Our Alpine Evening is a ‘virtually’ perfect event!

On May 5th, hundreds of skiers and snowboarders joined us for an evening of virtual après-ski, hosted by the biggest names in UK winter sports. The first ever Alpine Evening was a huge success and has raised an incredible £21,000 so far!

Our Patrons and BBC 2 Ski Sunday presenters Chemmy Alcott, Graham Bell and Ed Leigh (live from New Zealand!) hosted the event, with appearances also from Olympic Bronze Medallist Jenny Jones, legendary ski instructor Warren Smith and BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner.

Streaming live from ‘Chalet Snow Camp’, attendees heard from our young people on how our life changing work is continuing to support them during these difficult times, as well as from the Chair of our Trustees, Alan Grant and Founder Dan Charlish. Thank you to our young people Ross, Susie, Jack and Tamsir and our programmes team Laura, Chris, Shayleigh, Morv and Gavin (pictured below) for speaking to wonderfully last night! The interviews were incredibly moving and we’re so proud of you!

We absolutely loved seeing attendees getting into the après spirit! Families gathered across the country in their retro ski kit on their sofas. Many got out their cocktail kit to make our Mountain Mojito with Simeon Gunn from Drinks Abode and we saw people enjoying traditional alpine food and drink like tartiflette and genepi throughout the evening. A highlight was when everyone rocked out to that classic tune…. the Ski Sunday theme song! Chemmy’s dance moves will go down in history.

Congratulations to Elisha James for winning the retro ski fancy dress competition! Chemmy, Ed and Graham were not only impressed by your outfit, but by your incredible retro dance moves! We hope you enjoy your prize, an outfit from OOSC!

Check out these other amazing outfits, which were submitted by supporters enjoying the evening on social media via  #snowcampalpineevening:

Dan Charlish said: “We are all so pleased at how successful our first ever virtual Alpine Evening was. During these difficult times it’s even more important to come together as a community, share some positive stories and have some fun together. Putting on an evening like this certainly would not have been possible without the support of our incredible patrons and ambassadors, and also our young people, who joined us virtually during the evening. Our fundraising events are essential in helping us continue our work with young people across the country, and this evening held particular significance with all our regular events having to be cancelled or postponed. Thank you to everyone who donated!”

Chemmy Alcott said: “Supporting Switch180’s programme Snow Camp is always a priority for me, having seen the life changing work they do. But especially now in this pandemic when the young people have had their structure and learning through participating in sport taken away. This evening was a fun, entertaining and important celebration of everything Snow Camp have achieved and all the lives they will positively help in the future. I was honoured to be hosting with the Ski Sunday crew!”

Watch it all again here

Did you miss the evening? Or do you want to watch it again? Full recording available below:

Or watch through some of our favourite moments in Alpine Evening recap video below:

And now for the thank yous…

Firstly, we would just like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated so far, every pound raised will make a big difference to so many young lives, we honestly can’t thank you enough! We have been absolutely blown away by everyone’s generosity, especially during these difficult times.

Special shout out to our biggest donors of the evening: Eric Darde and Les Hôtels d’En Haut, Andy and Tracey Bell, Nick Powell, Dave and Karen from Summit Special, Georgina Morris, the Webb family and the Braithwaite Family Foundation.

Thank you to our amazing hosts, our special guests and to Simeon Gunn for taking part, we really couldn’t have done it without you, and we are so grateful to have your continued support.

Thank you to Jenny Jones for auctioning goggles from the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which were won by Guy Bartlett with a huge £570 bid! Thank you.

Thank you to Warren Smith and the Warren Smith Ski Academy team for donating £500 and for auctioning 5 academy course places, which raised a staggering £5000!

Thank you to OOSC, Absolute Snow and Ellis Brigham for donating prizes.

If you enjoyed the evening or are watching it for the first time today and would like to donate, please click on our donate button in the menu bar.

Our event partners: