Day 8: Last day of Swiss Bliss

Ahh, sadly it is time to leave this environmental pod-heaven ... so, I hand over to my final guest blogger who is relaxing in the chalet before his morning run around the mountain.

Lazy E: Adou, what do you think about the state of the world today? Adou, Adou?

Adou: Zzzzzzzzz

Day 7: Guest Travel Writer ~ Matthew Brace

Today, I hand over the blog to award winning travel writer and foreign correspondent Matthew Brace, who kindly let me sit in on his conversation with Sofia de Meyer, the founder with the vision and determination to bring Whitepod into existence.

Matt: what struck me was the amount of effort gone into Whitepod - all running around to keep it going. Give me idea of how much effort put in.

Sofia: The pods come first. As we do not use cement to fix them in the ground, we must pitch them with the first frost in November which freezes the structure into the ground and then the snow provides insulation. As soon as platform is set, everything follows. To set up camp requires huge logistics - from working out the amount of petrol needed for the lamps, matches, fire-lighters, kindling, wood pre-ordered for season - I'm starting to have a mathematical brain!

When we dismantle the pods, such is the limited impact on the environment, you would not know we had been here. Currently we are in discussions with a Charpentier - structural wood engineer - to find a way to set them without frost. One way would be with thin steel cables which will anchor the pod like a tent. The pods will have their green summer jackets and we will use green mesh to cover under the platform as well to ensure their appearance sits well with nature.

My staff help set up the camp because they then realise what is involved, so that they are part of and are included in the philosophy. Team work is important here: you cover everything. They say a successful busines is built as a pyramid, I say no it's a horizon, with each person on the same level. Look at the guy behind Patagonia.

Matt: In the summer will the Whitepod experience leave a larger impact on nature?

Sofia: No - and this is very important to us. There are mountain pathways already marked out - so walkers will be using existing paths. Also there are four established hiking routes here. We are very keen to introduce kite flying and there will be rock climbing in the Pointe de Valerette. The Dent du Midi is behind, with her seven peaks that look like teeth, where you can also go walking on established routes and rock climbing.

Matt: Do you have an established written eco-philosophy?

Sofia: Yes, you can find our eco-philosophy on our website Whitepod.com. I am at the moment preparing a little booklet which guests can refer to and take home. We want to inspire guests to do likewise at home, even the little things, such as be considerate to others, to use ecologically kind cleaning materials. We also have very little waste. Our composting and recycling is very organised - no packaging, as 95% of our food is sourced locally and brought in wooden crates. Fruit comes from local growers in Monthey, except for oranges which come from Spain. Almost nothing comes from outside of Europe. Dried fruit is local but not the nuts. Vegetables are either organic or local. If you buy local Swiss produce it is close to European organic standards, because pesticides etc are not allowed to be used in Swiss farming. So, most of our food nearly organic or mostly organic.

Matt: How did you come to decide to do this instead of continuing as a city lawyer in London?

Sofia: I always kept it with me the love of nature. I grew up in Villars, and my father was a fantastic person and great influence. As a child I used to help him out with the chalets he renovated and as he grew older, I would run up the hill to check the chalets and we would then sit down and have our chunk of cheese and admire the mountains. He meant everything that matters to me - he taught me patience and respect for nature.

After six years in law, there came a point in time to decide whether to become a partner in my London city firm. That was my crossroads three years ago when I was 30 years old. So I came back here and spent three days in the forest for inspiration. At the end of the three days my decision was made. I had decided I wanted to create something for me, it was important to me to have a philosophy that means respect for nature.

Matt: What other influences shaped your vision?

Sofia: I have travelled much and I always aimed to travel within eco-tourism guidelines, sleep locally where local communities gained, and where I would gain some education of the local environment. To set up Whitepod I first of all followed the international eco-tourism guidelines. When I read the document, I realised that the guidelines had different emphasis to different places. For instance, it was very different in Africa from here in Switzerland eg we don't have a water shortage. But we have a lack of knowledge of the alpine environment, how to protect the slopes, that we can do to promote less invasive activities such as snow-shoeing. It became clear to me when reading the report that there is a need for eco-tourism, but how should we apply it? These issues came up again and again, and the recent Eco-tourism Summit highlighted the necessity of low impact, education and the need to give back to the local community. I want to set up Whitepod camps where they need assistance - for instance, set up temporary camps in Nepal to bring tourism to the place for building the community, then once it is established we can leave.

Matt: Why Pods?

Sofia: It started from wanting a removable structure - therefore a tent. I looked at teepees, yurts, but they were not right, then finally found the pod. I chose it because it was innovative, gave maximum space, has good heat retention and has a window, which you cannot have with yurt. We had it modified, and now we are building our own because we want total immersion with nature, totally dismountable and have it made locally with people with limited skills. They made our ceramic tableware, which took four months. We said, okay, then we will wait. And now we have lovely mugs, plates, pouring jugs etc.



Matt: Have the Swiss been receptive to the Pods?

Sofia: We ran into huge problems. They say it doesn't fit with the laws of chalet construction despite being low impact. I say that they must close the book of chalet rules and look at this differently. The only way we can do this for the moment is that we apply for temporary structure permits every 4 months, but we are now running out of the argument of it being temporary. I have been asked to sit on a forum to put Whitepod forward as a good example of sustainable tourism. There is a huge gap between low impact builds and planning laws, especially in Switzerland. Eco tourism needs to be incorporated widely so that it can progress. We need local planning laws and local support so that we can plan for the future, for even the next season.

Matt: What about incorporating renewable technologies such as solar panels?

Sofia: Yes, we looked at soft material solar panels for pods but we do not really need them. We have also considered it for the chalet, but we do not get enough sun at this side of the mountain for it to be a practical solution at the moment. Instead, we took out much of the lighting from the chalet, to reduce usage. Next year we are putting in place a thermal underground pump for all our hot water supplies. When we took on these premises, we prepared the ground for it from the outset, so all that is needed is now for it to be put in place in time for next winter season.

Matt: You have proved that eco-tourism works and is economoically viable. People want this experience, but there seems to be a reluctance to take on such a business concept.

Sophia: You are right. In the business world, ecology equals failure, bad quality. However, I think we can turn this around. You can sleep in a tent but it can be warm, comfortable and luxurious. Our pods are low impact, considerate impact. The most frustrating thing is that it's easier to be non-ecological. Look at most consumerism and tourism - one advert here offers free car parking for the ski pistes covered in artificial snow, which is all wrong. It makes it more difficult for people to be environmentally ecological in their decisions. Whitepod offers an ecological experience.

Matt: Any plans for the future?

Sofia: We want to take Whitepod further afield. We are planning to franchise the concept and have received huge interest from all over the world. There are many people who want to buy pods, but we decided not to sell without the philosophy. So we decided the best way is to franchise, so that we can retain that element of control. When you sign a franchise contract, you receive an operations manual, and the investment plan is all set out. The operation manual goes into great detail down to what the cleaner needs, how many hours are required to clean pod etc. The idea is that it is all set out for you so that you can read it and open tomorrow. There is also management support for the first month to assist and oversee, so that the whole operation can be set up smoothly. It's going to be a busy year!


Hotel Heaven,
Confessions of a Luxury Hotel Addict
by Matthew Brace
published by Random House
Due out in Spring 2007

Day 6: The Perfect Day

More snow in the night and picture perfect blue skies with the sun slowly climbing round the mountain. So achingly beautiful is this sight, I quickly pull on my boots. Off I crump into the knee-high snow through the woods and up the meadows to the abandoned cow shed, where I sit awhile to gaze in wonder at the Narnia stretched out before me.


