After three successful years in Tignes Natives moved their Summer snow sport Weekender to Zermatt, and what a great idea that was. Words such as "amazing" "best" "hilarious" "boulevard" and "hot tub" really describe the entire event. It was like speed dating for rude people, Natives Jim Duncombe reports...

Weekend to end all weekends
For those of you who didn't attend, it would be unfair to bleat on about the huge success of the weekend but we will.

Starting a holiday with the right airline always helps, that is why we teamed up with SWISS International Air Lines to provide the team with transport, and sensibly they only allowed us into the business lounge on our return.

Once in resort, everyone had a shower, spruced up a bit, unpacked and orientated themselves, oh hang on I'm getting confused with the WI summer weekender next door, all of our lot left their bags some place close to their room and headed for Nelly's bar.

It didn't take long before Jager bombs and toffee vodka were literally being drunk by literally everyone even Roy, although Roy was drinking in a separate bar from us after getting a bit lost. The welcome speech was straight from the tour operator text book. At the time of writing I have no idea where we all ate. But we did eat and then danced all night. (We ate at Nelly's who provided us with a delicious BBQ - thanks Nelly! Ed)

The 'Gaffa app'
In cool of the first morning, the hour long journey gave us plenty of time to reflect on how we felt and what we had done the night before. Even with a hangover the views of Zermatt its glaciers and the mighty Matterhorn (courtesy of Ski Paradise Matterhorn) are impressive, well until we turn up with the newest iphone app, Gaffa tape and megaphone and the Glee soundtrack.

The Ski Club of Great Britain Giant Slalom was taken very seriously with amazing efforts put in by some contenders. Emma Morris finally clinched the female snowboarder category. There was a surprise win for Donnie McLeod in the men's snowboard as he beat hotly tipped James Nathan.

What was more surprising was that Jamie Muir came second, what was even more surprising was that he made it to the race course at all. Lala Stewart came 1st in the ladies ski category closely followed by the race sponsers own staff; Carrie Hainge and Betony Garner.

Had it been a mixed competion and not divided into male female, the top three female skiers would have come second third and fourth. Fortunately for the men this wasn't the case, allowing James Gambrill to take first with Lee 'sweet cheeks' Randle in second and despite being visually impaired Matt 'slitty eyes' Williams came in third.

Touting for treasure
The afternoon introduced the all new Matterhorn Mystery Challenge, which involved teams performing tasks such as handlebar moustache licking, tourist groping and cross dressing. Points were awarded for tasks completed. It's definitely worth checking out the online photos of this as they are truly inspiring. The eventual winners were the imaginatively titled Team 1.

Blown away with the Bubble
The evening's food came from the brand new and very tasty Bubble Bar. For those able to manage a second night out on the town, they got to witness Betony's rapid skills at bongo playing as well as the Off The Piste reps finally meeting their match in a bottle of Stroh 80.

Morning came too soon for some but we were all still keen to take part in the Metrosnow.co.uk Dual Slalom. The teams were set, and as it became clear that some people couldn't make it, the teams were reset.
 
The conditions were tough, which was proved by James Gambrill, winning his second prize of the weekend for best wipeout, it was truly Olympic. After a few debatable judging decisions, mainly down to the umpire being mildly distracted, we had our final.

Once again the Ski Club was one of the fastest teams on the course and battked hard in the final against the four boys from Off The Piste. It was close, but youth was the deciding factor and Off The Piste won.

We're all winners
It became clear in the afternoon that some people are natural winners, and in the case of team 'Real Men Love Salad' this wasn't the case, they lost every game of the beach volleyball, due to lack of effort.

The final was between team 'Caravan' and, yes you guessed it, the Ski Club of Great Britain, who went on to win in a nail biting final.

A quiet Saturday night in with a board game...
On Saturday night it was time for the prize giving and fancy dress night at Nelly's with the theme set as 'board games'. The event was held at Nelly's who provided us with great food and a made sure we drank a funicular load of alcohol.

The outfits were brilliant, from Twister to Scrabble, every one made a huge effort and it was hard to decide who would be the eventual winner of the prize for best costume. In the end Mr Monopoly, played by Donnie McLeod was the well deserving winner.

Before dancing and singing and secret liaisons began, the two biggest prizes of the weekend had to be given out. This included two free flights courtesy of SWISS which went to 'Slitty Eyes' and the weekend for two in Zermatt, thanks to Zermatt Tourist board which went to the ever grateful James Nathan from VOS.
 
Final countdown
The party went into the small hours, sponsored by a free bottle of Jager from Schnevitzen, and the small hours turned into checking out time and suddenly it all came to an end.

All the photos for this night and the whole weekend can be found on our website and facebook pages.
A huge thanks to our sponsors, a massive thanks to those who put together the weekend and a big pat on the back to everyone that made it home.

See you next year...

 With thanks to our sponsors...