The Mountain Echo

Daisy is in her 6th season and has spent the last four and a half years living here all year round. That makes her a very familiar and friendly face around town. She’s often seen serving you your drink in the Blue Note. Since leaving school at 18, she spent one summer at home in Jersey working behind a bar, and then came straight here for winter. She’s been on skis since the age of three when she broke her leg (she’s always been fairly hardcore!) and has skied all over the Alps on holidays.

Ben
Daisy met Ben back in 2006 and they got married
two summers ago in Jersey in a full Val wedding.
They are quite the pair and, despite the age gap,
are one of the best couples you’ll meet.

Alcohol
Daisy also has a fondness for the odd drink and
has been known to be spotted rather tipsy on
occasion around town. At the same time she
seems to be on the hill more than most people I
know. It’s either through commitment or the fact
she has youth on her side.

Skis
Liberty Phil Larose 171 – “love them; have others but all the rest are dead or simply not cool, although having a husband working in Snowberry helps me try a lot more; been using Al’s Line Elizabeths (Lizzy& Beth) recently”.

Suit
SOS and Peak gear – “has to be quality kit as all the cheaper, cool brands break after two months. You get what you pay for. Wearing blue and red atpresent, bright but not fluoro – I’m not a clown!”

Helmet
Black Dainese – “definitely my most important bit of kit. I won’t go on the hill without it. Everyone should wear one.”

Poles
Leki hot shots – ”you can hold vodka in them. Simply screw the tops off and voila! So much cooler than a Camelbak”.

Riding Crew
Coach Alex Allan, Naomi, Lou and Sara. A newly formed group with a lot of fresh converts to skis. “I love them all. Riding is all about your mates, although we are awesome skiers. A big thanks to Phil from TDC for making us sick!”

Blue Note
“My second home & family. Work is a very loose term for what I do. I think Lou just pays me to hang out and drink.”

Last season
This is Daisy’s last planned season. “We’re staying for summer to do everything we haven’t done here yet, then back to Jersey to start a new life”. (We’ll see in a year, but good luck!!)

End of season BBQ
Always the day after the lifts stop turning, at her place. If last year is anything to go by, it’s not to be missed. “Everyone’s invited for the final one. It’s going to be a biggie”.

Jonny is someone we suspect a few of you will know from having your feet inspected by him in Surefoot. A native of North America, he’s now on his 2nd year out here in Val d’Isère. If you see him on a piste then you’re probably just imagining it, or someone else in Val has impressive sideburns too.

Skier or Boarder
I’m a skier and these days I only really ski big mountain. I’ve been concentrating on that for most of the past 8 years so it’s my main focus.

Skis
I’m sponsored by Dynastar so I only ski their equipment. I’ve only got the one pair out here in Val that I ski on which is the Big Dump. It’s their flagship big mountain ski and mine are 192 in length and 120mm underfoot so they are pretty big.

Boots
As you can imagine my boots are fully custom fitted by Surefoot. Mine were fitted here in Val d’Isère. The first time I got boots fitted by these guys it made my skiing immediately go up a level so I won’t be changing any time soon.

How long have you been with Surefoot?
I’ve been working for them for about 6 years on and off. I took a year or so in the middle to do some filming and competitions and then came back. Working at Surefoot really developed my skiing, especially freeskiing, so it’s helped open doors for me.

Competitions?
Yeah, I did the freeski world tour and other things which is where all my sponsorship came from. At one point I was the US freeski champion and came 2nd in the world finals as well as being ranked 3rd on the world tour. Those kinds of results opened up filming and sponsorship opportunities to me.

Films
I’ve worked with a few production companies doing extreme sports films and ski movies which has been cool, though people don’t understand how long it takes to make them. I’ve spent 2 months skiing with a company for a 3 minute edit.

Headcam
I wear a full helmet fitted with a contour HD helmet cam. I always feel photos don’t really do skiing big mountain any justice and the camera gives you a real sense of what you’ve done and the line you took. I should really edit together some of the things I’ve filmed but I just can’t get round to it.

