INSTRUCTOR-LED GUIDING RESORT REPORT
Verbier,
Switzerland
Total Pistes: 410km, Lifts: 67, Altitude: 821m – 3330m
New Generation ski guide Ally Johnson finding untracked snow above Verbier for Ski Club Members. PHOTO: Alf Alderson
The timing couldn't be more perfect, writes Alf Alderson. After over 24 hours of heavy snowfall, it’s now stopped and the sun has burst forth in Verbier, just as I’m about to hit the slopes with New Generation ski guide Ally Johnson and Ski Club Rep Ian Finan, along with Club members Alastair McKay and Sir Robert Goff.
Fresh powder, sunshine and a keen and willing crew – it couldn’t be easier for Ally, surely? Actually, today is a fine example of just how essential a ski guide is when you’re heading off-piste in what appear to be perfect conditions. For, as Ally is well aware, the weather over the previous few days has been crazy with rain up to well over 2,000 metres and high winds followed by heavy snow. With an avalanche risk of 4/5, we will be needing all his skills to track down the best and safest terrain.
We start with a warm-up on the side of the piste, just off the 2,354-metre Savoleyres peak above town, where the deceptiveness of the conditions is revealed. Some 30cm of powder glistens invitingly in the sun but put too much weight into your turns and you end up with your skis shooting from under you on slick ice beneath it - the result of that rainfall earlier in the week.
Ally has the solution: we head back up the La Tournelle chair and traverse skier’s right for a couple of minutes, where he’s able to find small gullies and depressions where the snow has collected and we're able to enjoy proper powder without any of that pesky hidden ice lurking beneath. This is more like it!
“We’ve enjoyed superb skiing in bluebird conditions and, most importantly, we’ve done it all safely.”
This becomes the modus operandi for the rest of the morning, with Ally scoping out terrain off the top of Les Ruinettes and Les Attelas, where a combination of dips, depressions, gullies, trees and aspect allow us to ski some of the best powder I’ve experienced all season, in safety.
Over lunch I reflect that, as someone who has only skied Verbier on a handful of days, there’s no way I’d have been able to score good and relatively untracked powder on every run, in safety, without the expert guiding Ally has provided. When the avalanche risk is up at four only a fool would venture into unfamiliar off-piste terrain, giving non-locals like me three real options on a day like this – play the fool, stick to the pistes or hire a guide.
The afternoon follows a similar pattern with Ally sniffing out the safest lines off the Col des Gentianes, where it’s possible to see first-hand the dangers posed by a day like this – a huge slide beneath Mont Fort shows exactly how unstable the snow is.
By day’s end we’ve enjoyed some superb skiing in bluebird conditions (even hitting untracked pow for the last run of the day off the Fontanet ridge) all in great company. And most importantly, we’ve done it all safely.
A day that Ally described as “Having the potential to be one of the most dangerous of the season so far” has turned into one of the best of the season, showing the true benefits of the Ski Club’s ILG programme
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR…with Ally Johnson
New Generation ski guide Ally Johnson. PHOTO: Alf Alderson
Ally Johnson, 28, is a typically laid-back, easy-going Aussie who did all his early instructing, coaching and guiding in Thredbo before heading to Courchevel seven years ago to check out the European scene. He then moved on to Nendaz and Verbier to work with New Generation, where he divides his time between instructor training and off-piste guiding.
The attractions of Verbier for accomplished skiers like Ally are obvious. “There’s endless great off-piste terrain that’s accessible without having to tour, and even more if you are prepared to hike to it,” he points out.
Whilst on the mountain one of his favourite places to grab lunch is Cabane Mont-Fort for the rustic ambience and fantastic views, whilst back down in Verbier he enjoys The Shed for its “fun atmosphere”.
Ally has also been fortunate enough to ski in some of the most world’s most exotic ski destinations with private clients, including British Columbia, Japan and China, with a trip to Kamchatka planned for next season.
But for now: “Europe is my base. I spend summer in Sweden with my girlfriend Malin and ‘commute’ back to Australia, and will, of course, be back in Verbier next season”.
