On March 15th, Verbier once again played host to the Boss des Bosses. For the uninitiated, the Boss des Bosses is Europe’s biggest inter-resort mogul competition. Like many a good idea, it’s origins can be traced back to late night drunken banter! Way back in 1990 an argument broke out in a Val d’Isere bar about which ski resort had the best skiers. The obvious way to settle the question being to get a bunch of skiers together, put them in fancy dress, pour a load of booze down them and send them down a monstrous field of moguls!
This year ES Sponsored the event, and our instructors were on hand to help build the course, carving out the bumps and shaping up the kickers in preparation for the arrival of the teams from Zermatt, Chamonix, Portes du Soleil and, of course Verbier. Each team consisted of 5 skiers, 1 telemarker, 1 snowboarder and at least 2 girls, with several of our own instructor were competing for both Verbier and Zermatt. The simple format sees the winner of each head-to-head race pick up a point for their team. An extra point is available for best form and best jump on the line of kickers at the bottom of the course.
The competition got underway around 2pm, once the spring conditions had softened up and the bumps became slushy. In the spectators‘ area however, things got underway a little bit earlier particularly at the ES bar where we’d arranged for a supply of the excellent local beer from Winslow brewery.
As always the level of skiing was mind-blowing! Each skier spurred on by the crowd, showed scant regard for their knees as the hammered down through the bumps and span and flipped off the kickers. After whittling down the field it was left to Chamonix and Verbier to fight it out in the final, in the end the Verbier team reigned victorious with help from our very own instructors Elias and Julia. Chamonix came in second and Portes du Soleil completed the podium in third place.
As the competition came to a close the party showed little signs of slowing up as competitors and spectators alike slid the short distance down to Le Rouge. Once again a great day and a successful competition helped the Boss des Bosses to secure its place as one of the highlights of the season!