It’s All Downhill From Here

Seven bedrooms. Your own spa. There’s skiing and then there’s Chalet Brevières skiing It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not THAT one. The one where you get past that and start planning ski season. If you’re looking for a selection of venues, then AMA Selections would appear to be aptly named. And,…
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Beyond The Vail

Fancy some good ethics with your skiing perks? Vail Resorts have got you covered “We will not waver in our commitment to continuously reinvest in the ski and ride experience,” says Ryan Bennet, Chief Marketing officer of Vail Resorts. He’s got a point. Already a very fine place to ski – we’ve even got a…
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Vail’s Commitment to Zero

Vail, renowned for its acres of unparalleled skiing terrain and legendary back bowls, visitors come to take on the mountain, and stay to explore the European styled villages awash with restaurants and shops. We spoke with Vail Resorts’ Senior Director of Sustainability to find out how Vail is committing itself to zero impact on the…
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It Gstaaded with a Kiss – The Gstaad Palace, Switzerland

Lusso’s resident priapus, Donald Twain, takes the slow train to arguably the finest Alpine resort in Switzerland and the white wet stuff gets everywhere. Etc.   Of course you’ve been skiing before. Loads, I imagine. So why bother reading about some odd-named nobody going to Switzerland and falling down a mountain? Well, because skiing done…
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Val Deserving

Skiing’s come a long way from flammable onesies and rubbery fondues. These days it can be just as much of a gastronomic adventure as a sporting one and nowhere offers a better luxury luge than snow sports mecca, Val d’Isère. Via Lusso’s extensive knowledge-gathering network we can reveal everything you should be getting up to when you’re not on the…
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Altitude Slickness – Le Chardon Mountain Lodges

Like the Olympics, but cooler in every way, next month’s Winter Games will set the Russian government back £50 billion. We’ve done some rudimentary sums and that seems like a lot, even for Russians. Of course, unless the weather does a dramatic turn around, Sochi (which reached 63F last February) will be hard pushed to live up…
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Andy Quin: Sweet Six Tignes

Mr Gelsen, my CEO, had suggested I take a break; it’s what Father would have wanted, he said. After all, the impending IPO was nothing I need be wrapped up in, and the mountains are so charming in the spring. Six weeks should cover it, we agreed. I had one stipulation: if I was to…
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Bodo’s Schloss, London

Perched by one of the gingham-clad wooden tables at the new Bodo’s Schloss, one of the not-quite-as-young-as-he-thinks-he-is vultures circling the room slid into the pine booth next to me. “So,” he drawled, “where do you ski?” “Banff” I replied. “Oh,” he says with evident disdain. “We ski in Méribel”. It was just too tempting. “Ergh.…
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Shining Happy People: The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously. Like admiring David Cameron for his attempts to bring Etonian, bloody-good-chap decency to the pragmatic horrors of governing in a coalition, yet suspecting him of being nefariously on the side of the privileged and ancestrally elite. Tricky. Pop…
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All White on the Night: The BCV 24hr Villars Ski Race

It was at this point, having dismounted the gondola at Roc d’Orsay and assumed something approaching a jog to give the cheering crowds a semblance of my racing intent, I mounted my skis and began slaloming down the upper reaches of the course, with a certain panache, I like to think. The snow here was…
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