The 19th City Ski Championships in Verbier witnessed sunshine, fabulous snow and great competitions, dinners and parties, as well as a highly successful Financial Times Alpine forum.
Some 190 guests congregated in the resort of Verbier on Thursday 1st February 2018, starting with a fun and relaxed pub night at the iconic Pub Montfort with live music.
On Friday, after a cold start, the sun came out in all its splendour over the City Ski Championships race paddock new location at Carrefour, the focus of Friday’s racing and networking activities, at the base of the FIS piste.
The paddock came alive with Knight Frank’s legendary Bloody Mary cocktails, gloves and sunglasses, Isokinetic’s physiotherapists and team doctor Phil Batty to look after our guests, Snow + Rock looking after their skis, tuning them to perfection for the race and offering an amazing range of next year’s demo skis to try out with the welcome addition of the Volkl team, Chel-Ski keeping everyone warm with their mulled wine and amazing Raclette, a brave contribution to a race paddock in Switzerland. Elemental Adventure’s contribution was avalanche workshops along with excellent beers from the micro Brewery Winslow. The team from Sandstone Communications offered advice on networking and resilience skills.
Thanks to Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau, massive Swiss cow bells competed with lively banter and commentary from Graham Bell and Chemmy Alcott and for the gourmet, Swiss chocolates from our airline partner Swiss International Air Lines.
Guests started with a fine tuning of their technique at the GS ski clinics or simply toured the pistes with Warren Smith Ski Academy, having just arrived in Verbier and needing to get their ski legs back.
Another important and fun addition was the Team Distance Challenge powered by our new charity partner Snow-Camp. 12 teams registered to race, covering the maximum distance possible in 2 hours.
The Switzerland Meeting Excellence Speed Skiing Challenge was very well attended and the Accenture Dual Parallel Slalom this year was a gruelling competition with great participation from mixed teams. Both the open and mixed team finals were almost photo finishes, with a new addition: the plate competition for those knocked out in the first round, definitely to be repeated!
Après–ski at Le Rouge with the beats and rhythms of Dj Niko de Rohan proved the ultimate networking forum for all after a hard day’s skiing.
The W Hotel Verbier was the host for our Friday evening activities, starting with a welcome reception and race registration in the lounge, with fantastic Valais wines from Provins winery provided by Valais region for the event.
After a networking standing dinner it was time for the Financial Times Alpine Forum, hosted by Ravi Mattu from the FT, with a fascinating insight into the world in 2018 with Frank Gardner, Security Correspondent for the BBC, Damon Hill, and Chemmy Alcott together with Graham Bell, commentators at the race paddock by day, forum panellists by night, as they prepare to go to Pyeong Chang 2018!
Saturday started with steely skies, but soon the race paddock came to life again with sun, a fantastic giant slalom, a shorter and more technical course set up by the ESS Verbier on the FIS Piste, located on the Medran side of Verbier.
After the racing, another new addition for 2018, a legendary après ski session at the Farinet with live band Munstaball, in partnership with EFG Private Banking.
Last but definitely not least, our awards dinner at Mouton Noir with transfer by gondola and a vibrant prize giving hosted by Amin Momen and Chemmy Alcott, during an excellent seated dinner and a party upstairs with DJ legend Ibba until late.
Sunday, a flurry of snow, a flurry of departures and a flurry of memories.
Join us next year for the 20th City Ski Championships from 31 January to 3 February 2019.
To enquire about the 2019 City Ski Championships, please contact Jessica on 020 7183 6096 or by email.
