The Echo Week 1 by The Val Echo

ISSUE NO 1 21 | NOV 23, 201 8

THE

ECHO

FREE WEEKLY GUIDE TO VAL D'ISERE

M A G A Z I N E

RETURN TO THE FRAY

INTRODUCING THE FOLIE ART PROJECT

TRAINING WITH TDC

COVER ART By Eric Charles Olmstead ericcharlesolmstead.com Interview page 20

PROUDLY PRESENTED BY THE FOLIE DOUCE ART PROJECT Each week, the front cover of The Echo is going to be a different artwork produced by mostly local artists, but also several from further afield. This project is being very generously supported by La Folie Douce, whose contribution is allowing the artists to be paid ahead of time for their work, as both Folie and The Echo firmly believe in paying people for their skills.

general Val legends, Suzy Dunsford and Dan Acciarito. If you're interested in drawing/painting/collaging/ creating something in whatever medium takes your fancy, please get in touch by emailing contact@valecho.co.uk and we can discuss. Equally, if you're interested in writing for the magazine or have ideas for a feature, drop us a line.

We want to encourage a community of creators and give people a space to use their talents, even if whilst out here, many are taking a break from " regular life" .

At the end of the season, the plan is to hold an exhibition of all The Echo covers from the winter, and again Folie Douce is supporting this endeavour, as it fits with their creative vision.

Prints of the artwork are available to purchase on The Echo website, www.valecho.co.uk/shop, with profits going to the artists. People lined up to do a cover include ex-Blue Note barstaff and

We can't wait to see what the artists come up with each week and look forward to talking to them about their work and life in or out of the mountains.

TRAINING WITH TDC We got Giles from TDC to give us the lowdown on their ever-popular Seasonaire lessons. What is the TDC Seasonaire Programme?

The seasonnaire programme was created to give all seasonnaires in town the chance to achieve their goals on the snow. It’s all too easy to arrive in town with the best of intentions, but to find that at the end of March your riding hasn’t progressed as you would have liked it to. By setting up a series of sessions with like minded and similar level seasonnaires, we see people transform their skiing or riding to another level.

The sessions start after the chaos of New Year and continue each week for 5 weeks, building on what has been learnt before. Each group will have a coach who leads their sessions and tracks their progress, building a bond between the coach and the rider which allows real and long term development. Is it suitable for all levels of skiers/boarders? Yes, although we have found that there is not much demand for a beginner group since even absolute beginners have worked out how to get down a green or blue run by the time New Year is done. But we have sign up sessions pre-Christmas

and endeavour to find a group for any level of skier or boarder.

If you’ve not skied before and need help before the New Year, then we also run some promo sessions before Christmas for staff in resort (no charge). Get in touch and we can hook you up alongside your colleagues or in a mixed group. What's the advantage of getting lessons early in the season? You get better, you can ride harder and safer and you can achieve things that were previously out of your reach. Any advice for newbies before they start their lessons? Come along to one of our sign up sessions so we can fit you in to the right group early on and meet some of our coaches. Try and get on a promo session that we run for partner staff in resort. Be on equipment that suits you, good boots are particularly important for both skiing and snowboarding. Rock up feeling fresh and keen rather than tired and emotional (hungover). Who will I be taught by? You’ll be taught by one of the TDC coaches that suits your level. We have a team of full time professional coaches who can each take any level of skier, we also have a team of specialist boarding coaches. If you have a coach request, then we can take that into account. How do you group people and what are the group sizes? Group sizes are small, maximum of 6 people. Don't worry if none of your friends are a similar level

to you as this is a great opportunity to meet others that have the same goals and level as you. So people more interested in off piste and touring will go together and people who want to work on their technique on piste will go together. Most groups are keen to do a bit of everything and do what suits the conditions. The goals of the groups will evolve along with the sessions and with the conditions we have on the slopes. Can you teach me to shred in the park? Yes, we have a couple of coaches who can teach freestyle. How about off-piste? Definitely. We work a lot off piste and have many coaches who love skiing the terrain we have access to. From entry level to steep and deep, we can do off piste. We can also teach you some off piste safety so you can start to understand where will be good to head when you're not with one of our coaches. And how much better value is it than just taking regular lessons? Regular privates cost 285 Euros per three hour session for 6 people (235 for 1 or two people). Regular group lessons cost 235 for 3 sessions. The seasonnaires program costs 200 Euros for 5x three hour sessions, which blows our normal pricing away. It is set up to maximise value for seasonnaires, in a group of friends. The sessions are programmed in to the planner and wont be bumped by regular clients, so you can plan your weeks around them.

PLANKS PHOTO COMPETITION

Each week the winner of the Planks Photo competition recieves a Planks beanie from the store in town. This week's winner: Elodie Madden

Enter the at www.valecho.co.uk/competitions

them a great success in spite of the result; dismissed Attorney General Jeff Sessions like an Apprentice wannabe; re-affirmed US support for Saudi, ignoring strong evidence they like their dissident journalists like I like my coffee (ground up and in the By Ben Pryor freezer), and blamed the California wildfires on the Forest Service’s lack of It barely seems possible this is my tenth raking and cleaning, citing Finland as an year writing the Echo news, or a decade example to follow. Not sure how he’ll move passing since I was a seasonnaire; as 25% of California into the Arctic Circle, but Groucho Marx said, ‘Time flies like an dragging the US into the Dark Ages is a arrow; fruit flies like a banana’; then again, start. Only three mass shootings this week, a season in Val d’Isère, like an audition with including one in Chicago where a doctor, Harvey Winestain or an internship with nurse, policeman and the gunman were Philip Green, is something you simply killed; bet the Village People have gone never forget. into hiding. Another officer was saved when the gunman’s bullet lodged in his The Donald has had his grip loosened on own gun; dear NRA, this technicality is the one of the houses of Congress (putting a only way ‘guns save lives’. spanner in his plans for the Great Wall of Mexico), but he retains the same tenuous Over here, Theresa gonebyMay and her one on reality: took the patented Vietnam Chequered Brexit remains the only War attitude to the midterms, declaring pantomime in town. Shedding cabinet

THE WIDER WORLD

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ministers like a psoriatic python, the charade to make her deal look sufficiently hard-won it’s not dead on arrival in Parliament continues, the process already torturous enough to dissuade other wouldbe EU secessionists (and the whole thing sewn up when she met Angela Merkel back in July). Politicians appear to have learned nothing about threatening chaos as the alternative to incentivise supporting a bad option, so might I suggest something I’ve dubbed the Double Clinton rule: if Bill won’t sleep with it, don’t expect anyone to vote for it.

A team was kicked out of a curling tournament in Alberta for being drunk; surely alcohol can only be performanceenhancing for the audience. A Chinese company was filmed making underperforming staff drink urine, after missing sales targets; piss poor. Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook staff to use Android after Apple’s Tim Cook admonished him over the

Cambridge Analytica scandal; aren’t nerdoffs normally resolved with a round of Magic: The Gathering. A Zimbabwean woman sued her ex-boyfriend, claiming his ‘abnormally long’ penis stretched her vagina; who’s going to break it to her about childbirth? The Chinese city of Wenshan has banned pet owners from walking dogs during daylight hours; Kevin Spacey’s residency application is in the mail. Not an exact replica.

And finally, Yves Saint Laurent launched a penis-shaped jewellery range, including a £520 necklace; before you ask, it isn’t pearl it’s 1 00% brass… just like the only people who’d wear it. Until next week, I’m off to make America rake again.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

When did you realise you could make a living from your art and what did you want to be when you were growing up? When I was really young I wanted to be a Eric is an artist who has spent much of his dragon. So I would always draw dragons. My friends at school would ask me, “Can life travelling the world, something that you draw one for me?” So I’d go home pulses through his art as much as it does his veins. We talked to him about his work and draw a dozen or so dragons and bring them to school the next day. In exchange and his roaming lifestyle. for these drawings I made some friends, hereby realizing the value of the ability to create something in exchange for Which is your favourite city to sit and something else. However I’m still working draw? There is a small town in the North of Taipei, on becoming a dragon. Taiwan named Beitou. It’s just far enough from downtown to escape and take refuge Who or what particularly inspires you? in nature and just close enough to the city People tend to inspire me, not places. Most of all people that are in the same to still be energetic and lively on a local shoes that I was in over a decade ago level. I tend to hide and draw in this when I quit my day-job, moved out of my contrasting balance of organic vs. apartment and got rid of all of my things geometric energy. for the purpose of traveling. I see the excitement on their faces, and the fear. It’s What’s one thing you can’t live without an extremely exciting time. when you’re on the road? One time I thought I had lost my How does technology, specifically graphic sketchbook. Lucky it was only my new laptop, ID, cash and credit cards that were design, come into your creative process? I view technology as another tool and I use stolen! it however possible. Lately, I’ve been Your work is generally very evocative of a animating my sketchbook pages with Adobe After Effects. It tends to bring them certain place. What is it you try and to life in a different way. capture of a town/city/country where you’ve been? And why is it important for you to chronicle your experiences through Do you ever get creative block and what do you find relieves it? art? I believe this creative block is part of the My travel sketchbooks are full of stories and many secrets that the viewer may not creative process itself. If we didn’t have even be aware of. I like to think that I have time during which we were not creative then we would never know when we were a love affair with each place that I actually being creative. experience, never knowing what the narrative is going to be. Forcing the And finally, can we expect a visit to Val process is hopeless, therefore I can not d’Isere any time in the future? attach any importance to it. Indeed you can. I will be back in Europe in the spring!

TRUST ME ON THE SUNSCREEN By Ben Pryor ’Look, a 1 3-year age gap isn’t a problem for me; I don’t see why it’s a problem for you?’ ‘It’s because you’re only 6 years younger than my dad’ ‘… I’ll go’

As Shakespeare would have written (if he could have bought a lift pass), some are born to do ski seasons and some have ski seasons thrust upon them; ten years ago I fell into the latter category. Five years up a corporate ladder you don’t expect it to

become a greasy pole, but it took all of fifteen minutes to go from desk to P45. Any chance of fresh-track filled days and highaltitude hijinks had been long written-off but, armed with three months paid leave and still closer to being a child than owning one, it took two phone calls to arrange accommodation and travel to a land with few consequences and fewer morals. That first lungful of cold, dry air as you get off the coach stings the nostrils like Sex Panther. You taste it as it hits your throat; you can only be in the

high mountains. How to survive five months in a town where you’re 50% older than the average seasonnaire? An apartment for one for starters. Six-person studios are cheap but you can’t put a price on privacy, or the ability to close the door and be 32 from time to time… especially with 21 year old company, be it single malt or single female.

Youth and enthusiasm will never be a match for experience and guile; whoever wrote that has never had to deal with cheap vodka-pomme hangovers. At 22 they’re seen off with a glass of water and a two-run blast to Val Claret; add a decade and you’re still pissed till 1 1 am with things deteriorating from there. Irrespective of age, being in town for the season means your life resembles a very complicated drinking game by late-April; a

dice is for life, not just for Christmas! A decade’s mental fog blurs the alreadyfuzzy lines from Beaujolais nouveau night to the last Funi party, but some lines don’t suffer that fate. They’re the ones attained following the wait in a cold queue for first lifts after a three-day snowfall; an obsidian sky overhead; the sun, like a painter

gradually adding white to his palette, lifts the hue one shade at a time but lacks the minerals to crest the last peak and flood the valley below. An eclectic group shivers in line: ski guide to ski bum, bar fly to boot fitter and every other flavour of powder hound. Above them the mountain waits, draped in virginal white majesty. Four hours later, it’s pock-marked from pisteurs’ dynamite and tracked out by skis and boards as if having undergone a lifetime’s aging. The smiles back in the valley stretch wide enough to link ears in the early afternoon sun, thighs and faces burning alike. There might be two of these days a season, or two dozen. The only way to collect the set is to be there for all the days in between. You can book a holiday but you can’t book a powder day. Ten years on, the beanies stay the same but the faces under them change. Fluoro and earthy tones still abound; one on trend, the other worn ironically with a gentle oscillation between the two from year to year. A ski lift here and an apartment block there are just minor cosmetic surgery. The heart of this town doesn’t change: a giant white playground

the rival of any in the world. Treasure it; enjoy it; respect it and you will always be able to call it home… oh, and if you’re in a swimming pool at 3am hoping to be the beneficiary of a bad decision, remember age is but a number and in France, as the President will attest, there’s no upper limit.

TICKING THE BOXES Sam Box is the new Echo man about town. He's come from a summer of wedding photography and a winter in Japan It's his first season in Val but he's done a winter in Japan. Come summer, he's a wedding photographer. We got behind the camera and into the box to find out a little more about Sam.

