The winter ski season is in full swing – and one Christian volunteer group has made it their mission to keep those who over-indulge on lunchtime drinks safe when they go back out onto the mountain worse for wear.
While drinking alcohol is par for the course for many enjoying a holiday on the slopes, it poses serious health and safety risks if you’re on skis or a snowboard.
The Christian Ski Angels work in the French resort of Meribel throughout the ski season to help drunken skiers down the pistes in one piece.
Founded five years ago by Lara and Will Sussman, who run the Christian charity Altitude Mission, the team, which calls themselves a ‘welfare service on skis’, intervenes when medics take too long to arrive.
‘People feel very familiar with the mountain after a few days of skiing, but conditions can change very quickly and people go from partying to panicking,’ Lara told The Telegraph.
She said: ‘Jesus would be there in the freezing cold at 2am, helping someone get home in the pitch black after 20 toffee vodkas. We want to do the same.’
Direct Line Travel Insurance estimates that some 400,000 skiers and snowboarders on the slopes might be under the influence in resorts each season, causing some 10,000 injuries – both minor and major.
To avert tragedies, the group of 18 ‘Ski Angels’ volunteers work through the season to help hurt or panicking people – preventing an estimated three to four deaths annually.
With many travellers taking to the French alps for partying at après ski, including Ellie Davidson from Plymouth (pictured), a charity has intervened to protect intoxicated individuals from harm
While most teenagers would demand payment to work in the cold, the Ski Angels go without wages, and instead must fork out almost £7,000 from their own pockets for travel and ski passes.
They each go through an interview process and be a strong enough skier to help those in need. There are also bursaries for those who want to help but are financially unable to spare the expense.
Although they do a maximum three Angel shifts a week, it seems that the team is always on hand to help others, regardless of whether they are on the clock.
Sam Milchem, a 29-year-old Outreach manager and Altitude Mission leader told FEMAIL: ‘Last year we had a girl who was at the nightclub, we weren’t even doing a shift that night, but she had fallen asleep in the nightclub and lost her bag and keys.
‘She was a French girl who was local to here and the manager didn’t know what to do. He brought her to our chalet at 5am and luckily one of our founders, Lara, was up.
‘We put her in a bunk bed and made sure she was somewhere safe. Turns out she had actually lost a pet that day and it had really impacted her and she felt really low.’
In another instance, the Ski Angels, who are all first aid trained, had finished for the evening when a group of friends came up to them, desperately asking for their assistance to help find a lost friend.
He had attempted to walk to another valley, but got trapped in a net and cut his hand on his new skis.
TikTok user India Hogg shares a clip of her friend falling down a slope on their way back from après ski in Meribel
A TikTok user who goes by @la2uramatamala shared a clip of one person on another’s back as they attempted to get home from après ski
Sam Milchem (L) and Zac Missen (R) said he’s had experiences where drunk skiers don’t remember meeting the Angels
The Christian group found him and took him back to their chalet, where they offered him a bed for the night and breakfast in the morning, as they also have refugee beds for those who need them.
Sam admits that there is one nation that tends to have the most issues when it comes to apres-ski. Any guesses?
Sam, originally, from Essex said: ‘Everyone loves talking about the Brits being drunk on the slopes.
‘A lot of the time it is the Brits in these pickles. But we’ve also got French speakers on our team who also help out.’
He says that the volunteers will often work on New Years Eve and he recently did the 3am to 6am shift in the town to help look for intoxicated holidaymakers.
‘If you walk home from a nightclub in the UK and sleep on a park bench you should be alright but if you do that here you won’t wake up,’ Sam said, adding that temperatures in the area can drop as low as -25 degrees.
Last year, the Ski Angels found a British man from Leeds who had been in town visiting his friends.
He fell asleep on a park bench and one of the off-duty Angels who was out enjoying New Year spotted him.
