So it’s goodbye snow and hello sunshine for the Optimum Team… except for sneaky Colin, who’s en route to shred it up in New Zealand… grrrrr!  Wistfully the rest of us pack away our skis and boots for next season but not without remembering what an ACE time it has been;

living in our own wintery bubble and timing our lives with the moods of the snowgods, meeting and greeting clients and friends old and new, and ultimately, imparting our ski wisdom on you… we really hope you had fun, we certainly did! So until next winter, tschuess x

The Easter holidays are truly upon us and, amidst scoffing as much chocolate as we could, we accomplished a mighty number of miles under our skis this week!  Three Kids Club groups and a horde of private lessons descended Saas-Fee slopes during this first week of April.

The Kids Club groups were all skiing up the mountain by mid week and everyone was stoked for Wednesday’s Easter Egg hunt :D  All of our skiers were full of enthusiasm, and we saw each and every one of them improve their skills on the mountain.  From jumps in the Snowpark to skiing switch to parallel turns, our kids were put through their paces and all went away with certificates and medals at the end of the week.  Thanks for the great skiing guys!  Enjoy the pics…

Yesterday, on Saturday the 24th of March, our very own Aaron McLean participated in the fully bonkers Saas-Fee Glacier Mountain Bike Downhill Race.  The race begins at the top of the Metro Alpin lift with a Le Mans style start (an all elbows, running race to get to your bike).  It continues down the glacier, onto the Panorama run that leads you into Morenia area; by this point the riders were hitting some incredible speeds and taking some serious air as they hit run 10b above the Morenia chair.  The riders came tearing down past the Morenia restaurant, then onto the red below, followed by a short breather past the chair before hooning it down the the very bottom of Saas-Fee resort.  The race saw over 180 riders, 6 of which were British, descend a monstrous 1700 vertical meters in less than 8km.  Aaron finished in 71st place, he said “…it was fantastic and seeing such a huge community of riders in one place was awesome.  A huge rush!”.  Maybe we will see some more Brits there next year :D

Today five of the Optimum Team gathered in the Saas-Fee car park at 7am to embark on an adventure to Simplon.  The Simplon Pass is around an hour and half drive from Saas-Fee and offers some fantastic touring routes.  Aaron (team leader), Ben, Chris, Kat and Amy were booted and suited by 9am, we set off on a ski tour that would take us up to the summit of the Staldhorn- which stands at 2462m.  The ascent took us around two and a half hours; we took it at leisurely pace, allowing us to get back into the rhythm of skinning and some time to build a Snowpit. When you are skiing in the backcountry it is extremely important to know what the snow is up to underneath you- a Snowpit allows you to see how the layers of snow have formed and if there are any instabilities in the snow pack.  We used a Compression Test to examine how strongly the snow pack held together; by applying gradually increasing amounts of pressure through a shovel on top of an isolated block of snow, we were able to gauge how successfully the snow would hold our weight as we crossed it.  We concluded that the snow was relatively safe and stable but we remained on guard for the rest of our time away from the pistes.  A successful day was had by all; we bagged ourselves a summit and got a little fitter in the process!  The conditions for the descent were very spring like as the sun climbed higher in the sky, however, whatever the snow it was wonderful to be away from the crowds and out in the backcountry :D  Take a look at some photos from the day…