Ski Friends

Many years ago, in my previous life before qualifying as a ski instructor, I used to have many ski holidays each year. I couldn't get enough of them. So much so that my close friends in Sussex, where I lived at the time, couldn't keep up with my relentless passion with the sport. This meant that I would often hook up with other people who also loved skiing, but would then rarely see them away from the snowy environment. Did this matter?

Not in the least. All it took in those days before emails and social media, was to pick up the phone and find out if they were keen to go skiing again during the upcoming winter. Nine times out of ten the answer was a resounding yes. All it took was for someone to volunteer to organise booking the holiday, we would pay our deposit, and start looking forward to reading the Ski Club of Great Britain's snow reports. And for the real hardcore amongst us, we would go onto BBC2 and Ceefax from December onwards, with fingers crossed, and start checking the snow depths. Ceefax ladies and gents, does anyone else remember that?

Sometimes we would meet up for a curry a few weeks before the holiday, and reminisce about previous adventures. We would laugh about who fell off the chairlifts the most, who had the brightest ski suits (often me with Nevica jackets!), who got a little too tipsy one evening and couldn't find their way back to the chalet......... You know the stories, we've all been there, and we all have our favourites.

For me what made these evenings and holidays such good fun was the company. And yet outside of skiing, quite often we would have very little in common. The people I skied with were such a diverse group. There would be dentists alongside gardeners, lawyers and jounalists, specialist engineers working for the United Nations and accountants....... plumbers, electricians, business owners, even hairdressers. But it didn't matter one bit, the thing that brought us together was skiing and the mountains. And it was absolutely brilliant fun, something that I still look back on with fond memories. It didn't matter at all that we hardly saw each other between the months of April and December.

Many many years have passed now, and my career has totally changed since those days. I'm very fortunate to have passed the extremely rigorous ski instructor exams, qualifying at the highest level. This means I don't get to go on ski holidays anymore though. However, I'm lucky enough not to miss out on similar relationships with skiers.

I now get to spend top quality time with a whole host of other people whilst skiing. People who I wouldn't normally get to meet, from the UK and all over the world - people from the USA, Russia, Israel, Australia, Brazil and all over Europe. I've shared time with several Olympians, captains of industry, royalty (both British and Malaysian), bodyguards, Knights of the Realm, journalists, scientists, accountants, TV producers, musicians, entrepreneurs and university students. The list goes on. It's amazing to think that I can share a chairlift, have a coffee stop or even an evening meal, with such a diverse group of individuals. Not too dissimilar to my previous life, in many ways. So how does this happen? It's pure and simple, the pull of the sport of skiing.

Perhaps I'm getting a bit too sentimental and soppy here, but isn't it a great sport and holiday to meet new people, and catch up with current friends? In fact I met Harriet, my wife, on my last ever ski holiday before changing careers. Thanks skiing, I owe you one.

Speaking of which, Harriet and I will be heading up to the Lake District this weekend for a week's holiday in the mountains. At the end of our visit, we will be meeting up with Judy and Chris (pictured shamelessly throughout this post) for a tipple and a meal. I've known Judy and Chris for the last four or five years now through skiing. We would never have met if it wasn't for the sport and the mountains. I have a sneaky feeling that as soon as we've ordered our meal (perhaps not a curry like in my old days), we'll be chatting away about you know what. Can't wait. Feel free to join us at The Bridge Hotel in Buttermere! Dress code will be casual.

So if you have a few ski chums that you haven't seen or heard from for a while, send them a text, an email, or Whatsapp, poke them, Facebook message them, Twitter or LinkedIn, or any other options you that have. Wow, time has moved on since landline phones had twiddly cords, and TV had four channels with BBC Ceefax !?! If you do meet up with your ski friends, have fun and start planning the next trip. Before you know it these autumn days will soon turn to winter.

I hope you enjoyed reading this latest nonsense on my blog page, if so you might like another article I wrote during last winter, click here for the link. The diary is starting to fill up, so if you fancy catching up for a ski lesson this coming winter please do get in touch. In the meantime, keep working on your ski fitness, and 'Live With Passion'. 

Martin.