The Angels are pictured assisting two skiers during a dark evening at France’s Meribel
The Ski Angels wear distinctive yellow uniforms so they stand out in the snow to help anyone in need
‘He couldn’t respond, he told us he was from Leeds and that was all the information he gave us,’ Sam said.
Zac Missen, a 27-year-old general manager for the charity, added: ‘We took him back, tried to phone his friends which took a while and hypothermia had already set in.
‘We took him inside [the chalet], wrapped him in a foil blanket and gave him something to eat.’
The pair added that the man had gone out to party in just a hoodie and didn’t have a coat on him in the freezing weather.
Sam added: ‘He didn’t know the resort, it’s tricky, everything looks the same.’
‘I think we ended up on the phone to his mum and she was like “Oh my gosh”.
‘Altitude also affects alcohol. He probably had drunk what he was used to drinking but the alcohol enters your blood faster.
‘I have some funny stories of a lad from Manchester who necked a bottle of rose and I had to carry him because he couldn’t walk properly, he was like “I’m so sorry”.’
Sometimes punters don’t even remember being helped by the Ski Angels, which leads to some interesting interactions the morning after.
Sam said: ‘Some people won’t remember, which is quite funny. I saw a lad who had split his head open and I said “How’s your head?” and he said “How did you know about my head?”
‘I said “Because you showed me and I looked after you and did some first aid” and he was like “Oh I didn’t know that!” So people are really grateful.’
Sam, who worked for a church for eight years, giggled and added: ‘I found a couple off the side [of the mountain] once but they were actually fine, they didn’t need any first aid, I didn’t know they were there.
‘So I’ve ruined a romantic moment for them which was quite funny.’
26-year-old private chef Chris Scully was one of the lucky individuals to receive help from the Ski Angels.
After having a ‘wild time’ drinking, Chris attempted to snowboard down the slope despite being heavily intoxicated.
He failed to correctly clip into his snowboard and crashed into a freezing stream, putting him ‘on the edge of death’.
‘It must have been just five to ten minutes before a Ski Angel appeared. They saw me, realised I needed help, and got me out the water and helped me down to safety,’ he told The Telegraph.
Speaking to FEMAIL, Sam added: ‘If someone wasn’t skiing past actively looking for people, he probably wouldn’t have been found.
‘He was already experiencing hypothermia.’
Sam said the Ski Angels take more of a ‘preventative approach’, attempting to stop ill-thought out decisions before they actually happen.
He said: ‘We encourage everyone to take the bus to the bar, but inevitably we have some people who want to ski because if you’re skiing it’s like riding a bike through London traffic, it’s quicker and you don’t want to be getting on the bus with everyone.
‘But the pistes are technically closed, you shouldn’t be skiing on them. It’s a big bit of land, you can’t close it off. So people will ski it and then find themselves in a bit of a pickle.’
Sam and Zac say the Ski Angels generally deal with around 10 serious cases every year.
Zac, originally from London, said: ‘We found someone who had fallen and broken their back after partying and our team were the first on the team, we’re all first aid trained.
‘We called the emergency services and they used a stretcher to get him off the mountain safely. It was after hours, it was dark and the piste technically wasn’t open.’
Sam added: ‘They might be on their first ever ski trip, their friends have encouraged them to ski down, their friends have left them and they’re on their own freaking out a bit.
‘It’s just coming alongside them and asking them if they want a hand and giving them a pack of Haribos and shining a torch to help them down.’
Although the Ski Angels do maximum three shifts a week, it seems that the team is always on hand to help others, regardless of whether they are on the clock
They also assist at festivals, helping staff to deescalate situations where drunken skiers become aggressive.
Sam says he enjoys working as part of the Altitude Ski Angels team as it helps him to see how faith can help people in a ‘practical way’.
He said: ‘We’re a faith-based community but in a practical way which is really cool. I think so many churches in the UK can struggle with their relevance because people don’t need church anymore, church wasn’t what it once was.’
Ski Angel Ben Perky took to TikTok to share insight into the first day of his 2022 volunteering experience in Meribel.
‘First thing we did was pop on these Ski Angel jackets and then headed out to town to explore the area,’ Ben is heard saying.
In the video, the group walk to the edge of slope before going to the local chapel, enjoying a run, and ending the day with a ‘worship session’.
The charity’s website states: ‘Altitude Mission is a community in Meribel, in the heart of the French Alps, that changes people’s perceptions of God (and church) and introduces them to the love of Jesus.’
The page continues: ‘We show God’s love in action as we welcome in seasonnaires to our chalet with non-judgmental radical hospitality, and through the work of Ski Angels.
‘We live together, worship together and serve together, and we love skiing. Come and see God at work in the most unlikely of places.’
TikTok is full of revellers sharing footage of their skiing antics, with Ellie Davidson from Plymouth posting a clip of her dancing at après ski in Meribel.
The caption read: ‘Hands up if you got too drunk at La Folie Douce and then had to ski down an icy blue run with tears in your eyes thinking it was the end.’
Elsewhere, India Hogg shared footage of her friends tumbling down a black slope in Meribel, writing: ‘POV: When the only route home from après is a black run’.
Another user, who goes by @la2uramatamala on TikTok, showed two people on one pair of skis attempting to get back after a drinking session at après ski in France.
It was announced in 2014 that British skiers and snowboarders who travel to France and get drunk on the slopes will be prosecuted and face up to a year in jail.
At the time of the announcement, gendarmes told how they had becoming increasingly concerned by the numbers of people who descend on the slopes after drinking too much alcohol.
While the British are not always the worst offenders, they have a reputation for getting as drunk in the Alps as they do on Mediterranean beach holidays.
‘The spirit of Ibiza sometimes takes precedence over the spirit of the mountain,’ said Patrick Quincy, a prosecutor in the mountain commune of Albertville, who frequently has to deal with the consequences.
These include collisions which have resulted in serious injuries and, on occasions, even deaths.
Ben Perky (pictured left) took to TikTok to share footage of his first day volunteering as a Ski Angel
Ski angels (pictured) must pay approximately £7,000 when volunteering for the ski season in France
The maximum penalty for skiing while inebriated is a year in prison, but a fine equivalent to just over £14,000 is more likely for less serious incidents.
Mr Quincy confirmed that officials would be pressing charges for any behaviour which endangers lives.
In 2010, the British government launched its own skiing safety campaign warning of the dangers of drinking and skiing.
Posters with the slogan ‘Don’t catch your death’ were put up at airports close to ski resorts in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria.
It comes after a financial consultant who broke her back whilst embarking on a drink-fuelled ski slope sledging saw her £75,000 claim thrown out of court in December.
Charlotte Barber, 53, was on a skiing holiday in the French Alps in February 2018 when she attempted to sledge her way back to her chalet from a local bar.
Having concluded her apres-ski Jagerbomb session with her ‘flirty’ chalet host, Barber embarked on an ill-advised shortcut down a red ski run on a small plastic ‘bum sledge’.
Predictably, the late-night sledging went awry when host Alex Tweedy crashed into Barber from behind causing her serious injuries.
Barber, from Battersea in south London, sustained a head injury, a fractured spine and nerve damage from the incident.
The ski angels who travel to the French Alps (pictured) are typically teenagers on their gap year
The 53-year-old then needed to be transferred to a UK-based hospital in a full-body brace.
Following the crash, the financial consultant was forced to take ten months off work and ultimately decided to sue her ski travel agency Snowchateaux Ltd for £75,000.
But a Central London County Court judge last week ruled that the agency could not be held responsible for Barber’s ‘frolic’ as the impromptu drinking session was not part of her holiday package.
During the hearing of her case, Barber accepted that as a ‘sensible adult’, she should not have attempted such a dangerous commute home having already consumed wine, brandy and jagerbombs.