Hi Sam, do you have a nickname we can call you by? Sam's a little common... Only my

mother calls me Sam, no-one else is worthy. I am usually known as Boxy, Box, or sometimes Boxlord although I am looking to upgrade to BoxPope.

Yeah, not sure about that. Speaking of Boxes, what's the best/worst joke anyone’s ever made pertaining to your surname? All of yours are abysmal. Greatest Achievement to date? Apart from landing this job with the Echo (obviously), I’m fairly proud of the growth and success of my photography business. That or the fact that I am the best skier on the mountain. What’s different about winter in Japan?

29 Obviously the terrain and snow is totally different but the real difference is the way the resort operates. Totally different clientele, no après scene to speak of and beers are super taxed over there so cost around £40 for a crate of small cans.

Sounds awful! Name one thing on your bucket list and why you haven’t done it yet? Can't wait to lose my virginity, coming to Val D to look for 'the one'. I 'd keep that to yourself. Favourite song to ride to? The Greatest Showman soundtrack... Look, I’m not proud to admit it but I shred the hardest when I’ve got some horrible bassline/dnb assaulting my eardrums. Got any neat party tricks? I make highgrade origami turtles which goes down pretty well with the ladies. Weirdest/funniest thing you’ve seen at a wedding? I’ve seen a bride and groom having a full blown screaming match at each other then walk out of the wedding once, that was a bit hectic. Any fun facts about you that not everyone knows?

Not many people know that I'm also a chef. Below are a selection of my creations.

OK, good to know. Thanks for the fascinating insight into the Box life. You shot the front cover image, which was used as the basis for the illustration ; what's your favourite thing to photograph?

I love shooting shredders, so (cheeky plug)- let me know if you are eyeing up a big line/trick and I'd definitely be keen to shoot it. Find me at @boxlord on insta. I'm also on Tinder #matchbox. Whilst I'm at it: oh you’re getting engaged? Nice one. Lets do wedding bits together. @sambox.photography on insta.

33 “ TALK OF THE TOWN

g, asking “What do you bench”, “You look like a big guy, tell me what you lift” before encouraging Ben to " take it outside”, like some ridiculous hard-man in a crappy film. We hope next time he's bench-pressing hard, the bar slips out of his gross sweaty "Das Boot”ed it out the park hands and crushes his penis so that he can no longer use it to harrass and irritate Fall Line is home to a sport not for the faint people. What a pathetic cretin of a human! hearted. Only those with stomachs of steel and gullets like gutters complete the Cloney Island revered “Das Boot”, a beer container 3 times the normal print size. Up until this This terrifying scene occured to haunt your week, only 2 had achieved such a feat. But days and infiltrate your dreams: one man, ruined all competition and smashed the old record by chugging Das Boot in 8 seconds flat. This is a hero among men. He also looks like Chopper.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Burst Pipedream Not everywhere is getting the fake-snow treatment, at the moment. During the Outgoing seasonaire, Tom Fielding building of the hotel at the top of the attempted the challenge 5 times and failed Solaise, some cowboy of a builder 5 times. He had this to say about his arch- managed to hack through a pipe and tell rival. “The dude must have trained for no one about it. On attempting to turn on years to have achieved such exquisite gag- the snow cannons, the Piste Patrol quickly reflex control; I can’t think how. Near the discovered that the pipe that supplies end, there was more coming out of my water to the top of the hill, had a ruddy mouth than was going in.” great hole in it. What is with these holey incompetent Hero to Zero workmen? Another record was broken this week; the shortest time from employment to being Quote of the fired. One of the Danois staff managed to week: last all of a day and a half before being sent packing due to incompetency. “I’m not teabagging the “Bro, do you even lift?” pool table”, “Ahhh go-on, goA builder who was being a lecherous creep on, go on, go on” in Fall Line, and was consequently in the middle of being kicked out by Ben, started remonstratin

Frogs of Instagram Ministry of silly mugs We’re kicking off the season with a competition to see who can get the silliest Vie Val d’Is picture. The Echo’s own Sam Box, has set the bar with this:

Think you can do better? Tag us on Instagram to be in with the chance of winning a luxury Echo bumbag, perfect if you’re one of the poor bastards that can’t keep hold of their possessions.

Check us out on Instagram at valmountainecho for more dogs/frogs and general hilarity.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH

MR BEAN

CHRIS, CHEF AT HIBOU