials
February 25 – Men’s Aerials
February 26 – Ladies Slalom
February 27 – Men’s Slalom Snowboarding
February 15 – Men’s Snowboard Cross
February 16 – Ladies Snowboard Cross
February 17 – Men’s Halfpipe
February 18 – Ladies Halfpipe
February 26 – Ladies Parallel Giant Slalom
February 27 – Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom

Of course there is loads more going on outside the skiing and boarding, and Britain’s best medal chances look to be in events like ice skating and skeleton. The Winter Olympics disciplines are cross country skiing, curling, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton, figure skating, speed skating, ski jumping and ice hockey so there will be something to watch at any time throughout the 2 weeks.

Vancouver is currently having some issues with snow, and they’ve had to cart in trucks of snow to make the mountains suitable for the games. Training days have been cancelled and whole resorts closed to the public to prepare for the games and keep the snow in good condition.

For the Canadians they will all be watching the ice hockey, which is their equivalent of football for the British. If you’re looking to broaden your horizons and watch some other events we would definitely suggest the men’s ice hockey which will be very intensely
fought and there will definitely be excitement in the competition.

Britain is taking athletes out to compete is all events except cross country skiing and ice hockey, so watch out for them. Our best chances of a medal probably lie with Shelley Rudman who competes in the skeleton. For those of you unaware skeleton is hurling yourself headfirst down a bobsleigh track on effectively a food tray, pretty intense stuff.

In the skiing and boarding we are taking out 14 athletes despite funding problems for the governing body. Chemmy Alcott has recorded some good finishes this season so if she comes into form then she stands a chance of at least a top ten finish. Zoe
Gillings in the snowboard cross also has an outside chance of a medal, so perhaps if it all comes together Britain won’t leave empty handed.

The target for the British is 3 medals, and that could be reality but the team to watch out for will most probably be Canada. They have thrown everything into preparing their athletes for these games, and so will be looking to perform on their home turf.

The USA will be looking to dominate the snowboarding with Lindsay Jacobellis hoping to not suffer the same fate as Turin 2006 where a showboating trick at the end of the snowboard cross ended her hopes of a very safe gold medal. In the men’s half pipe it will be Shaun White fresh from winning the X Games in Aspen who will be looking to add to his trophy cabinet. Missing two of his team mates who might have posed a threat, the door looks wide open for the flying tomato to add to his previous Olympic Gold.

As always with the alpine skiing anything can happen, and the field looks pretty open except for perhaps the women’s speed events where Lindsay Vonn is keeping everyone at bay. She’ll also be testing a new catsuit which apparently will be able to make massive differences to times, much like the polyurethane swimsuits that saw every swimming record under the sun get smashed in Beijing in 2008 and which have now been outlawed by their governing body.

The French will be looking for their athletes to bounce back from a string of races where they haven’t been making it over the finishing line. They stand a real chance of medals if they can keep themselves in the course until the end. Of course the Austrians will be strong challengers, as well as the Swiss and the USA. In the men’s racing it once again has been a year without a standout athlete on the world cup circuit so it will all depend on who gets it right on the day. Britain is fielding a very young men’s team who will be looking for experience more than silverware.

So there is our mini guide to the Olympics. It should be a spectacular two weeks providing the snow holds out, and I’m feeling very smug as a write this and look out my window to see the snow falling outside. Who needs hectic Olympic crowds and no snow when you have a television and Val d’Isere!