After what France is describing as the ‘climatic disaster of 2015’ – a hot summer – Prime Minister Manuel Valls and his eco minister Ségolène Royal visited Chamonix last week to hear the town’s complaints about its air pollution and … Continue reading
On Easter Saturday my daughter and I visited the HQ of Alpine BASE jumping, the Airtime café in Lauterbrunnen, to meet the American skier and jumper JT Holmes. We were on our way home after a week of skiing in … Continue reading
“Any chance you can supply a picture?” Cue small earthquake in south west Oxfordshire. The filing system is comprehensively rummaged, turned upside down and shaken. Could have sworn I saw it the other day …. but where? As usual the … Continue reading
Can’t get enough of those Swiss trains. Leaving the first tracks brigade to their morning devotions on the 8.10 cable car to Schilthorn, we took the Monday morning train in the other direction for an excursion to the Jungfraujoch – … Continue reading
The by-train ski holiday has been likened to a jigsaw puzzle, with the difference that the challenge is not complete when you have fitted the pieces together. The key piece this year was the direct train from Paris to Interlaken: … Continue reading
Heard on Radio 4: outraged parents complaining to earnest consumer journalists – You and Yours, perhaps? – about the scandal of tour operators charging extra during the school holidays. Rampant profiteering at the expense of poor powerless parents! A shameful … Continue reading
Pete Barnes was a Kandahar ski club regular whom I met at Murren over many years for the Inferno race in January. He was the fastest of his gang, the least serious of the club’s core racers and the most … Continue reading
Reading one’s own words is a strange experience, especially when someone else has written them. I got used to it when a resort guide book of mine enjoyed pride of place on the bookshelves of other skiing journalists. A ‘borrowing’ … Continue reading