FROM A SEA OF GRIEF TO A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE MOUNTAINS…
We have met so many wonderful people in recent years and they often ask how we came to doing what we do, so here’s a little more about us and our story.
Our love affair with the mountains evolved from every parent’s worst nightmare – the sudden and devastating loss of a child. Following the tragedy of losing Callum, our middle son and stepson, we had two choices: let our grief consume and define us or start to live life, and we mean really LIVE life! When someone so young with their whole glorious life ahead of them dies, it makes you acutely aware of your own mortality and appreciate just how precious and fragile life is. We were catapulted from the comfortable treadmill of our existence and woke up to the fact that we only had the one life and we wanted to truly LIVE it. We started by asking ourselves what our ultimate lifestyle would be if money were no issue. It didn’t take us long to agree on skiing all winter in Vail, Colorado and so that became our focus.
Having decided on Vail, one of America’s most expensive places to live, we quickly worked out that money was going to be an issue and that we would need to work. The most obvious way to secure our ticket there would be to become ski chalet hosts and the only British tour operator with chalet host positions in Vail was Skiworld. Luckily for us, we passed Skiworld’s interview… oh, and they thought Cameron’s lemon drizzle cake was to die for!
Skiworld had a rule that all new starters had to spend their first season in Europe and we were super excited to find ourselves looking after a stunning 14 person ‘signature’ chalet in Nendaz, Switzerland, situated in the Four Valleys and connected to the well-known resort of Verbier.
Chalet hosting came as a bit of shock to start with: working together for the first time, unexpected long hours and having to always be on our best behaviour in front of guests! Cooking breakfast, baking a cake and a preparing a four-course evening meal all from scratch with fresh ingredients 6 days a week was a bit of a job in itself, and then there was cleaning 7 bedrooms each day and doing weekly changeovers and shopping on top of that. We survived our first few weeks with only a couple of minor mishaps – me forgetting to put carrot in the carrot cake and then flour in the courgette cake! I got away with the first one but the latter is definitely not to be recommended!
Thankfully, we soon turned a corner, found our rhythm and really started to enjoy ourselves. We even began to find time to ski!!! Being out amongst the magnificent mountains and their natural awe-inspiring beauty was when our dream really began to come true.
After that first season in Nendaz, we then spent the next 3 winter seasons In Vail and our time there was everything we hoped it would be, and so much more too. We honed our culinary skills and got more efficient in our daily duties and by the end of our 3 seasons, we had our chalet operation running like a well-oiled machine with the huge benefit of being able to spend much more time exploring and having fun on the slopes.
To continue to finance our winter adventures in Vail, we had to find a way to earn a living during the summers and we were bestowed yet another stroke of luck – the opportunity to work for the fabulous Collett’s Mountain Holidays as ‘walk organisers’ in the Italian Dolomites – a UNESCO World Heritage Site for a very good reason!
As a former RAF adventurous training instructor, Cameron had lots of experience of navigating himself and others through unfamiliar territory but I hadn’t done much ‘mountain’ or hill walking before so the thought of being paid to ‘guide’ was a bit daunting. I needn’t have worried. While the maps of the area weren’t quite up to good old British OS Map standard, they were good enough as all the paths were numbered, way marked and very obvious with lots of reference points.
We loved our summer in the Dolomites but the following year we jumped at the opportunity of being resort managers for the fairly new Collett’s product in Ehrwald situated on the German/Austrian border. The moment we arrived, we knew we had found ‘our special place’, which ironically is only an hour’s drive from Oberammergau where we first met in 2000.
In both the Dolomites and Austria, our daily role was to take and perfectly host a group of guests on an enjoyable walk in the area. While we weren’t employed as qualified guides, we needed to know the route, keep our group safe at all times and impart local knowledge along the way including the best places for strudel and beer! It really was the best job in the world!
The 5 years we spent living and working abroad in the mountains as ‘seasonaires’ provided the most incredible and rewarding experience. We met so many wonderful people and made many new and lasting friendships with whom we created fabulous memories and stories. We discovered new places, tried new activities and learned new skills and never before had we been so happy and felt so ALIVE!
You might wonder what made us give it all up. Well, I guess we longed for a permanent base again, somewhere we could call home. Owing to the uncertainty of Brexit and a lack of sufficient funds to buy in Austria, it was time to return to the UK. We had been the happiest we had ever been living and working our 3 summers in Austria so our focus was to replicate as similar an experience and lifestyle as possible. We wanted to be surrounded by breathtaking mountain and lake scenery, so where better than the Scottish Highlands? We loved meeting new people, hosting and helping them create memorable holidays and our favourite activity was walking. So that’s how we came to run our own lovely bed & breakfast business offering walking holidays!
In all honesty, we never thought we’d be able to beat living in Austria but we have got pretty damn close. Spean Bridge and the surrounding area offer us everything we’ve come to love in life – stunning mountain scenery as far as the eye can see, beautiful lochs and lots of ever changing woodlands. As well as being able to pursue our passion for walking and cycling, the ski slopes are only 10 minutes away. We can even see the pistes from our bedroom window!
With Cameron being Scottish, we have returned to his native homeland which means we have some family close by with the rest being at least on the same landmass again, and with 9 bedrooms in total, you can guess where any future family celebrations will be held!
As we write this story, we are in the middle of a global pandemic and are in ‘lockdown’. This most certainly wasn’t part of our first year business plan but it has provided plenty of other opportunities. We have taken what was already a really lovely guest house to a whole new level. We have launched two new products – our walking holidays and our whole house exclusive use rentals, totally revamped our website, freshened up both the interior and exterior of the property and introduced a licensed bar. Now we’re eagerly awaiting the right time to be able to safely reopen our doors so our guests can enjoy our efforts.
Any success our new business enjoys, we dedicate to Callum and his two brothers, Finlay and Elliott.
That’s a little bit of our story! We hope in time, you’ll share yours with us.
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