POWDER IN FRANCE: Tour of Salomon Factory and La Grave

Words and Photos: John Stifter

Unlike the sketchy snowpack that has riddled North America, our ski brethren on the other side of the Atlantic have been enjoying stability and near record snowfall in some regions—most notably, on the Italian/French border. Feeling a need to escape the avalanche path, POWDER hopped the Atlantic and met up with a generous Salomon crew, where a group of Frenchies gave us a tour of their Annecy, France, prototype factory in addition to filling us in on future objectives.

Annecy, a short 20-minute drive from the international hub of Geneva, Switzerland, acts as an ideal venue to produce skis, boots, and bindings with La Clusaz, Chamonix, and several other French Alps resorts lying within an hours drive. Yet the only Salomon products manufactured in Annecy are produced at the prototype factory. Now, Salomon skis, boots, and bindings are made in Austria and China amongst other places. Nonetheless, you would never know it by the sheer size of the prototype factory and the performance of the new line of Salomon skis—namely, the Shogun, Czar and Rocker.

After following and listening to Salmon Skis’ Hal Thomson, Bruno Bertrand, Jenny Naftulin, and Lionel Favre explain what’s new in skis, boots, and bindings, we cruised around the massive factory. Suffice to say, we were all blown away by the machinery overhead involved with producing products that enable us to slide downhill on snow. From the heavy machinery making boot molds and, subsequently, spitting them out to the different kinds of wood, metal and graphite comprising the makeup of Simon Dumont’s pro model, Mark Abma’s bamboo Shogun or the beast of ash wood in the Rocker, the entire process overwhelmed the naïve. Meanwhile, the French machinists and engineers who have retained their positions amongst the difficult ski and global economy performed their tasks with diligence and pride—since the proto products are now the only French-made Salomon products.

Post Salomon office/factory tour, our crew headed southeast into the Alps—specifically, the ski mountaineering mecca of La Grave. We shacked up at La Chaumine, a quintessential mountain chalet plopped onto the hillside above La Grave. La Chaumine was known as the Skier’s Lodge before evolving into a hotel/hostel/restaurant/bar. We soon met up with ski mountaineer icon Ptor Spricenieks, who recently made La Grave his permanent residence with his new wife. After hearing reports from Ptor of the blowing snow up high on La Meige, we elected to hold off for a day and re-evaluate the next. Notwithstanding, according to Salomon’s Naftulin, “If you don’t like heights, don’t come to La Grave,” she said. Right-o. But cheese, meats, Stella Artois, and wondrous views of the Alps held us over before visiting Bertrand’s home mountain of nearby Serre Chevalier.