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Chemmy Alcott, a Winter Olympic skier and presenter of BBC show Ski Sunday, took the Mirror on an exclusive tour of the Alps during a visit to the new Club Med Tignes
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Olympic skier Chemmy Alcott takes the Mirror on a tour of the slopes of Tignes
A champion skier and four time Winter Olympian has shared her top tips for beginners hitting the slopes for the first time.
Chemmy Alcott is now best known for her role presenting Ski Sunday on the BBC, having spent 20 years as the UK’s preeminent Winter Olympic athlete. I had a chance to catch up with the ski star on a recent trip to Club Med Tignes, where she was hosting a residency for guests.
Hitting the slopes with one of Britain’s stand-out downhill skiers as an amateur is quite a remarkable experience. Despite having broken 49 bones and having a metal rod bored down the marrow of her leg in such a way that if it breaks again, amputation is a near certainty, the West Londoner scorched down the pistes whenever she had the opportunity.
“Going this speed is like walking to me,” she explained when I – hoping not to witness a catastrophic compound fracture that holiday – asked if she was okay to go quite so relentlessly fast.
Our little group was treated to a tour of key locations from the Ski Sunday presenter’s life as we made our way down the mountains. “That’s where I jumped off the ski lift to make it to a race start point in time. They took away my pass so my dad made me walk up the hill the next day,” Chemmy recalled as we whirred our way up from the base of Tignes for a day’s racing of our own.
After an afternoon showing us the dubious delights of mountain-side bar La Foulie Douce, the eight time Overall British Ladies Champion gleefully explained that she used to earn a crust by waiting at the bar exit for the well heeled and sozzled to stagger out, riding them down piggy-back to their hotels.
While such delightful anecdotes are primarily reserved for those who meet Chemmy on the slopes – which isn’t that unlikely given how much of her life is spent carving up the Alps – the Olympian has shared some useful tips for those who are giving skiing a go for the first time or who simply want to get better.
Skiing can be dangerous and there is a huge amount to learn, so don’t take this list as extensive or as a replacement for a in-person instructor.
Prepare for powder
After a few days of mastering the slopes, most first time skiers will grow curious about going off-piste. During my time in Tignes I was lucky enough to be taken by Chemmy and two French ski instructors on an afternoon of powder skiing. The fresh snowfall and their local knowledge of the mountains meant we had no problem finding deep, untouched snow.
There are two main things to remember when going off-piste. The first is to keep safe. It is important to have the right equipment, whether that be specialist powder skis, a shovel or an avalanche tracker, so you can handle the conditions and be found if something were to go wrong.
The second is to recognise that the required technique changes considerably when you leave the manufactured, compacted pistes. “Everything we learnt on the piste about applying forces to the ski is different. Now we want to bounce on the ski. You need to have your body in the mid of the ski,” Chemmy said.
Compared to most piste skiing, off-piste you should be leaning back a little to avoid the front of your skis digging into the deeper snow.
“During the turn, my first and most important tip is to wiggle it, just a little bit. Don’t try to turn. Never finish off your turns on powder. When you do that the powder comes underneath the bottom of your ski and you catch the edge,” Chemmy continued. “You’re just thinking about pointing the skis straight down and wiggling it, your skis work together, like a pendulum motion. There is no transfer of weight, they are a unit, with a slightly narrower stance.”
Embrace the bad weather
“I always tell people ‘take your brain out of your head and put it in your feet’,” Chemmy told me with a beaming smile during a particularly low visibility day on the mountain. The Olympian explained that it can be incredibly helpful to go skiing when the snow is coming down and the visibility is poor, as it can help those newer to the slopes get a better feel for the snow and how best to react to inconsistencies in it.
Know which way you’re going
One of the hardest things to do when skiing as a relative or complete beginner is getting the turns right. After you’ve overcome the fear of going round the corner – a scary moment as you’re faced completely downhill for a moment – learning how to keep your form is a challenge.
Chemmy noted that as I came through my turns, my upper body followed my skis, rather than remaining pointing down hill while my feet carved a separate path across and down the slopes. By focusing on keeping your body pointed downhill, it’s much easier to keep your skis parallel and therefore produce less strain on your legs than if they’re turned into one another and bent.
Listen to your body
While talking about why she loves skiing and coaching it so much, the pro urged beginners to listen to their bodies as much as possible and work out how their physical make-up may change the approach they should take to learning different techniques.
“Women, especially after childbirth, tend to start to turn by turning their hips in, because we have looser hips after childbirth. So it is about retraining that and saying let’s think about feet, ankles and then hips. I think it is joyous because every person has a ‘eureka’ moment and there is no moment that fits everybody,” Chemmy said.
Book the holiday
Seven nights all-inclusive stay for a family of 4 (2x adults and 2x children under 10) at Club Med Tignes start from £8,342 including return flights from London and transfers. Without flights, seven nights all-inclusive stay for a family of 4 start from £5,422. You can find out more and book on clubmed.co.uk.
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