Other Sponsors
I’m sponsored by North Face, Smith and Hestra so I wear North Face soft shell gore-tex outer layers, these great Hestra Seth Morrison half mittens that I really love and Smith I O Goggles which have a great field of vision and lenses that work for all conditions.

Avalanche Gear
I don’t ski with an ABS bag. I did look into getting one but haven’t, though I do have the usual shovel and probe as well as an Orthovox S1 transceiver. Having said that, I’m usually the first skier down the line, so I’m probably going to be the one being dug out rather than me having to find anyone else.

Most Essential Bit of Kit
My mouthguard. I feel naked without it. I’ve broken my jaw and 14 teeth so it’s a pretty essential piece of kit now.

Best Days on the Mountain
The best days are when you go from one end to the other, from Le Fornet to the Grand Balme. Most of what I ski involves hiking. Now I’m on my 2nd season I’m getting a bit more adventurous out here, experimenting with different lines and entrances, so I’m always finding something new.

Personal Maintenance
I don’t really have any kit to maintain my sideburns, they are gods gift and just grow naturally this way. As for my shiny white American teeth, well that just takes a good electric toothbrush.

Claire works in Warm Up and has been serving us our gingerbread hot chocolate since the season started. She isn’t your standard gap year student and this is her 2nd season out on the snow. Whilst doing kit review she described herself as having all the idea and none of the gear, but she seems to be doing ok.

Skier or Boarder
I’m a skier and I’ve been skiing for 11 years now. I started skiing with my family and I love it. I’m trying to push myself a little bit more out here in Val d’Isère. I tried boarding out in St. Anton but I couldn’t see the point, especially because I got injured.

Skis
I’ve got two pairs out with me: a pair of K2 Apache Raiders and I bought some second-hand Salomon Foils when I came out at the beginning of the season, mostly because they have touring bindings. I’m not too keen on the skis as a whole. I really want to get some fat powder skis to take off-piste. My friend found some decent touring skis by a bin, so I might take the touring bindings off the Foils, put them on those and see how it goes.

Boots
I’ve got Salomon Instincts that I also bought at the start of the season and they were recommended to me by Del from Snowberry.

Jacket
Nothing fancy, just a black north face shell jacket that I layer up underneath to keep warm.

Pants
These are definitely my favourite bit of kit. They are bright blue and I think they give me a bit of extra power because they give me the balls to go and do things that scare me a bit. They are a bit impractical though because I’m not sure they are that waterproof any more and they don’t fit properly but I love them!

Avalanche Kit?
I’ve got a full set of avalanche gear from Ortovox including a probe, transceiver and shovel. I have an Ortovox S1 transceiver which is meant to do everything for you except dig up the person, but when I did the avalanche training out on the piste I seemed to take the longest to find the buried transceiver. I really want an ABS bag. That’d definitely complete all my kit for off-piste, so if you’ve got a 2nd hand one then come into the Warm Up and I’ll take it off your hands.

First Season
My first season was out in St. Anton but I definitely prefer it out here. I came to Val because of its great reputation off-piste and I really wanted to get properly into that side of skiing. I’m definitely getting there.

How is the Off-Piste Going?
It’s going well, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some people who have shown me round the mountain. I really am enjoying doing some more challenging terrain.

Favourite Run?
I really enjoyed Pisteurs. The weather wasn’t great and it was really windy so walking the ridge was a bit scary but it was perfect in the couloir and then when it opened up we had fresh tracks for the rest of the way down. Perfect!

Done any Touring?
Yeah, I’ve done a bit but I want to do a bit more in the spring snow. I could then look at potentially doing some of the really long touring routes around Mont Blanc or maybe going to Norway.

Any Injuries?
I’ve been really lucky to not have had any big injuries in all the time I’ve been skiing. I fractured my shoulder in St. Anton but it healed up really quickly so I wasn’t off the snow for too long.