The Black Horse Ski Club

Whilst John & Tracy Symons, Richard Garmeson, Chris & Trish Owens, Tim Carter, Mary Murphy, Graham Tucker, Greg Banks, Charles Harrison (the only Zermatt "virgin"), and Alan Rogers were sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow the remainder of the party were all ready winging their way to Geneva. Iain Smith plus Ian & Lesley Bainbridge were travelling via Amsterdam and Mike "Air Miles" Howard had taken an earlier BA flight from Heathrow. Unfortunately, the Swissair flight was delayed by nearly 2 hours. The net result of this was that instead the whole party gathering at Geneva Airport, the early arrivals decided to take an early train with the main party following on later. Presumably an early arrival would equate to an early beer in the Hotel Derby. For the main party, the experience gained from previous visits means that knowing where to stand on the platform and luggage handling skills results in a hassle free transference to the train. With an incident free journey of approx 4 hours, everyone is in situ at the Hotel Derby in a somewhat snow free Zermatt.

The arrival at the hotel is tinged with some sadness as previous owner had passed away in the summer. His friendship and hospitality will be much missed. However, the ever ebullient maitre D, Giovanni is now running the hotel so there are very few changes in the facilities or staff. In fact it is not long before the party re-acquaints themselves with the bar staff!

Monday

The first not so good news for the week is that all the lift passes come at full price. Not so good since the pound had dropped sharply against the Swiss Franc during the summer and despite a late rally was down to about 1.38 to the pound compared to about 1.52 last year. The better news was that the weather was set fair for most of the week, with runs on the Gornergrat, the glacier and the connecting lifts to Cervinia fully open.

With all the party fully equipped with skis, boots, and passes, time to head for the slopes by the favoured route, namely the Gornergrat railway. The cunning plan is for a couple of warm up runs down to Riffelberg before the "A" team shoot off to try and get full value from the lift pass. There is no change in the plan for the "B" team which consists of a few runs interspersed by coffee stops, lunch stops, and shopping opportunities. Hon Sec John is rather concerned with a dodgy knee not only ruining this week but also the whole of this ski season. This is the season opener and the first few turns are often rather tentative whilst trying to find your ski legs. There are always a few chuckles following the first tumble of the week, which just happened to be Mike and only 50 yards from the top of the run. With the preliminaries out of the way, the "A" team head off to the Klein Matterhorn cable car and to the run down the glacier to cross over to Italy. The slope had been sculptured a little better this year so there is no need for the high speed shush to avoid poling up to the Plateau Rosa save that some still feel the need for speed. The pistes are in good nick and are running fast, but it was only possible to ski down as far as Cime Bianche. The highlight of the day was the plateful of sausages and polenta mash for lunch. The only clean plate belonged to Alan, the holder of a number of dustbin awards! With lunch being taken quite late, it was soon time to return to the Swiss side and to Gornergrat for the train ride home.

In typical Zermatt style, it takes just a maximum of 10 minutes to stow the ski gear, have a quick change and then to resume occupation of the regular table for a couple of pre dinner beers. Again, there is no change in the superb quality of the 5 course dinner. Normal routines continue after dinner with a stroll around town and a quiet drink in the bar at the Hotel Alex.

Tuesday

There was new snow forecast to arrive later in the week, but for now the sun still shone, so for the "A" team, the plan was the same as Monday. That is to head for Cervinia and to cover as much terrain as possible whilst the conditions were still really good. No off piste powder, but the marked runs were in great condition for fast cruising. Mike had worked out that by skiing over the Theodulpass then there would be a greater choice of lifts and runs open. Skiing down to Plan Maison was now possible whereas this was not the case when crossing over at the top of Plateau Rosa. All was going well until Iain somehow managed to fall off the travelator leading up to the cable car station at Trockner Stegg. The "B" team also had a quiet day as Hon Sec John was taking it easy with his sore knee.

The evening once again followed the usual format. What was rather amusing was that the Hotel Alex tipplers finished supping rather later than normal. On their return to the Derby they found that the electronic security door was now locked. Alas, they had gone out without having asked for the code. Iain had the bright idea of telephoning the mobiles of those who had not gone out or had retired early. Great idea except that these calls were either ignored, mobiles switched off, or locked in hotel safes! The situation was rescued by a bright spark who walked to the rear of the building to find that the back door was still unlocked.

Wednesday

The weather forecast suggested that the snow would now arrive on Friday and for now the sunshine and blue skies remained. While the "B" team remained in Zermatt, the "A" team once again headed for Cervinia. Not only to get good value from the international lift pass, but the mountain restaurants in Italy appear to be much more welcoming and cheaper than in Zermatt. Trish had one of those unforgettable moments just before lunch when approaching a chair lift at speed to save poling up a small incline, she skied straight through a rope barrier. She was still giggling while being untangled by Chris.

On the after dinner stroll the eagle eyed members of the group spotted Eddie Jordan walking in the opposite direction. This is not the first time that Eddie has been in Zermatt the same week as the BHSC.

Thursday

As the sun is still shining, a depleted "A" team once again head for Cervinia. Chris and Trish ventured off on their own although they would later meet up with the team at the Chalet Etoile for lunch. With such good weather, it was a good chance to visit the viewing platform at the top of the Klein Matterhorn to take in the spectacular views and for a photo session before hitting the slopes. On the way back Richard suffered a nasty fall on the steep and narrow path that leads back to the top of the glacier. His troubles did not end there as he also had a tumble from the same travelator that Iain had had trouble with earlier during the week. Richard blamed a boarder whilst Tim fell off laughing at Richard's misfortune. Hon Sec John is skiing with the "B" team but at a leisurely pace interspersed with coffee stops and shopping opportunities. At least, they had moved on from the Gornergrat area to the glacier.

Friday

Still no sign of the snow that had been forecast and at this late stage nobody wants to have a wet and cold last day of the holiday, and more to the point, sufficient bad weather to interrupt the journey home. The sun still shining but the temperature has dropped to -9 and at the top the wind is blowing at 62kmph. Despite the wind, the Klein Matterhorn car is still running, although the passengers have a very nervous two minute wait near the top before finally docking at the top station. Definitely a time for the neoprene facemasks! Once over the glacier, the "A" team find that the wind has dropped and the sun remains pleasantly warm until shortly after lunch time when the clouds start to fill the sky. The team return to the glacier and to the cable cars for a last few runs on the Gornergrat. If the Gornergrat slopes are relatively empty then it can be quite to fun to race the train down to Riffelberg, although care must be taken as there are more ski trips this winter.

Back to the Hotel Derby for the obligatory pre dinner beers and for some, a frenetic packing session before dinner. The hire skis have been returned to Julen Sports and for those with their own skis, the chance to have them serviced before the next trip. Sticking to tradition Hon Sec John has ordered a cheese fondue for dinner. There follows the usual comments about bread and cheese for dinner while the rest tuck in to juicy steaks or succulent fish! Not too much planned for the evening as Iain, Ian and Lesley have an early start in the morning.

Saturday

Those on the Newcastle flight have managed to get up in time, have finished their packing and are away by 6.00am to catch the early train to Geneva Airport. For the remainder, breakfast is taken at the usual time of 8.00am. Time enough for a little last minute shopping, to the bakers for something for lunch, or to collect skis from Julen Sports. Having arrived in Zermatt in near darkness, the morning train allows everyone to enjoy the scenery as the mountain train wends its way down the valley to Visp.

With all travel arrangements seemingly working like clockwork the whole team are back in the UK more or less on schedule. The only minor hiccup is the late arrival of a couple of bags at Heathrow belonging to Hon Sec and Charles.