Women with Altitude in Meribel & 3 Valleys

Can you introduce us to your four-legged friend? He’s called Paco, he’s a Golden Retriever and is one year old. He’s sociable, full of energy, kind, is starting to obey really well and he works hard. Basically, he’s perfect! What training do you need to be a dog handler and how has Paco been trained?

I’m really lucky because the person I am replacing was a dog handling trainer for ANENA (acronym for the French National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches), so I am trained daily on the job, as well as doing other exercises with the other dog handler apprentices. To begin with, we started simply playing with a toy, then on to the basics: taking a chairlift together, riding a scooter, learning not to jump up at skiers, spending time in the patrol hut… Once winter arrived we started training to learn rescue people who are hidden under the snow. We start by allowing the dog to see the person who is partially hidden in a hole in the snow, then gradually the dogs learn to find people who are completely hidden. For Paco, it’s like a game. He searches for the odour of the person and then starts digging because he knows that the person hiding under the snow will have his toy! In total, the training with the dogs takes around 18 months and finishes with a week-long session which we will do next November with Paco.

How far under the snow can a dog detect the presence of a human? It depends a lot on the snow, whether its slushy, dry, solid… It also depends on the wind. To help, avalanche probes aerate the snow and allow the odours to rise to the surface of more quickly and be detected by the dogs. The dogs are trained from an early age to focus on searching for people lying down, rather than being distracted by odours from the other people who are probing or aiding with the search. The dogs learn never to try and play with people who are standing up and ignore everything else happening to concentrate on finding the victim.

What do you do when you’re not at work, on your days off and in the summer? I’ve worked abroad a lot, and I’ve also worked as a ‘guardienne’ looking after a mountain refuge. This summer I will be working in Ariondaz farm in Courchevel. Aside from work I go trail-running, mountaineering, mountain biking… I make the most of the mountains through the whole 4 seasons!

Last question: which ski slope would you recommend in the ski area?

The Jean-Blanc piste in Courchevel. It’s a beautiful long, forested run with a good descent, it’s varied and undulated. A fun challenge!

What do you do when you’re not at work, on your days off and in the summer? I’ve worked abroad a lot, and I’ve also worked as a ‘guardienne’ looking after a mountain refuge. This summer I will be working in Ariondaz farm in Courchevel. Aside from work I go trail-running, mountaineering, mountain biking… I make the most of the mountains through the whole 4 seasons!

Last question: which ski slope would you recommend in the ski area?

The Jean-Blanc piste in Courchevel. It’s a beautiful long, forested run with a good descent, it’s varied and undulated. A fun challenge!

What do you need to become a driver for the slope maintenance team? There’s no specific qualification to start, so training takes place on the job, with a tutor who shows us the ropes. After 3 years, we can get a professional certificate but there’s not a specific licence, so it’s quite open although jobs don’t come up often so you have to be quite patient!

Why did you choose this career? Mainly because of the mountain environment. When I see what’s around us… Well, we’re all a bit like excited kids, in a permanent state of wonder! Every day of the season I just feel so lucky to be working here. Working in the snow, it’s a real passion for me. I really love it, especially the variations in the work: smoothing the snow, maintaining the slopes, transport for a firework show… We have to make sure we’re attentive and vigilant at all times: keeping an eye out for walkers on the slopes, or people sledging. We have to really concentrate for the whole 6-hour shift, especially when the weather is difficult and there’s a lot of wind.

When we talk about Courchevel having ‘exceptional’ piste grooming, what does that mean? We have always had an extremely high standard of grooming and we want to keep up our reputation! So we’re highly dedicated and give our best every day to ensure that the skiers can expect beautifully groomed pistes the next morning. I have to admit that we are slightly obsessive about details that most skiers would probably miss, but in the night-time when we can distinguish the relief of the slopes better, we can take our time to get it perfect…

How does the piste maintenance get divided up into teams?* Romain, the manager for the piste maintenance, makes a plan each day. Then those in charge of each sector send a small team to each area. We usually have two machines on each area and one winch operator. Depending on the length of the slopes, I could be doing 3 or 4 in a night, or even just one, for example the piste Creux takes 6 hours of work with 2 machines as it’s the longest slope in Courchevel and is very wide in places.