20 people you should know in skiing
I call it the little white book. It’s the secret (uh-oh) list of people who can make things happen in skiing and snowboarding. Whether you want a pair of ski boots that feel like slippers, an in to all the best Alpine parties or someone to organise a corporate ski bash for 500 clients, these are the key people to turn to.
Amin Momen, tailor made
Amin Momen set up Momentum, one of Britain’s most successful
tailor-made ski holiday firms, with Loredana Barindelli in 1996. The
company is also one of the biggest organisers of corporate ski
events and has many big clients in the City. If proof were needed of
Momen’s ability to organise, he recently took a group of a thousand
Google employees out to Courmayeur and also organised the logistics
of the BBC’s coverage of the Turin Winter Olympics.
020-7371 9111, sales@momentumski.com
Arnie Wilson, living ski database
It is now just over ten years since Wilson and his French girlfriend
Lucy Dicker undertook a global ski odyssey that saw them ski every
day for a year in 240 resorts. His book Ski the World, with its
dreadful conclusion, came well before the current rash of
travelogues. This trip and a 35-year-career including time as the
Financial Times’ ski correspondent and latterly as editor of Ski and
Board magazine, he has amassed more knowledge and trivia on resorts
than perhaps is healthy.
arniewilson@mailbox.co.uk
Dax Moy, personal trainer
If you’re serious about your snowsports, consider hiring a personal
trainer to get you into shape for the slopes a few weeks before your
trip. Dax Moy, who runs a studio in Islington in London and has a
hundred private clients, is at the top of his game and will whip you
into shape but at a price - £120 an hour. He does take on new
victims…er, clients but be prepared to have to give up coffee, booze
and processed foods for at least a month.
020-7354 3550, dax@daxmoy.co.uk
Dietmar Hurnaus, bootfitter
On the outside, a pair of Strolz boots appear fairly ordinary – they
come in plain black or red. Inside is a different story. Here you
will find a shaped insole and hardened foam that has been pumped
into the space between your foot and the boot shell to make it fit
like a slipper. Ask for Dietmar when you book up your two fitting
sessions.
+43 (0) 558323610
Florian Werner, hotelier/restaurateur
The Hospiz Alm in St Christoph, Austria has one of the largest
cellars of Bordeaux in the world, with some 65,000 bottles. The man
to help you choose anything from a simple bottle of claret to a
20-bottle Nebuchadnezzar of 98 Cheval Blanc St Emilion at £10,000 a
pop is Florian Werner, who manages this restaurant and the Arlberg
Hospiz hotel.
+43 0 5446 2611 118, florian.werner@hospiz.com
Greg Willis, ski instructor
The fine line between having a great family ski holiday and a bad
one is extremely fine and often dictated by the quality of the
instruction the kids get. Beaver Creek in Colorado is a greta place
for kids to learn both for the terrain and for the presence of
Willis, head of the children’s ski programme and the man behind the
resort’s award-winning Parkology clinics for kids wanting to explore
the terrin park.
+1 970 845 5341, gwillis@vailresortscom
Gunnar Munthe, bar manager
Some consider it to be the best bar in the Alps; others think St
Anton’s Krazy Kanguruh is a vision of hell on earth what with its
dancing on tables, bare-breasted antics and drunken skiing down the
mountain after a few beers. The man whipping up the crowd is its
owner and former Swedish ski racer Gunnar Munthe.
+43 0 5446 2633, krazy.kanguruh@st-anton.at
Heinz Julen, artist and architect
For some people, the jury is out on whether Julen is a genius or a
charlatan. His ‘Into the Hotel’ project in Zermatt, which featured a
hot tub that emerged through a glass roof, closed after just seven
weeks and was considered the height of folly by some. Other
projects, including Zermatt’s Viewhouse apartments and Coeur des
Alpes hotel have been rightly acclaimed. Visit him at his Vernissage
bar/gallery to discuss art, philosophy, the mountains and his latest
project, to design Europe’s highest hotel atop the Klein Matterhorn.
info@heinz-julen.com
Henry Schniewind, avalanche expert
Last season’s death toll from avalanches in the French Alps should
be enough to convince you that it is worth finding out a bit more
about what causes them and how to avoid them. Val d’Isère-based
Schniewind, an expert on snow science and a qualified ski
instructor, runs private and group talks and courses throughout the
year. Listen to the man.
+33 479061658
Jamie, snowboard expert
If you want to buy a snowboard, you could go to somewhere like
Snowboard Asylum or Snow+Rock or you could feel much better about
yourself and go independent. Conspiracy in St Albans, Hertfordshire
is a classic indy retailer, which started life as a skateboard area
at the back of a motobike shop Clarke’s. Clarke’s trsnaformed into
Conspiracy six years ago and added snowboards. If you want spot-on
expert advice on what to ride, Jamie has the inside track.
