Saas Fee is a nice resort, very laid back and peaceful in the traditional Swiss chocolate box style. It’s a quirky place, a car free town where electric buggies are used to move people and goods around, there are funny wooden buildings raised up on stone stilts and plenty of traditional alpine chalets to give this resort nestled on top of large rocks a certain charm.

From around 3:00pm on the Friday a large numbers of excitable riders started gathering around the bottom lift station waiting for the ski piste to be closed off for the remainder of the afternoon and their chance to test out the mountain on two wheels. At 3:30 they closed the mountain to skiers and it was time to practice; the more practice the better too, in order to get to grips with the unfamiliar properties of the white stuff.

After two cable cars and a funicular we reached the top and apprehension and anxiety were probably some of the most prevalent feelings in my head before we were let loose down the course for the first time.

The Swiss had taken a no–nonsense approach to this event; a quick brief at the top was all that was required before they set the group off down the hill being stopped at regular intervals where there was a steep feature or a corner so that you’d know for your race run.

As it turned out the plentiful practice that we’d been looking forward to actually only equated to just this one run, so while the stops on course were useful to warn us of what we could expect it did mean you had no idea of how fast you could hit a turn or drop, though it was clear that it would more than likely be faster than you’d ever been before.

Those familiar with the surface and the course clearly had the upper hand. Even on this stuttering first run the rush of the speed and the acceleration was clear, with absolutely no effort whatsoever you were really shifting along, and I mean shifting.

Practice was clearly a mix of those that had got it and those that had not – and the void was quite obvious. Charging and power drifting or dribbling and sledging alongside one’s bike, I really didn’t want to be one of the latter but with no time to get into a groove and work things out I was dangerously close to the precipice.