Randonnée as a way of life

Finnish extreme skiing enthusiasts establish settlement in Switzerland

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By Kirsi Hyytiäinen in Verbier, Switzerland
     
      "Got any change?” Nikke Smith asks his friend Tero Repo in the village of Verbier in the Swiss Alps.
      An entire colony of Finnish skiers has been established in the popular Swiss ski resort. A group of around twenty Finnish ski enthusiasts spend at least a couple of months here during each ski season.
     
The young adults who have settled here are passionate skiers, but not ski-bums. The entire ski-bum term is outdated and outmoded. Rather, one should refer to them as “lifestyle skiers”.
      “In today’s world, where everything is getting more and more expensive, it is not even possible to survive just through panhandling”, explains commercial science student Arttu Muukkonen, whose programme for this ski season includes Utah, the Alps, and the mountains of Norway.
      In addition to seasonal work, Muukkonen has financed his skiing hobby through freelance journalism and photography. “I hope that writing about and photographing skiing would indeed become a full-time job.”
     
Snowboarder Nikke Smith, who was just now bumming money for a cup of coffee, works at Number One, a popular sports store in central Verbier, So does Telemark skier Hannu Kukkonen. Both men, now residents of Verbier, originate from Eastern Helsinki.
      “We both came here driven by the same ski-hippie spirit.”
      The young men check their work schedules. “Work gets in the way of skiing quite a bit. We spend as much time as possible on the hills, even our lunch breaks. To miss fresh powder because of work is a real drag, I can tell you.”
     
A true lifestyle skier does not bother with the groomed slopes. Off-piste skiing is what it is all about, and the offer the better.
      “The best deals have been the two-or-three-day ski treks, where we have slept in mountain refuges without electricity. We hike into trackless canyons and ski down the mountains until we’re completely legless.”
     
Ex ski-bum Petri Halme, 44, has established the Elämysmatkat (“Adventure Journeys”) travel agency. Halme started his company, which specialises in active holidays, by organising bus trips from Finland to the Alps.
      Today his business employs two persons in Verbier: Veera Vasunta works there all year round and Maiju Aalto through the winter.
      “Sometimes people grumble that we are probably not interested in real life, as we settle for snow”, the girls laugh. “But there is life here, too. We just weren’t meant to sit in front of a computer screen seven hours a day.”
      The girls are on call in the Pub Mont Fort, a popular and legendary local drinkery and hang-out, where clients can easily find them in case they have something to ask.
     
French-Finnish Laurent Royer manages the successful Farinet Hotel in the centre of Verbier. The hotel includes a restaurant and a bar and employs 60 people.
      “As a ski-bum I used to earn money to support my hobby through odd jobs such as bartending. Now I do not have so much time to ski any more”, Royer says while glancing at the tourists relaxing in the hotel lobby.
     
“The success of the business has taken me by surprise. Six years ago the hotel was about to go under. Now my aim is to buy shares in the company.”
      Even though Switzerland is famous for its hotel and catering schools, Laurent has advanced in his career without any formal education in the field. Experience of life has proved more valuable than book learning.
      Laurent hires Finnish girls to work behind the counter.
      “I know what’s on their mind: skiing and people. The job comes last.”
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.2.2009

More on this subject:
 Lifestyle skiing and collecting the empties in the pub

Links:
  Backcountry skiing (Wikipedia)
  Telemark skiing (Wikipedia)
  Verbier official site
  Pub Mont Fort, Verbier
  Elämysmatkat (Website in Finnish)

KIRSI HYYTIÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat