MegèveSki

Back from Verbier

We got back from Verbier last Saturday. We'd been out for a week of pre trip training with The Warren Smith Ski Academy. We've skied with Warren before a couple of times and find that his "harsh but harsh" approach seems to work with us. We felt we improved quite a bit on the September trip to Saas Fee...

We had hoped that by booking a "winter" course rather than the usual "summer" courses that we do in Saas Fee that we'd manage to ski some interesting conditions in Verbier. Unfortunately the weather was against us and there was very little snow in Verbier on the first week in December. There were only two runs open but the runs were better and more varied than the stuff we skied in Saas Fee in September and were more than adequate for the drills that Warren had us doing.

The course was much like the previous ones. You're working towards the same goals but Warren likes to adjust his approach based on what's worked well with other courses, so it's always a bit different. Add to that the fact that he gives you harder drills if he thinks you should have already mastered the "easier" drill on a previous course and we found that even though we'd been a couple of times before it was still bloody hard work. It seemed that almost half the people on the course had skied with Warren before, either on a previous course or at Milton Keynes.

The trip lacked a bit of the camaraderie that develops on the Saas Fee trips. In Saas Fee everyone stays in the same hotel and you all eat together in the evening and drink together in the bar - this includes Warren and the other instructors. In Verbier almost everyone on the course stayed with Peak Ski but we were split over multiple apartments and the apartments were spread out over Verbier. As such there was less of a communal feel.

We intend to pop out to Verbier for some off piste work with Warren later in the season.

Pictures to follow...