Back in time for a late lunch before heading off with Alain up the mountain on our skis where he takes me to a high point way above the pods. There, we harness up to his paraglide before ski-ing off the edge and soaring high. I have no fear as I know I am in the safest hands - Alain has not only successfully taken a blind man paragliding, he has talked him through his descent from Mont Blanc and is the inventor of the first paraglide harness seat for paraplegics. So, I reckon, he knows what he is doing.

Ah! But this is utterly fantastic, and I laugh with the sheer exhilaration of the initial lift-off. So this is what it is like to fly like a bird - and the silence, the stillness, then whoop we dip and twist and play acrobatics with the air currents, before eventually coming to a gentle landing in a field in the valley. I feel a heightened sense of being alive and am elated, my heart beating hard, wanting to repeat the experience all over again.

But no time, evening will soon be drawing in, promising a remarkable sunset, and after dinner it is proposed we go skiing in the light of the full moon. A perfect day indeed...

Day 5: Guest Explorer ~ Ben Saunders

Still here at Whitepod, now under a good few more feet of freshly falling snow. Tobogganing at midnight brought some impressive bruises (thanks Ben!), and off-piste skiing this morning will doubtless bring more...

So, this afternoon, I am going to hand over my blog to another guest and fellow podster: my favourite arctic explorer, multi-marathon runner and all round athlete Ben Saunders.

Lazy E: Having trekked the arctic three times now, you'll have witnessed a changing environment at first hand. Please do tell us about what you saw.

Ben: The climate of the high Arctic is changing fast. The warming that’s happening is inescapable, indisputable fact. And when you see it firsthand, as I've been lucky to do over the last six years, the pace and the scale of this change is breathtaking. According to a recent NASA survey, 750,000 sq km of perennial sea ice (an area three times the size of Great Britain) disappeared between 2004 and 2005 alone.


In 2000, expeditions setting out for the North Pole from the north coast of Siberia were able to walk straight from the land on to the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean. When I flew by helicopter to the same starting point in 2004, we found more than 20km of open water between the coast and the edge of the pack ice.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, described the Arctic as the "barometer of global climate change…an environmental early warning system for the world." If he’s right, then this barometer is telling us that there’s major change on the way. We’re not talking about fractions of decimal points, either; the size of the areas of ice that are melting is barely comprehensible.

Lazy E: I know each expedition takes many months of planning and that you are also very concerned about limiting your impact on the environment. Can you tell us about the modern technological advances that you are using?

Ben: The most exciting technology for me right now is solar power. On an expedition to the Greenland ice cap in 2005 we experimented with using flexible photovoltaic panels for the first time. I didn’t have particularly high hopes – I expected to be constantly trickle-charging batteries and then charging our gear (satellite phones, cameras, video gear, ipods) from this giant battery, but the reality blew me away. Our suppliers (Iowa Thin Film Technologies) sent us a 1.8 metre panel that weighed less than a kilo, and being rather doubtful that it could provide us with enough power, I plonked it on my windowsill in Putney on a grey London day and plugged it into my laptop. An hour later it was fully charged, and I was gobsmacked. Why wasn’t every roof in London covered with this stuff?


It continued to impress us throughout the month-long expedition. Despite shooting hundreds of photographs, a few hours of digital video, and updating my website each evening using a power-hungry satellite phone and a palm-top computer, we never once used a battery. Everything was solar powered.

In the future, we’re planning to have photovoltaic fabric incorporated directly into our tent and sledge covers, and perhaps into the shoulders and arms of our jackets.

Lazy E: What great expeditions are on the offing for 2007, and how can we follow your progress?

Ben: I’m off to Antarctica in October with a fellow adventurer, Tony Haile. Our aim is to make the first unsupported return journey to the South Pole on foot. From the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back to the coast again. At 1,800 miles, it will be the longest unsupported polar journey in history, and we expect to be on the ice for four months. You can find out more at www.south.com, or at my blog, www.bensaunders.com

Lazy E: You are a bit of a regular whitepodster now. What is it about this place that draws you back?

