La Plagne Apres Ski Report: 8th February 2013

But first off let’s talk about the quirkiest kids in town: Tuesday night saw the 2nd appearance of the Be Sharps in Scotty’s, and although they may sound like a barbershop acapella group they are actually a five piece band working their first Alps season and holding an impressively eclectic set list that happily spans genres and decades, (they followed Fleetwood Mac with Gangnam style!).

The Be Sharps certainly know how to work the crowd into a frenzy and always bring a little something extra to their performances. Last week they got midway through a rendition of Blur’s Parklife before freeze framing in individually strange poses for a weirdly long time before rocking back into the song like nothing had happened. This week when they returned from their break they were inexplicably all wearing blue surgical robes and assorted animal masks, Why? Nobody knows, but what we do know is that this crew has character and they sure can rock, what more can we ask for?

Then came Wednesday and the Huck Cancer charity party. Huck Cancer, founded by Marcus Parrott is a completely non profit foundation “set up so skiers and snowboarders can show their support in the fight against cancer, helping to benefit the lives of patients in both the UK and France”. They are based in Courchevel, Plan Peisey and La Plagne and raise money and awareness by selling clothing, merchandise and throwing parties and events all in the name of Huck. Which – for the uninitiated – is a term meaning to take risks without full knowledge or regard for the consequences, in extreme sports and also in life e.g ‘Huck it’.

The event began early, with Scotty’s filling up fast from 4pm onwards, by the time the band kicked off at 5pm it was standing room only, the bar was packed and the challenge to keep hold of your beer in the dancing crowd began. The band; The Dominos, who play a hugely successful après every Wednesday, made this week no exception, they rocked straight into their usual high energy, fun set that had the crowd dancing on the tables within minutes, they called up ringers from the crowd to sing with them and pumped out a rendition of the Baywatch Theme song that had the whole crowd slow motion running in circles and guys whipping their shirts off all over the place.

The Dominos were doing their part for the charity, showcasing the Huck T-shirts and hoodies and encouraging the crowd to buy raffle tickets and merchandise. They played through until 7pm and then the raffle was drawn with a plethora of prizes up for grabs that included Salomon goggles, Huck Cancer clothing, alcohol, food, local activities and merchandise donated by the events sponsors Planks and Alpoholics. After the Raffle (in which I was not lucky) DJ Bully took centre stage and kept the tunes and the energy flowing until the bar shut down at 1am.

The Merchandise was flying out and by the end of the night about 70% of the crowd was wearing some variation of the Huck brand, the great thing about which is that when you buy their gear not only does all the money goes to the charity itself but you are also getting cool, quality gear. The hoodies and jumpers are super comfortable, the colours are bright and the logo is simple but effective, the real genius move is that they had made a t-shirt that reads “this is my proper job” which Natasha from The Dominos wore whilst performing and every seasonaire in the house promptly coveted, my self included and I now own a blue one. I’m wearing it right now.

The party was massively successful and they raised an incredible 3,000 Euros for Huck Cancer, big thanks go out to the sponsors of the event Alpoholics, Planks, to Scotty’s for hosting, and to DJ Bully and The Dominos for keeping us all rocking. Thanks also to The Ski Beat crew for all the work they did behind the scenes and to promote the event and of course a massive well done to all the guys working for the foundation who threw a really awesome event for a great cause.

Well done all and keep on Hucking!