It's so easy, isn't it? Working in the mountains? No stress, no hassle. Maybe one day you are in your smelly cramped halls at uni, eeking a living on about 5p a week. Or perhaps you are rushing to work with the rest of the no-lifers squeezed in to the Northern Line at 8am on a Monday morning. Then someone goes BAM (like a Fairy Godmother only way cooler) and suddenly you are here, in the mountains! And it doesn't matter that you're STILL eeking a living, this time on about 1 a week, and STILL living in smelly cramped places. It doesn't matter that it is STILL reminiscent of the Northern Line when you pile into the Saulire cable car with all the punters pushing and shoving you and poking you in the eye with their poles (why oh why are they incapable of controlling them?!). It doesn't matter because, when all is said and done, you are here, in the most magical place on earth, the mountains!
So what is it about the mountains that makes them so magical?
AND CAN WE REALLY SUSPEND REALITY INDEFINITELY? The mountains are like some kind of mythical floating castle (especially when the clouds are forming below). Where you are a God, for a few months anyway, you can drink more, pull more, eat more and of course ski better than anyone else. You have no responsibilities, no debts (that you think about), no parents to nag you, nothing but white, white, white!! Wasn't it our old friends at Fat Face who once said 'better a bad day on the piste than a good day in the office'? Old and cheesy and over-used though that phrase is, it really does appear to be true. Anyone who has broken their leg would much rather say 'oh yes, of course I broke my leg while skiing the Grand Couloir in
Courchevel - I did a season, y'know, yah' than 'yeah, um, I broke my leg falling off the platform at Balham station'! There are those who dabble in this fantastical mythical island in the sky, they come for a season and then, reality snaps back and they fall to earth again with a huge thump. Then there are those who decide this IS reality, this little world they have lived in for the last 5 or 6 months. They decide they would rather be a God in a small, exciting, world, than venture back into what everyone else thinks of as 'the Real World'. There are even some who have lived here for years and years and seem to forget there is a world beyond those proverbial pearly gates at Le Praz!
But it's like in the film, Matrix, when Morpheus says 'If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain'. And the brain of seasonnaires sends the signal that it smells like snow (that kinda tinny smell), tastes like snow (cold and wet!) and looks like snow (white!), which makes this place the ultimate 'winter wonderland'!!
But most ex-seasonnaires will tell you, once they were back down on 'earth' that they realised that it isn't reality. What is actually real is when you go back to your job, uni or maybe even your man or woman who has been waiting patiently back home. Isn't it funny, however, how they all come back for more, even if it's just for a week or so? A week of skiing madly (but not as fast as they could), a week of drinking madly (but not as much as they could) and a week of pulling madly (but not with as much luck as they used to). Most of all, a week when they realise that, though this isn't THEIR reality anymore, it is in fact, an ALTERNATE reality, which is far more exciting, challenging and beautiful. It's like Neo, stepping into the Matrix and suddenly realising he's actually pretty cool and gets to wear the leather coat and shades and can kick arse! At the end of the Matrix trilogy they end up deciding that we are actually better off with the suspension of reality that the Matrix gives, than with the boring life outside (where they seem to spend their whole time eating rice pudding, as far as I can see!). I have a sneaky suspicion that, although they don't always do anything about it, most ex-seasonnaires and maybe even punters and parents, realise the same thing; that if you're going to suspend reality, what better way to do it than up here, in the sun and snow?
But one thing is for certain, even if it isn't real life up here and we can't suspend reality forever, working in the mountains truly is living in the most perfect dream world and, now I have been thrown back into that dismal place called 'the Real World', I am trying to do everything to take that proverbial red pill and get back to that magical island in the sky! I KNOW I will succeedÃ. One day, I will ski amongst you again and be free...!!
