RW Runners’ Holidays 2019
Ski touring in the Swiss Alps? Pilates in Koh Samui? How about a running retreat in Rye? We have something to tempt every kind of runner
SAVOUR SOME JAW-DROPPING ALTITUDE TRAINING IN THE SWISS ALPS
In the Alpine summer,
the slopes around the Swiss mountain town of Verbier offer some of the finest trail running on the planet. But this can also be a runners’ paradise when the winter snows descend, and so on this trip I escaped the horrors of the VersaClimber for the ultimate in highaltitude cross-training. Ski touring involves traversing flat and uphill terrain using ‘skins’ under your skis, which stop them sliding back, then removing the skins to ski downhill. It takes you to areas inaccessible by ski lifts, away from the resort crowds and allows you to truly savour the environment. Plus, if you’re a runner, using leg power in the thin, high-altitude air is perfect cross-training.
Along with skins, you need to hire avalanchesafety equipment and a mountain guide, but you don’t have to be an exceptional skier – routes can be chosen to suit your ability. Mine begins at the 3,300m peak of Mont-Fort, the highest lift-accessible point in the magnificent 4 Valleys ski area around Verbier. The throng of skiers leaving the cable car with us head towards the piste and my guide, Antoine, and I head in the opposite direction to drop into a powdery gully for some glorious turns down to the glacier below. Then the skins go on and we begin traversing the glacier’s snow-covered surface, brilliant white under the bright winter sun.
In our hidden valley, away from the lifts and the pistes, there’s a magical sense of solitude and a heightened connection to the setting, the towers of rock rising around us and the depths of ice grinding imperceptibly below. It is nature pristine, raw and elemental.
Leaving the glacier behind, we remove the skins and enjoy more downhill in deep, untracked snow, finishing at the 2,250m Cabane de Louvie in
Fionnay with burning quads and gurning grins. Then it’s back to Verbier where, appetite suitably worked up, I enjoy the signature mountain dish of raclette (melted cheese with cold meats, potatoes and other bits) at the wonderfully cosy Le Caveau.
If ski touring sounds a little extreme for your skills, there are more beginnerfriendly ways to get your lungs pumping while you enjoy the full majesty of the mountains: Verbier offers excellent cross-country skiing and snowshoe trails. Or there’s the 5-star spa at the W Hotel…it is a holiday, after all.