0870 752 8880, mail@conspiracyclothing.co.uk
Julia Summers, organiser
Descent, the uppermost of the upmarket chalet companies, has a very
demanding clientele. One person more than any other knows just how
demanding – head of sales Julia Summers. If you’re a pampered star
who needs a Mandarin-speaking nanny or table 6 in that
Michelin-starred restaurant, she’s the one to arrange it.
020-7384 3854, sales@descent.co.uk
Dr Mike Langran, injury expert
If you get injured while skiing in Aviemore, you could do far worse
than get treated by Dr Mike Langran of the Aviemore Medical
Practice. Birmingham-born Dr Langran is Britain’s leading authority
on ski injuries and as well as being a full-time GP in Aviemore
manages to write and lecture on the topic of ski injuries, run a
comprehensive website on the subject and act as UK national
secretary for the International Society for Skiing Safety.
info@ski-injury.com
Nick Parks, mountain guide
When it comes to tracking down the best snow conditions around the
world, and particularly around Mont Blanc, turn to Nick Parks,
founder of Chamonix-based Mountain Tracks. If you’re into
telemarking, there’s no-one better.
Equally at home on a pair of skis or dangling at the end of a rope,
Parks has been an international mountain guide since 1987.
020-8877 5773, info@mountaintracks.co.uk
Patrick Thorne, green skiing evangelist
Thorne, who also goes by the nickname Snowhunter, is one of the
driving forces behind the growing awareness of the effects of skiing
and snowboarding on the environment. His site Save Our Snow has
become a must-read resource for anyone wanting to ski green. The
latest targets for his campaigning include rapidly expanding
Bulgarian ski areas and resorts which indulge in greenwashing,
claming to be green without actually being so.
01463 741809, snowhunter@tiscali.co.uk
Patrick Zimmer, ski instructor
Pat Zimmer founded France’s first independent ski school, Topski, in
Val d’Isère nearly 30 years ago, a shocking challenge to the iron
grip of the Ecole du Ski Francais. Luckily, the ESF’s attempts to
stop him doing it in court failed and he still runs what is arguably
the best ski school in the Alps. As well as being an awesome
technique teacher, he’s genuinely pleasant.
+33 479061480, info@topskival.com
Pete Slade, bar manager
It takes a lot to stir up Chamonix, which has been heaving with
people wanting to take what the mountains have to throw at them but
with little regard for where they laid their heads for the night for
more than a century. The Clubhouse, where art deco meets urban chic,
has done just that. The bar, run by Pete Slade, is like a little
piece of Soho in the snow. How they get the raw materials here –
twice-frozen ice, rare vodkas and whiskies, is anyone’s guess.
reception@clubhouse.fr
Sean McCarthy, rep
Some of the most knowledgeable reps in the mountains are not the
fresh-faced horsey types employed by some ski companies but the
regular reps of the Ski Club of Great Britain, many of whom just rep
for a few weeks each season. Among the best is 43-year-old Sean
McCarthy, a Zermatt regular, famed as much for his Elvis air guitar
sessions on the roof of the Fluhalp restaurant as for his knowledge
of the Stockhorn. McCarthy returns to Zermatt this January and Ski
Club members can ski with him for the day to learn his favourite
haunts.
reps@skiclub.co.uk
Stéphane Froidevaux, chef
The ski resort of Serre Chevalier is not where you would expect to
find one of the most exciting new chefs but Froidevaux’s restaurant
L’Antidote, the name a dig at overfussy French food, is winning a
legion of devoted diners. A former protégé of Michelin-starred Marc
Veyrat, Froidevaux is creating his own stylish dishes, tinged with
local ingredients such as moss, wild mushrooms and mountain berries
and served in memorable ways, such as inside a snowball or under a
cairn of rocks.
+33 49244002
Zigi Davenport, property expert
Zigi Davenport, a former BOAC stewardess and restaurateur, set up
Alpine Apartments Agency with her farmer husband Peter more than 20
years ago after buying an apartment in Morzine and then convincing
three sets of friends to buy locally. The local estate agent then
started paying commission. Now Davenport has an encyclopaedic
knowledge of the Alpine property market. If you want an apartment in
Avoriaz or a chalet in Chamonix, she’s the one to ask.
01544 388234, zigi@allalps.com
The person at the front of the lift queue
If you have ever queued up for ages for the Grands-Montets in
Argentière, you will know the value of being in with the person who
is just about to get onto the next lift. Forget lift queue
etiquette; just barge in saying ‘Hi Simon, thanks for keeping my
place’