Ben: I love it here. The scenery, the fresh air, the company, the food, the skiing and of course the pods themselves, this wonderful mix of eco-inspired high-tech and low-tech, geodesic domes and wood-burning stoves. It’s the perfect antidote to 21st century London living.

Day 2: A Day in the Life of a Podster

Slept late! It's either the mountain air or testimony to what must be one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in. To have slept so long and deeply is a gift for an insomniac. Ahh, but then to waken to the most breathtaking views and the glowing ambers of the woodstove ...and the silence. Mountains bring such peace and with this comes a certainty of the grand design of nature.

Our pod is rather grand with huge picture windows, a mezzanine area and space to stride - it's a Pavilion Pod, which means that at 50 square meters it is actually larger than the upper floor of my london flat. It's also maybe a bit of a cheat (or essential - depending on your point of view - for those such as Lawrieovski who cannot do without certain practicalities), because we have a bathroom with hot and cold water and electricity - although we are not using the additional plug-in radiators as our stove is keeping us very toasty.

So today it's snowshoeing up higher into the mountains. Visions of old tennis racquets tied to our shoes are quickly dispelled and we set off in our super duper high-techies with a map drawn out by Eric and a packed lunch from Sophia. Through woodland and forests we pad, with only our breathing to break the silence. Upon finding an old barn we settle down to enjoy the views and contentedly munch our lunch before slowly heading back for cake at the farmhouse.




And what better way to end the day than to arrange a massage with Dominique in the spa, housed under the farmhouse. All aching muscles kneaded into submission ... I have reached eco-nirvana.

Day 1: Two Peas in a Pod

What a glorious train journey - an early start from Gare de Lyon, slowly awakening to the palest of sunrises kissing a frost-laden landscape. Those grey London days have become but a distant memory as we sat mesmerised by the wonder of the utter beauty of nature around us. European trains are of course more efficient, faster and infinitely more enjoyable than our british counterparts - why fly when trains are this romantic?

Over the hills to the Swiss border, then smoothly down into a mist-shrouded Lausanne, clinging to the sides of the lake with the sun burning off the last of the haziness. From the sleepy station of Aigle we were on the last leg - venturing into the Dents du Midi, up through the mist and round hairpins we go, until finally, we have arrived!


Ah, but this quite quite something. For an eco-gal like me who believes luxury and sustainablilty are ideal bed-partners, this is a marriage made in heaven. No air-con here - no, just fresh oxygen to gulp and a woodstove to warm one's tootsies in one's own ecopod. These eco-pods are well insulated, well stocked, well appointed and, well, utterly pod-tastic.

And there is snow - but not as much as there should be for this time of year. Does it matter? Actually, probably not. This is not about artificial snow being pumped out, a quick-fix solution which utilises vast - and depleting - water resources, creates a huge energy output and is laced with a gruesome toxic concoction of chemicals (to obtain lower freezing points) that then seep into and damage the soil when the thaw comes along. Due to the low snowfall this christmas, the majority of the runs open at the moment in Switzerland are created from artificial snow - a fact that is, ironically, proudly advertised.

Here at Whitepod, when the snow is not quite optimum to ski on, there are other more sustainable alternatives to explore - snowshoeing, cross-country ski-ing, dog-sleighing, paragliding, ice climbing. It's about living with nature, about looking to the resources available, and it's about leaving behind a smaller, less penetrative eco-footprint. Tomorrow the exploration begins...

Eco-adventure starts here

Am off in the morning for another of my eco-adventures, and can hardly wait. Holidays always fill me with excitement, and this one in particular, as it is the fulfillment of a promise made a year ago. Our journey starts from Waterloo on the 08.14 Eurostar to Paris, in time for lunch and a good mooch around the Marais. An overnight stay in a cute little hotel, then up and off on the early train to Switzerland to a most exclusive Alpine experience. This is no hotel, this is no ski resort, this is Whitepod. What one journalist referred to as 'Bonnington meets Bond' - I shall let you know. Please, please let there be snow.....