Where to Ski And Snowboard - Ski Club Leaders move to Zermatt

Ski Club Leaders move to Zermatt

14th May 2015, by Abi Butcher

Ski Club Leaders take its members around ski resorts both on and off piste

The Ski Club of Great Britain has moved its Leader course from Tignes to Zermatt, following a court decision that rendered its Leading services illegal in France.

Ski Club Leaders are trained at the beginning of the season so they can guide Ski Club members around different ski resorts in Europe and North America — both on and off-piste.

The training course has been held in Tignes for years, but due its Leading programme being outlawed in France, the course has now been moved to the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt.

“We’ve had many great years in Tignes running the Leader course but due to the local restrictions in France of Leading on snow, we are relocating our course to a new venue of Zermatt,” said Jonny Cassidy, general manager of Ski Club Freshtracks.

“Zermatt has long been a popular destination with Ski Club members and offers ideal terrain for training our Leaders along with an excellent early season snow record. While we are currently unable to have our Ski Club Leaders service in France, we will continue to still offer Ski Club Freshtracks Holidays to Tignes and other major resorts in France working with fully qualified guides and instructors. We’re looking forward to welcoming the new recruits onto this year’s course and the familiar faces for our refresher course in December.”

Mr Cassidy added that the Ski Club’s somewhat controversial policy of allowing Leaders to guide members off-piste remained unchanged.

“Our volunteer Leaders are able to ski with members off the piste, if the conditions are safe and within strict limits as per the off-piste policy,” he said.

“The policy was reviewed at the end of the 2014/15 season in line with our usual annual review and it was agreed by Nigel Shepherd (our alpine safety advisor and course director) that we currently are not making any changes.”

Mr Cassidy added: “For when members wish to ski more adventurous terrain that sit outside our policy of skiing close to the piste in safe conditions with an easily accessible route back to the piste, then they are taken by qualified mountain guides and instructors.”