Don’t get me wrong; despite the skiing being our release and while I may have made most of you insanely jealous of my endless days spent skiing, there was also the work side of things. Daily life within a ski resort usually involves a mixture of strict work routines which can never be broken, long work hours spent alongside free time to get out skiing or socialising.
With the exception of my one day off a week, when I would blissfully sleep in and not even look at food if I could help it, my daily routine began at 7am every morning, when my alarm would ring into my ears, abruptly waking me from my much needed sleep. As I woke and looked out my window to the valley below and the surrounding mountains, I would quickly make an assessment of how much snow had fallen overnight thinking of the slopes that day and how good the skiing would be while calculating how long it would take to dig the minibus out of the snow. And after all of that, calculate how long I had in the shower before I had to get dressed and run out the door to the minibus so we could all drive up into the village and arrive at the chalet by 7:30am. Come to think of it, there was way too much thinking going on too early in the morning!! But that was what it was like 6 days a week for 5 months. GO GO GO! From the very minute you woke up until you decided to crawl back into your bed at whatever time you decided to inflict on yourself.
Arriving at the chalet at 7:30am and walking into the kitchen each morning, I automatically turned the oven on straight away and placed the croissants and pain chocolate that had been proving overnight in the oven, ready for the 8am arrival of the guests for their breakfast. I then quickly whipped up a cake ready to go in the oven before 8am, which is when the orders for the breakfast hot option of the day would begin to rattle around in my head. Three more scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, two orders of porridge, one without milk and two more hot waffles, one with chocolate sauce and the other with…..Oh Damn!! I don’t remember! It was chaos most mornings and from 8-9am I pretty much didn’t move from the stove as I cooked eggs in all their varying ways, waffles, pancakes, porridge, grilled mushrooms and so on, for the guests.
After 9am, when all the orders were finished and the other members of staff were clearing the dining room, washing all the dishes and cleaning the guests rooms, I got to work preparing for the meal that night, which usually involved de-boning, stuffing or marinating meats, chopping vegetables, making the desserts and having as much as I could ready to go for when I came off the slopes and got back into the kitchen. I became quite good at having everything super-prepared, which made my life in the kitchen during each dinner service very easy and stress free. I could usually finish all of my prep for the day, and have the afternoon cake out on the dining table by about 10:30am and have cleaned down the kitchen by about 11, which is when the day became my own. I was free to go skiing, back to bed, to the pub or to the pool, sauna, spa or gym to indulge in something other than skiing. Invariably as soon as we all finished our work in the chalet, we would all throw our ski gear on, grab our skis and head straight out onto the mountain for the day. Making the most of each hour on the piste. The day was ours….
And by about 4pm we would pull our tired bodies off the mountain after skiing hard all day and make our way back to the chalet, grab a quick shower and change back into our work clothes ready for the onslaught of the guests to come in from there mammoth day on the slopes. If I had to prepare a childrens dinner then I was usually back in the kitchen by about 4:30-5pm, otherwise I usually didn’t have to start work again until roughly 6pm, for the 7:30pm adults dinner service. I somehow had perfected the art of being able to prepare a 6 course dinner service into just an hour and a half!
Dinner services usually ran with either Wendy or Darren acting as the MC for the evening. Pouring the wine at the dinner table for guests and just generally adding to the atmosphere of the evening, while Phil, Matt and I looked after the kitchen and serving of the courses. At 7:30 guests would come down from their rooms and be greeted with a selection of canapés with wine. This gave the chalet hosts a good opportunity to hear all about the days events on the slopes and to generally just chat and mingle with the guests. Once the guests were seated at the table, we would serve the starter, followed by a quick palate cleanser, which gave me an extra few minutes to plate the main course after I had politely excused myself from the table and ran back into the kitchen, from eating the starter course. The main would be served, followed by a cheese board, which is very French as they prefer to eat cheese before having their sweet dessert. Following dessert Darren or Wendy would offer the guests tea, coffee or liqueurs while Phil, Matt and I got back in the kitchen. The boys got to work cleaning all the dishes and keeping the industrial dishwasher going while I gave the kitchen a thorough cleaning. Equipment, utensils, the hob, surfaces and floor all had to be spotless each night, as you would expect. We would usually be finished by about 9:30-10pm each evening. Which is when we could all relax after yet another days work in the Alps.
As if we hadn’t had enough fun for one day, as if we weren’t all tired enough, most nights we would traipse a path through the snow to Steifs Bar or the Swallow, for a game of pool and a few drinks. Well that’s if we were able to silence the sensible parts of our brains which was usually telling us to go home and get a good nights sleep. But invariably the party would begin and once it had begun, it was hard to drag yourself away and miss out on all the fun! This was when the “Ill sleep in May” statement came flying out of our mouths.
You never quite knew what to expect each time you walked through those bars doors. Some nights it would be dead quiet and you could get away with just having a game or two of pool and a few drinks catching up with friends within the village. But some nights, usually the ones when you least expected it, would turn into massive nights of mayhem and fun. Some of our best nights out were those that happened on the spare of the moment.
One of my most memorable nights out was a Thursday night when Darren, Phil and I decided to go to the swallow bar for a game of pool and a quiet drink and landed up being the only people left in the Bar when Vince, the owner decided to lock us in with him until 3 or 4 in the morning, with drinking games and dancing on tables a plenty. The notorious ‘lock in’ was to be avoided at all costs if you needed to be sober for work the next morning, but sometimes there was just no escaping them. Needless to say I was the laughing stock the next morning while trying to cook pancakes for 20 odd guests! Which is when I would swear to never do it again! But of course there was always a next time….
There were nights I would walk away from the bar and begin the 20 minute walk down the hill from the village back to our staff chalet at 5:30 in the morning knowing that I had to get to bed for at least the hour I could manage. Why did it do it to myself?!!
For some the après (partying) is the best part of the season. And without it your season just wouldn’t be the same but speaking from experience striking a balance between all the aspects of resort life is paramount. The tricky balance between work, skiing and partying is hard to find at times but totally essential for your season to be enjoyable and successful. As the consequences for neglecting or indulging in either of them can be dire.
With the exception of our changeover days on Saturdays and Thursdays when I would do the weekly shop in Grenoble, pretty much everyday existed just as I have described. Us seasonaires became creatures of habit, doing the same thing, day in day out and who could blame us for it! I know you’re all secretly jealous!
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