DEEP IN DAVOS
PHOTO Wisthaler Harald
Adam Ruck experiences cliffs, couloirs, rolling powder fields and uncrowded pistes on Freshtracks’ Peak Experience (aka long in the tooth) Swiss Piste and Powder holiday
Remember the February heatwave of 2019? It’s a good thing Ski Club members are not a litigious lot, I thought, as one sizzling day followed another and records fell from Aberystwyth to Zermatt. The Freshtracks Peak Experience Piste and Powder holiday in Davos, scheduled for the first week of March, was sounding ominously like a case for the Trade Descriptions Act.
But the weather took a sharp turn for the worse – or better, from our perspective – with the change of the month, and our Leader Malcolm met us at Zürich with a smile. “Yesterday’s snowfall has made all the difference,” he said brightly, “and there’s more to come”.
Further detail emerged at the bar of the Hotel Sunstar in Davos Platz, a comfy four-star chosen, I assume, for its supply of keenly priced single rooms rather than its location (it’s a steep walk up from the centre of Davos Platz, but the hotel runs a minibus shuttle to and from the lifts). Three groups of four or five skiers would rotate, spending four days off-piste with guides Walter and Robi, and two days with Malcolm – on the piste, presumably, though the ground rules on this were a bit fuzzy.
“If you haven’t skied here before, there are three things about the area you’ll be amazed by,” said Malcolm. “How big it is, how good the off-piste is, and how few people ski it. In such small groups there won’t be any hanging around. I’m really looking forward to it!” We all were.
Walter introduced himself and added a friendly warning. “Please take it easy,” he said. “Most people of your age around here don’t ski more than once a week.” Younger readers may need reminding that ‘Peak Experience’ is marketing-speak for long in the tooth; holidays for semi-centurions and above, with no upper age limit. Our senior skier learned her racing skills at a Swiss finishing school in 1949. Do the maths.
Malcolm had pre-sorted us into groups based on past performance notes kept in a black book at SCHQ, with unknown quantities such as me assigned to Group 2. “If anyone feels like changing, just let me know,” he said.
This was an important tactical moment. A quick look at the weather forecast and the rota suggested that on the two likely powder days, Group 2 would be skiing with a mountain guide. I was not about to put in for a transfer.
PLAIN SAILING
Peak Experience holidays are sociable affairs; skiers with long memories have interesting stories to tell, and if there’s anyone you take exception to, it’s only for a week.
Our group of 14 was the usual diverse bunch, including a retired tour operator who divides his time between skiing and sailing, and a high-flying New York financier who schedules meetings in London to segue with her Freshtracks holidays, or possibly vice versa.
Group 2 was lucky to have a lively cheerleader in Eddie, a Brummie skier/biker whose reaction to awkward situations or any conversational lull was to console himself – and us – with details of his chaotic love life.
“I’m in a lot of difficulty here, Adam,” he called up from the depths of a snow-hole he had made for himself by falling over in deep snow, on a run just above Davos Wolfgang. “It’s a bit like being married, but without so much pain.”
The father of Group 2 was a mere stripling in his late 70s. “I did all my skiing with Mark Warner until they gave up ski hosting,” John told me on a shared T-bar. “Then I switched to Freshtracks and they took me off-piste for the first time.” Despite this late start, John developed an effective go-anywhere technique, as often seen with ski mountaineers who prioritise getting down safely. Calmly and without complaint he coped with everything our guides threw at us, and on the days when John decided to take the afternoon off we missed the reassuring presence of our self-appointed ‘rear gunner’.
The Peak Experience dynamic is supportive, unhurried and non-competitive. Instruction took a back seat and it came as a surprise when Walter, who has a nice line in dry humour, announced: “The snow here is quite bad, which is why I’ve chosen it. Ski down to me one at a time when I wave.” And the grading issue hardly came up. “As long as I can take the holidays I want, I don’t care,” someone said, speaking for us all.
