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SWISS WEEKEND
Ged Cleugh is one of our Producers. His never-ending research into the world's top tourist resorts has left him able to recite the hotels of Europe at will. A keen snowboarder, Ged takes to the slopes each season working his way through the world's finest resorts in search of "big air".
This month he reports back
on weekend Ski trips to Davos.
I think it’s fair to say that my
weekend usually follows the same routine; too much après
work booze on a Friday, soccer AM and a fry up on a Saturday
morning, a spot of sport in the afternoon, the usual Saturday
evening entertainment, then Sunday lazily watching movies on
the sofa or buried in a newspaper as time ticks by all to quickly
towards Monday morning. But recently I made a new discovery
and weekends may never be the same again.
 In
the past, weeklong ski trips have been the mainstay of visitors
to the slopes. Not ideal if you’re just testing the water
or aren’t a slope-crazed snow-banger. It’s too long
if you decide that after all you hate cold weather, or as happened
to one of my friends, you realize chairlifts aren’t exactly
the best place to sit for twenty minutes at a time when you’re
scared of heights (quite how she thought spending a week up
a mountain wouldn’t involve heights is beyond me!) Also,
seven days spent off the mountain will push the facilities of
any ski resort to the limit. My friend had finished reading
three books by the time our coach pulled out of the resort,
an expensive book trip indeed.
A week’s trip can be just as frustrating
if you are an enthusiast. By the time you recover your legs
from your first day’s skiing, it’s day three. You’re
half way through the week. It’s around this time you start
to feel that you’re skiing is back on form, the light
at the end of tunnel gets bigger and bigger, but before you
know it, bang! The week’s over. The real bummer is most
of us won’t see the slopes again for another year.
Cost and lack of holiday time can often mean the snow sports
lover is restricted to one week on the slopes per season, but
it needn’t be that way, as I found out.
 I
was offered the chance with ifyouski.com to experience their
weekend package to Davos in the Swiss Alps. My skepticism was
rife about the short duration of the trip – would it really
worth going all the way to the Alps for just four days? Surely
that just isn’t enough piste time to warrant the effort
– but then I’d forgotten just how reliable the Swiss
trains are. We flew out of London and with precision timing
caught two trains from Zurich into the resort in a mere 2½
hours .Waking in the hotel on Friday morning I faced three full
days of riding and wasn’t about to waste any time..
My love for winter sports started relatively
late. Most people on the slopes have enjoyed years of cultivation
in ski school coupled with parental tuition. It’s easier
when you start young. Most toddlers exhibit that all-important
fearlessness of, well just about anything. My unsporting parents
ensured that it would be as late as university before I’d
hit the slopes and catch the skiing bug. To begin with, I wasn’t
too pretty on the slopes and managed to irritate many a pedestrian
skier as I hurtled into the back of them. Well, we’ve
all done it at some stage, even those fearless toddlers. Not
that I’m bitter. There are few things in life that can
be both incredibly cute and irritating but watching a snake
of “Lego-men” -esque kids hurtling down a mountain
in perfect unison is one of them. But if I could have stayed
on my feet during my ski lessons long enough, I’d have
tripped one of them up. Instead, I was on the receiving end
of some sledging (of the cricket variety) and before I could
wipe the snow from my goggles, and crawl out of the trees, my
persecutors disappeared like a snowflake in a fire. Finally
I was up and skiing but would you Eddie-the-Eagle-it? No sooner
had I caught the bug than I was cured. One year in and I undid
my skies for the last time. I’d discovered snowboarding,
and that’s what I planned to spend my weekend in Davos
doing.
Davos is a large town with piste access
from various points; I caught a bus to one of the lifts at the
other end of town and set about exploring the 310 kilometers
of runs. The resort is one of the oldest in the Alps and therefore
has plenty to offers skiers and riders of all ability, with
an impressive 118 kilometers of runs aimed at advanced enthusiasts.
I was visiting in December and despite the early season visit,
snow cover was adequate enough to keep me entertained for the
whole trip.
 Weekend
breaks to ski resorts do give you enough time to get your teeth
stuck into some good, testing runs but a side effect of that
means it’s unlikely you’ll spend any daylight time
in the village. So I wouldn’t worry too much about what’s
on offer off the mountain when selecting your resort but evenings
are a very different matter. It is the weekend after all, and
you’re on holiday! It seemed to me that weekend visitors
to the slopes were even keener to celebrate the fact they were
away. Perhaps because it’s difficult to forget that while
you’re sipping a beer or vin chaud in prime 5 o’clock
après-ski time, your less intrepid friends back home
are still watching the vidi-printer bring in the Ryman’s
football league results or they’re queuing up at the supermarket.
As I slumped into the chairlift for the
final ascent of the weekend, I had no qualms about going home.
After all, I had the best retort to the usual Monday morning
round of “so what did you get up to at the weekend?”
questions back in the office! But that was all to come, in the
short term I had one more long run back to the valley and I
was going to make the most of it.
Weekend breaks are a must for any regular
skier or rider. I’m a convert! It’s ideal, you get
just enough action to ensure that your thirst for skiing is
quenched for a couple more months and you get to top up your
technique, beefing up those slalom thighs and lessening the
rust on your style, making catching up on your next visit even
swifter. Plus there is an altogether different reason for trying
out a weekend break. You can visit a resort you’d otherwise
be wary about committing a whole week too.
So next time you’re leafing through
the guidebook and turn down a resort due to it being “just
a bit quiet in the village”, or “not quite enough
runs there for me” then try before you buy – take
a weekend break. In fact, Courmayeur in Italy proved to be the
most popular resort with ifyouski.com for weekend breaks last
season – a small yet lively resort with the perfect amount
of runs for a weekend trip.
Luckily for many Europeans, the advent
of discount airlines has brought a myriad of ski resorts so
much closer. Get shopping for those cheap flights, hire a car
and go exploring! Or, if you’d rather have someone else
do all of the organizing for you then opt for a package deal.
Quite why it took so long for someone to seriously package these
weekend breaks is beyond me. I traveled with ifyouski.com who
now offer 4-day packages to six resorts in France, Italy and
Switzerland. Prices start from as little as £350 and for
this you’ll get your flights, car hire and at least a
3 star hotel bed for the duration of the trip. It sounds to
me like the perfect time to get back on the piste.
To find out more information visit
Davos, Switzerland
www.davos.ch
Ifyouski.com
www.ifyouski.com
And if you’ve been to Davos, I’d
love to hear WHAT YOU
THINK. SEND ME AN E-MAIL.
September 2005 |