I try and make it out on a snowboarding holiday at least once a year so this year would be no different. I was a skier until I was about 14 or so, then tried boarding for a couple of days and I haven’t been on a pair of skis since! My brother mentioned going away this year as he had been invited by a couple of his friends. They knew someone who ran a chalet in Tignes in the French Alps and there was a spare space for me to go. It seemed rude not to!
I had never done the whole chalet trip before, usually when I’ve been it’s been self catered so going somewhere that was all fully catered was a first for me, and looking back now I don’t think I could go self catered again! Coming in from a day on the slopes and just having everything done for you is just amazing. That plus unlimited chalet wine, it’s just the best.
I met all the others in our group when my brother and I landed in Geneva. I was a little apprehensive about going on a holiday with a group of people I didn’t know, I mean, I’ve been away with friends before and ended up falling out, but they were such a great group of guys, and girl (sorry Dani). Everyone was really friendly and easy to get on with so it just made the whole trip even better!
Each time I go, I always bring my GoPro to get some filming done and put together a little video of the trip. Last year I got all of the filming done, but with moving house/starting a new job etc, I never got round to actually making the video. Much to my Brothers disappointment. So this year, I had to keep my word and make sure it all got done!
The first day we were riding, we had amazing weather. Clear blue skies all day, amazing snow it was a great start to the holiday. The next 2 days weren’t quite as good weather-wise. We had a lot of snow, which obviously isn’t a bad thing when you’re on a snowboarding holiday, but the visibility wasn’t that great which makes it harder to fly down the slopes and makes it even more dangerous to go off piste. This also made it difficult to get some good filming done.
Day 4 was by far the best. After 2 days of snow, the clouds finally lifted and the sun came out. It was a brilliant powder day. We all made it out for first lift and went straight to the top to make first tracks on the runs. We spent 90% of the day off piste finding sweet little runs of fresh untouched powder to play around with. It was a great day for filming, so everyone had their GoPro’s out and we managed to get a lot of good footage. I was testing out a few different camera angles and positions so I had a variety of shots to use for the video.
At one point I had the camera mounted on the from of my board, but I went over a jump in the snow park and the mount snapped when I landed. Luckily it was filming the whole time so it made a pretty cool video. Check it out on my Instagram. The good thing about everyone else filming was that I could also use the footage from their cameras to add to the collection I had.
After 7 hours of hard off piste riding, everyone’s legs were in bits. Mine finally gave way when we were heading into one of the mountain bars and I ended up going head first on my front down the slope for a while. Smashed my elbows on the way but a pint of beer soon sorted me out.
The final 2 days were much the same. Perfect weather, great snow, even a fresh layer of powder for the final day – amazing. Towards the end of the trip we all started to let loose a little bit and be a bit more reckless on the slopes. This was great for filming, but not so great for wellbeing. My Brother took a hard fall off a grind box on the last run of the last day and ended up with a suspected broken collarbone. Naturally I still went and had a go straight after and ended up falling arse first onto the box, then onto the ice. Safe to say I will not be using that clip in the final video. Thats more suitable for Jerry Of The Day or You’ve Been Framed.
All in all it was a fantastic trip! By the end of it everyone was knackered, but that’s kind of expected when you’re out boarding for 7 hours a day! Thankfully there were no major injuries – my brothers collarbone turned out not to be broken – we couldn’t really ask for more. Time to pack away the board for another season, looking forward to the next already!
I even managed to keep my word and get the video sorted this time!
Enjoy!
