While my title might conjure up thoughts of a year where Covid turned the world on its head, 2020 also brought about some positive things. In 2020 we were forced to slow down and take stock of life and the world around us. In Switzerland, we were largely protected from drastic lock-downs seen in neighbouring countries and while Swiss Alpine Adventure could not run group activities we were still free to take part in outdoor activities for ourselves and in small private groups.
Many people rediscovered long lost hobbies or took up new sports in 2020. Retail stores suffered drastic shortages of stock, partially due to the inability to get goods from the far east, but also due to the newfound interest of many people who suddenly found time to get out and enjoy nature again. Bike sales, touring ski sales, stand up paddle sales all increased in 2020 as people used the good weather that summer to spend more time outdoors.
Despite the strict restrictions we had in winter 2020/21 this interest in getting outdoors remained, the sale of touring skis went through the roof as people tried to find ways of going skiing and maintaining a “social distance”. Covid regulations meant we had to drastically reduce our group sizes which in turn led to us having to massively increase our prices. Despite this, the interest still remained and we managed to keep our heads above water through the worst of the pandemic. (our event prices have returned to normal since summer 2021)
2021
In Summer 2021 there seemed to have been Covid tiredness which together with bad weather conspired to generate a lack of enthusiasm for outdoor sports. This appears to be somewhat continuing into winter 2021/22 which is why we are hoping that “2020 too” will bring back the positive aspects of 2020 as we start to slowly move past the pandemic that has now been hanging over us for almost two years.
As with many other small organisations, the pandemic has led to new challenges. We have to reserve hotels and guides sometimes up to a year in advance and those who we take those reservations with are in turn dependent on us honouring our bookings. As this Covid “tiredness” develops and people are perhaps scared to commit to events due to the possibility of regulations changing, it makes it more and more difficult to provide the services we have been providing for 15 years now so we would love your help to keep our heads above water.
The philosophy of Swiss Alpine Adventure has always been to try to build a community of people passionate about sharing outdoor sports with others. Our goal is to take as many obstacles as possible away from getting safely into some of the activities which Switzerland lends itself to. To do this we run courses with local qualified guides and instructors for the sports we organise. But, since we started back in 2007 community activities have played an important role. Covid restrictions and me personally having less time available to run regular after-work rides or one-day bike tours has led to fewer community activities in the last few years. This is something I’d love to find a way to correct in 2022.
Help Needed
If you would like to help Swiss Alpine Adventure in 2022 there are a number of ways you can get involved such as:
- Registering (and paying) early for an event which you would like to participate in
- Signing up to our website and getting involved in our forum. With enough participants on the forum it would be great to regrow the community and see people organising spontaneous ski trips or bike rides there, but also sharing experiences and advice with outdoor sports in Switzerland.
- Suggest some events that you think might be great for our community
- Getting involved in organising hiking or mountain bike day trips or afterwork rides to help keep the community going. (we can offer some discounts in equipment for people who do this)
- If you are thinking about buying some new watersports equipment in 2022 then think about contacting us. We can provide special deals on SUPs, kitesurfing equipment, windsurfing equipment, wetsuits and certain accessories.
In a time when regulations can change on a daily basis, we are working as hard as possible to ensure that our activities can be run smoothly.
Event Registration
As most of you now know, all event registrations run through our website since March 1st 2021. For a number of reasons, the option to sign up on meetup no longer exists and the number of people registered for an event on meetup does not represent the number of people attending an event. The number of places still available for an event can be seen on the event page on swissalpineadventure.com
If in some cases you have managed to sign up for an event on meetup your sign-up is not valid until you have registered and paid through swissalpineadventure.com
Upcoming Events
- Saturday Ski tour – 8th January
- Advanced Ski tour – 9th January
- Introduction to off-piste Skills – 15/16th January
- Improver off-piste skills – 15/16th January
- Introduction to Ski touring – 15/16th January
- Off-piste Weekend away – Vals (touring/freeride) – 22/23rd January
- Saturday Ski tour – 29th January
- Advanced Ski tour – 30th January
- Saturday Ski tour – 5th February
- Beginner Ski tour – 6th February
More events are available on our website – check them out here: https://swissalpineadventure.com/events
We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you either online or at an event in the near future.
Kind Regards,
Dave
