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Now that 2010 has arrived Courchevel is living up to it’s stereotypical image of Moscow central. With Russian Chistrmas last week and Russian New Year this week it seems like every expensive chalet (and some not so expensive) has been taken over by aspiring oligarchs and their entouarges. Seriously where ever you turn you can hear the sound of roubles greasing a variety of outstretched palms.
Regardless of the state of the economy in the rest of the world you can guarantee someone around Courchevel will be flaunting their conspicuous consumption. If not in the size of their chalet then it’s what they are driving. Now Ferraris are no big thing in Courchevel with 430s a dime a dozen in the spring. But earlier this week 3 Ferraris arrived on the back of a flat bed truck (because of the snow) at the hotel Grand Alpes. An Enzo (1 million + euro), a 430 (approx 200k) and my personal favourite a classic F40(400k+). Today they left resort, but as they couldn’t go up the hill around the 1 way system (because of the snow), they had traffic stopped down to the roundabout. And the drivers? Russian? Monegasque? No. on closer inspection all the cars had English registrations.

Alex, the editor

Alpine Excess t-shirts

After running out of brand names that begin with C and sharing roughly the same length as Courchevel I have transmogrified a certain credit card logo. These can now be purchased directly from the online store on the web site and would make an ideal present.

Please note item shipped from France will take 3-5 days to arrive in UK. (if the uk post office is not on strike)

Who would want to be Manager (rep)?

When you are looking for a job I can understand why you would want to be a plongeur (zero responsibility, hot and cold running plongeur groupies), a driver (minibuses and stuff) a chalet host (hard work and a fair amount of ski time) but I can’t understand, with the possible exception of being an masochist, why you would want to be a resort manager or rep. If you are unlucky (rep) you have to spend your weekend on a coach or at Geneva airport, then you have to smile while everybody on the coach asks you exactly the same question (even though they probably overheard the answer from the row before).
Injuries, restaurant bookings, thefts, problems from the hung-over chalet hosts, answering more clients’ questions than Google, I could go on but I think you get the idea. And it’s a given that these problems are solved quickly and efficiently otherwise there is more abuse.
Every ten minutes your mobile rings with a new conundrum it’s almost never ending. DAMN YOU TECHNOLOGY!! I remember back in the old days (’92) it was a simpler time. There was no wireless Internet, actually there was barely no Internet at all, no facebook, no mobile phones. Managers would only be available for a couple of hours at certain times of the day. Outside of those hours you might find them in the bar but they wouldn’t be in a state to give you a coherent answer.
So at the end of the week when a chalet host might get a tip, the plongeur will definately get laid but the best you can hope for is a thank you as they board the bus back to the airport. How else can you say THANKLESS TASK.

Here is a preliminary list of events through out the season

Sun 10th Jan - Natives show love tour, Ski Lodge, La Tania
Wed 13th Jan - 8.30pm Ice hockey Courchevel v Oxford uni
Tues 19th Jan - 8.30pm Seasonnnaire Ballon Ballai comp, 1850
Wed 27th Jan - Natives Workers Challenge Meribel
Wed 17th March - Boss des Bosses, Chamonix
Wed 24th March - 3 Valley Rally, Kalico
Sat 25th April - Season ends