Crans Montana: skiing with Eddie The Eagle at the City Ski Championships
The annual City Ski Championships in Crans Montana is billed as an opportunity “to network, entertain clients and bond with colleagues surrounded by stunning mountain scenery”. In reality, the event is way less about networking and way more about hanging out with celebrities and testing your skiing out to the max. It’s a high octane, action-packed weekend that provides an opportunity for bullish City types to prove to themselves – and others – just how good a skier they really are.
I suggest a ski with none other than Eddie The Eagle – he’s thoroughly engaging and we bounce around the various reds, blues and blacks.
After all, it’s easy to brag about one’s prowess on the slopes when propping up the bar at The Ned, harder to substantiate when standing on a mountainside facing 50 slalom gates and with the eyes of your colleagues focused solely on you and the stopwatch. The Championships is an adrenalin packed weekend of skiing, long lunches, hedonistic apres-ski action and the chance to hob-nob with a host of famous faces. There’s also a few business seminars, a thoughtful touch by event sponsors Knight Frank and The Financial Times.
As a pretty good recreational skier aged the wrong side of 50, I entered the event held in Crans Montana, Switzerland, home to the late Sir Roger Moore and fittingly, the best of the skiing Bonds. How would I stack up? Day one was designed to transform city legs into ski legs. I am given a pair of brand new race tuned Völkl slalom skis. These things look the business but crikey, they’re heavy. I’m now starting to doubt if I’ll even be able to carry them to the start line. Nevermind follow the advice to “lean in to them as they have a bit of whip if you sit back”. But an hour spent with the legendary Warren Smith, ski instructor extraordinaire, and my confidence has returned. Assured that the gold medal is all but in the bag, I decided I would enjoy the après ski vibe at the Zerodix Bar where bizarrely, James Haskell of England rugby fame was on DJ duty.
Next day, and despite nursing a fuzzy head, I lugged the world’s heaviest skis to the start line. The line-up was extraordinary. As well as the celebrity guests, there were a host of ski-hopefuls stripped down to unforgiving racing skin suits. These were deadly serious semi-professional athletes, one look at whom was enough to trigger a chronic case of imposter syndrome. I inched sideways, finding sanctuary amongst a bunch of once cocky, but now silent sugar traders all bitterly regretting their decision to also wear skin suits.
Giant slalom is the most forgiving of the Olympic downhill events, not too fast, not too technical and ideal for wannabe racers to attempt in the way that perhaps the 90m ski jump isn’t. (That’s palm sweating stuff.) Thinking that it was highly unlikely that I would come to any serious harm and reliant purely on my hour of training, I approached the start line with bravado. The first few gates were navigated reasonably well after which, mercifully, there came a less steep section.
Confidence growing I clip past a gate. My mind is consumed with images of Bond being chased by baddies, so much so that I barely notice how steep the pitch is on the approach to the finish line. I’m being thrown around by the bumps and ruts and desperately fighting to stay on track. But I do it, I manage to cross the line in one piece, albeit with a time that won’t trouble the Olympic selection committee. I had achieved a respectable mid-table time. It was nerve-wracking, but as I went, live commentary from the legendary British downhill skier Konrad Bartelski gave me hope. “Well done Simon, bar the errors in the last section, you would have had a very good time”.
I was holding my own surrounded by younger, fitter, more aerodynamic people. I was equally elated and frustrated, but spurred on to give it another try. But with my hopes of a career as a downhill skier in tatters – for now, at least – there was nothing for it but to kick back and enjoy all the delights of Crans Montana including those organised as part of the championships. No, sitting in my hotel room licking my wounds was not an option. I tagged along to a ‘team’ fondue at the Cabane des Violettes with my new found friends who taught me that the real secret of skiing fast was not a pair of ridiculously heavy skis, it was in fact a shot of schnapps. In fact so fast (or so deluded?) was I after my lunch that I felt emboldened to suggest a casual ski with none other than Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards who was involved with the championships.
The Eagle is a thoroughly engaging and laid back character and we bounce around the various blues, reds and blacks. He’s also a highly accomplished skier, a hilarious raconteur and rather surprisingly, can boast of having had a number one hit in the Finnish charts with a song about a deceased local folk singer. Who knew? To this day more people can remember who finished last in the 70-metre ski jump at the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary than any of the gold medal winners.
My encounter with Eddie The Eagle sums up what the City Ski Championship is all about. The chance to rub shoulders with snow sports royalty
The recent film starring Taron Egerton revealed the amazing story of Eddie to a whole new generation, and I felt humbled to enjoy a thoroughly engaging few hours with the legend – who was totally approachable and humble. Between runs, I hear more tales. He liked the new movie, found the Finnish situation surreal and the over arching impression was bemusement that these strange things happened to him. He even waxed lyrical about his legendary appearance on Johnny Carson Tonight and about his path to Calgary.
I got the impression Eddie could recount stories for days while elegantly slicing his way down the terrain – he was the ultimate chair lift companion. My encounter with The Eagle sums up what the City Ski Championship is all about. There’s the chance to casually rub shoulders with snow sports royalty in totally relaxed ways – it’s an unexpected and surreal ski experience unlike any other. How much legitimate networking is done in such an environment is debatable, let’s be honest, but the sheer fun is unquestionable.
The sugar traders have entered again this year and I’m preparing on the indoor slopes in the UK hoping they ask me to join. Eddie’s rumoured to be returning next year too – and I’m hoping to hear more tales as we glide along.
Visit Crans Montana yourself
£495pp includes race entry and events all weekend. Hotel packages start from £370pp for three nights. Cityskichampionships.com; Crans-montana.ch/en for more information
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