Clockwise from top right: Brummie skier/biker Eddie was on hand to entertain the group; epic pow, Davos-style, and the Teufi run (left), which starts with a cliff…
Nor was John the only early bather. Our schedule of frequent bus rides between sectors, passing within hiking distance of the Sunstar, brought Walter’s advice to mind and the temptation to slip away. When the weather closed in on the afternoon of the second day, Group 2 became a group of one for Malcolm to lead on the uncrowded pistes of the Rinerhorn. “Couldn’t see a thing,” he reported later. “But we kept going to the end and we had fun, didn’t we?” They did.
The storm intensified through the evening, and tangible excitement infected supper-time table talk. After two days on the core Parsenn/Gotschna ski area that Davos shares with Klosters, Group 2 was bound for Davos Platz’s local mountain, Jakobshorn, in the morning. “Robi might take you down to Teufi tomorrow,” said Malcolm. “Lovely run, although it does start with a cliff. After that, plain sailing.” Malcolm painted an idyllic picture of rolling powder fields, woodland glades leading down to a river bridge and a welcoming restaurant with sleigh horses tied to the rail.
“So, Malcolm, how do you suggest we deal with the cliff?” someone asked. “Well,” said our leader, “basically, it’s a case of… in you go!”
HEADED FOR ‘LITTLE ALASKA’
A little more than 12 hours later, after a happy morning spent ploughing wide open spaces and tight gullies between the pistes on the upper slopes of the Jakobshorn, Group 2 slid along the ridge from the top lift station to a place where a stop sign indicated that we had reached the aforementioned cliff. A snow-filled couloir of impressive steepness fell away from where we stood. “How do you feel about that?” Robi asked John. After due deliberation, John thought he might spend the rest of the morning on the piste and catch up with us later.
Robi walked him to an alternative entrance, wider and a bit less severe. How about that? “I think I might be able to manage that,” John said eventually, and manage it he did with aplomb, side-slipping and turning close behind the guide, as instructed.
All in one piece (each) we reconvened at the foot of the infamous cliff, congratulated ourselves, and followed our guide on a long traverse to his favourite corner of an immense valley, leaving other ski tracks far behind us.
Rolling powder fields and woodland glades delivered on Malcolm’s promise: half an hour of perfect skiing all the way to the river. We had just the right amount of time for a quick lunch before the bus arrived for a less picturesque, but quicker and cheaper, return to Davos.
Guides never like to be outdone, and when Walter’s turn came to put Group 2 through its paces the senior guide invited us to shoulder skis for ‘a five-minute walk’ from Rinerhorn’s top station to a nearby ridge. Twenty minutes later we were ready to make a mess of a blissful back bowl known to ski tourers as ‘little AK’: a row of gullies on the far side of the valley reminded someone of Alaska. The name on the map is Leidbach, which means ‘stream of woe’. We thought it a river of delight.
As a treat for our last day we were looking forward to the ace in Davos’ off-piste hand: Pischa, whose one lift serves 700 vertical metres of natural snow with dozens of beautiful ways down the front, back and sides. At the beginning of the week the lift was closed for unspecified ‘technical reasons’ and the hoped-for opening on Friday failed to materialise. Indeed, it turned out that Pischa had closed for the season at the end of February.
The Davos/Klosters lift company’s habit of closing its minority-interest ski areas outside peak season is a disgrace, as is the exclusion from the lift pass of the closest ski area to our hotel, Schatzalp-Strela, which used to provide a back-door connection to the Parsenn.
With a top-up overnight deposit of 25cm on the Teufi run, however, Group 2 managed to contain its disappointment.
Excellent guiding from Robi, pictured here, and the team made for a memorable trip
FACTFILE
Freshtracks is running three Davos Powder and Piste trips for 2020, on 4 January, 8 February and 14 March. The seven-night trip costs £1,995 (£1,895 for the January date), including accommodation at the Hotel Sunstar (single occupancy room), return flights from Heathrow, transfers, three days with mountain guides and three days' The club no longer offers its leading service, but a rep will be on hand to ski with members in a social capacity. A six-day adult lift pass starts at CHF351 (£275).
Also in Davos this season, the club's Pischa Mountain Adventure Weekend from 4 March 2020 offers skiing plus fat biking, snowshoeing, sledging, cross-country skiing and airboarding! It costs £995, including four nights' half-board in a three-star hotel, three days of activities with a guide plus equipment, transfers and lift pass. The club also offers various trips to Davos throughout the season.