just had to post this photo...its from Mark's near death experience when he was riding off piste & pretty far from the boundaries suddenly the mountain turned vertical...he had to leave his board to be able to climb back to safety...a lesson to all!!!!

Me at work

just to prove I am actually working here & not just arsing around, here's a few shots of me at work

pressing laundry


the result


Wayne our resort manager gave us a pineapple to take back to the chalet. this was also the a powder day, My knee had just fully healed so I was going riding, & I had just done a kitchen porter shift so i had finished pretty early, 11.30 am.


this is what one corner of the restaurant in the hotel looks like when its set for dinner:

James' wine display:

my wine display

oh yehhhhh... workin hard, snowboarding harder :)

Bens Back

Last tuesday the 4th of April Ben broke another vertebrae.

here's the craic: he was riding the aired off the edge of the same quarter pipe I hurt my knee on, he didn't take a good line so landed on the flat on his feet, and the pressure from the landing crushed one of his vertebrae. Last year he slammed on the piste & crushed 2 vertebrae.

so he got rushed to hospital in visp. We went to visit him the next day. here's some photos:



of course we had to distract him from his pain & suffering, so we tormented him a bit

James stole his duvet

& we put his favourite girl from the FHM calendar up, but we thought we'd also put some porn up to keep him entertained. He wasn't supposed to leave his bed so he couldn't take it down!! ha ha!!

and now, 4 days later, he's back in Saas Fee with a corset to hold his back in place


he's staying here till saturday & then going home to Aberdeen. he's in pretty good spirits considering, & he shouldn't need an operation if the corset does its job

blaaaa haaaa haaaa i'm drunk & just got home from being drunk in the bar across the road from my chalet

made an amazing realisation tonight: 1/2 pint costs 4 CHF
p int costs 8 CHF
a litre costs 10 CHF

so u know whats goin down in the future!

its 2ajm & i'd be goin to bed if i hAD WORK 2moro, instead i've got doc appointment at 11.30 so i'm gonna chill& make choons!!!! wa hey!!!!!

yeh its all about the mad choppin beats & loop flava loopstyles

here's a few random photos

acually i'm to piseed to wait for the upload so photos tomoro xxxx

It's finally happened - what most snowboarders dread - an injury on the board park that prevents you from riding for a few days.

We have an awesome board park here with fat half pipe, kickers, about 5 rails and a 15 foot quarter pipe, which you can see on the far left side of the photo below. The photo was taken from the Alpin Express gondola during the nitro Style Session which I DJd at. Bigup Reto, Tos & Nicholas for shaping the jumps, & Dominic & Gabe for organising the comp.



i had just hit 2 big kickers in a row and wanted to use my speed to ride up the quarter pipe, do a tail stall on the lip (skate style) and drop back in. however it was snowing and viz was pretty shit, so by the time I was riding up the pipe, I couldnt actually see the lip (it wasnt painted or anything)

I was going too fast for the trick I wanted to do, I ended up airing about 6 feet out of the quarter pipe, and did a full body landing, face down on the lip and top of quarter pipe. it didnt hurt too much, tho I did feel my knee hit the snow quite hard.

After a breather in the deck chairs i carried on riding for the rest of the day. It was snowing and i was having fun. thanks to new oakley goggles I could see most things pretty well. However at the end of the day I was getting into one of the gondola lifts and noticed that the laminates at the back of my board had separated - basically, my board was fucked. another eFFing insurance claim

then last night i was DJing in Popcorn, the biggest club in town holding 400 people. it was an awesome night for many reasons. Well after 4 hours on my feet non stop I noticed my knee hurting, and when I got back to the chalet at 4am it was pretty swollen. I went to the doc today & i ahve an inflamed ligament, nothing broken, and i'm off work for a couple of days.

so here's the view from my bed:

This is me when its snowing:

& When its sunny:

The rest of the time I'm working or sleeping

the snow photo was taken after a particularly long day of work - I finished at 3 & it was snowing hard, we were pretty sure the lifts were closed. So me & Amelia went for a walk in the snow. we turned right out the chalet and walked up the hill to the 6 mile Hannig toboggan run, which I rode down until i spotted a 2 foot drop that had been shaped into a jump, and that i'd seen other riders sessioning from my balcony a few weeks earlier. i hit it a couple of times, really nice shape, and a good jump for trying spins as it launches you horizontally rather than upwards. however since then the snow has melted & the runup is grass : ( looks like i've missed my chance to land a 360 off that one.

the sun photo was taken on my warmest day here so far - it registered 18 degrees!!! so i rode in shorts, t shirt & body armour!!! great fun but when doing a sharp heelside edge the snow was flying up my legs!!!!

Saas Fee is a wicked little town. Deceptively quiet, it looks very sleepy and low key - the equivalent french resort would probably have a few lame bars & a cheesefest club for when everything else is closed

but Sass Fee ROCKS!!! HARD!!

below are my favourite bars (photos to come):

Popcorn - free to get into (all the bars in Saas Fee are free), loud sound system, wicked boarder vibe, biggest club in town - I DJd there Sat 30th March - bigup Jonas, Daniella, Nina & Danny



Living Room - upstairs from popcorn, very chilled, loungey vibe - bigup Joe

Metro - weird cosy mining vibe with wrought iron furniture - always live acoustic music - bigup Liz, Morenko & Katya

Happy Bar - across the road from our chalet. I've DJd ther too. Our loyalty is well rewarded with free shakers & pitchers - Bigup Peter! the photo shows all the staff who work in the hotel



Holzwurm - weird german cowboy vibe, only get a mention cos its the cheapest drinks in town - 3 CHF a pint - thats £1.40! everywhere else is 8 CHF a pint

The town itself is very chilled. I'm living in a chalet with 8 people, all of whom work for crystal travel, 4 of whom work in hotel la collina with me. Our chalet is the one on the left of this photo, the Feeblick



its a wicked vibe & theres usually guests of employees crashing on spare beds and sofas. SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!??! COME VISIT ME!!!!

my commute:

the view when it's snowing

the mountain is pretty steep & challenging, there are 2 board parks, the high one being awesome, the low one having smaller jumps, good on snow days when visibility higher up is poor. Also nearby is a resort called Saas Grund, also covered by our lift pass. Grund has a more french vibe, much wider, rolling pistes, very fast. timed myself once & decended 1800 metres in 7 minutes! I'd love to work out my maximum speed!! of course I was listening to infected mushroom when I set the time!!!

i really like it here. its got the alpine charm of a mountain village, the nightlife of a snowboarding hub, and wicked varied riding. the only downside is that off piste is quite dangerous for several reasons; the mountain is very steep so prone to avalanches (most of switzerland is) & there are holes & crevasses everywhere.