Skiing in Swiss Paradise

In February I spent three incredible weeks in Switzerland: definitely one of the highlights of my winter. I was volunteering through Workaway for an organisation called friLingue which runs ski and language camps in the St Bernard ski area from a chalet on the outskirts of Liddes.

I came to Liddes directly from Val d'Isere in France, a ski resort known for being large, touristy, big on nightlife and expensive. Liddes could not have been more different and, although I had grown fond of Val d'Isere, I instantly fell in love with this corner of Switzerland. The chalet I stayed in was ten minutes walk away from the centre of Liddes where there is a village shop, a hotel, a restaurant, a gas station and not a lot else. It was the opposite of my place in Val d'Isere where I could reach six supermarkets, five bakeries and endless bars and restaurants within about ten minutes. The emptiness and the tranquillity of Switzerland made a welcome change.

The best thing about this area was the lack of tourists. Val d'Isere is so British-dominated that it's easy to forget you're even living abroad. Certainly you aren't learning anything about French culture. In St Bernard the locals expect you to speak French and I prefer that.

The ski hill of Vicheres-Liddes was 15 minutes drive up the hill from the chalet so pretty easy to get to by hitch-hiking and I enjoyed practising my French with those kind enough to give us a ride.

Day one of skiing was awesome. Blue sky, fresh powder, empty pistes. Conditions could not have been more perfect. Snow clung to every branch of the trees and views right over to lake Geneva were breathtaking.

The thing about Vicheres-Liddes is it's a tiny resort: one chairlift, one t-bar and one poma (button lift). Coming from the 42 lifts in Val d'Isere plus links to Tignes, I was worried it would get boring after an hour or two but it's amazing how many different runs you can get out of those three lifts. What's more, it's not just the pistes that are available: Vicheres-Liddes is the best resort I've ever been to for off-piste skiing (the tame kind) and people even come over from Verbier specifically for that off-piste powder. Normally I tend to stick to the pistes and certainly wouldn't venture off-piste on my own but these runs are in a small, contained area where every route leads to the chairlift so you can't get lost, it can all be seen from the lift so you would be seen if you fell and there was minimal risk of avalanches.

On the first few days we had the lightest powder imaginable so even as an inexperienced powder skier I could get down without too much difficulty.

In the touristy resorts that most Brits go to on holiday there are always other people on the slopes. The beauty of St Bernard was that, being such a small ski area, there were no tourists to speak of so during the week it was more or less empty. Sunny weekends were busy as all the locals came up and that wasn't great because the resort isn't designed to cope with large volumes of people but when it's empty it's unbeatable. We were able to make fresh tracks with every run of the morning. A totally magical experience unlike any I've had before in my twelve years of skiing.

Aside from the skiing there were breathtaking walks directly from the chalet through glistening snowy forests and great sledging possibilities (including a 7km run at the nearby resort of Champex-Lac). I also got the chance to play laser-tag for the first time (so much more fun than I could've imagined), I won my first game of bowling ever and we visited the St Bernard dog museum and nearby towns such as Lausanne, Aosta (Italy) and Gruyere.

I really enjoyed this Workaway experience because I got to meet some wonderful people, I got to see a stunning part of the word and the work was very varied. I helped out with everything from kitchen prep to ski lessons to cleaning to casino night. I also got to taste some traditional Swiss cuisine. All in all a truly unforgettable chapter of my gap year and one I would love to go back to.

#switzerland #skiing #alps #mountains #travel #volunteering