The resort of Avoriaz has introduced competitive snowball fights – Japanese style. Daniel Elkan and friends tried it.
There’s nothing like a snowball in your hand, ready to throw, to make you feel like you are seven years old again. No one really grows out of the instinct to hurl snowballs at their friends – they just get fewer opportunities to do so. Luckily, Avoriaz ski resort is changing that. It has launched snowball fighting as a full-scale organised activity that holidaymakers there can play. In January, on holiday in the resort with a bunch of friends, the urge to try it was irresistible.
The games are played on an area about the same size as a basketball court, with seven players in each team. In the middle of the court is a flag, and the first side to have a team member grab the flag wins the game. Doing so isn’t easy, however, as we were to find out. At the start of the game, each team is given a plentiful supply of pre-made snowballs, and uses this ammunition to try to take out the opposition players. One hit from a snowball, and you are out for that game. There’s also a referee provided, just in case no one is being honest when they get hit by a ball, and to judge close calls when players are diving for the flag under a volley of snowballs. If nobody has managed to grab the flag, it comes down to a count of which team has the most players remaining.
Each half of the court contains rectangular blocks, which players can use to duck and hide behind as they try to get within striking distance of the flag, popping up suddenly to volley snowballs at opponents. The buzz is incredible. From the minute the whistle sounded, we edged forward in nervous camaraderie, spreading out to take positions behind the defensive blocks, cradling as many snowballs as we could carry, with others staying back to roll more snowballs to the players in the more attacking positions.
The closer you edged forward into the court, the more angles a snowball could be fired at you from. My head began to shift from left to right, scanning the court like a nervous rabbit. Dodging snowballs is easier than you think. Get one thrown at you, swerve it and then – if you have a snowball in your hand – you can turn the tables on your foe: the hunter becomes the hunted!
Organised snowball fighting actually originates from Hokkaido in northern Japan, and it’s there that I’d originally discovered it years before. The Japanese take it very seriously – making the games very tense. “Yukigassen”, to give it its Japanese name, was actually created in a town called Sobetsu. In summer, the town had lots of visitors to the volcano but there was little tourism in winter. After watching tourists spontaneously throwing snowballs at each other, they had the idea to create the sport and hold tournaments. It was an immediate hit. Seven thousand visitors came for the first tournament, temporarily tripling the population of the town. These days each championship brings in around 25,000 visitors.
Although the snowballs are made of hard-packed snow to make them strong enough to carry easily and throw well, they don’t hurt when they hit – and players carry lightweight helmets with visors. The game feels a bit like paintball on snow, and it wasn’t long before we were all diving, commando-style, for cover and had started to form tactics. Each game is six minutes long, but with the adrenaline coursing through your veins it’s difficult to have any sense of time.
Having organised snowball fighting in the resort adds a very different experience to the skiing and snowboarding that you normally come to a resort for. We’d spent several days exploring the terrain in Avoriaz and the wider Portes du Soleil area, which the resort is part of. There are 650km of pistes here, meaning that you can set out in a different direction every day and find yourself on new runs each time. In fact, so vast is the ski area that it encompasses 12 resort villages, including Les Gets, Morzine and Châtel. Avoriaz is centrally placed within the area, so it was easy to arrange to meet up for the Yukigassen battle after our day’s skiing. And it was so much fun.
After one hour of intense snowball fighting, our time was up. A lot of my friends had that “ooh, just one more game” look in their eyes, itching for revenge for previous games and the chance for more glory. But you only get an hour per slot, so we headed for “après snowball” drinks at Le Bistro bar, in the centre of the village. We walked in, feeling triumphant, and ordered drinks. The bar staff served us, of course, but perhaps they shouldn’t have done: on the inside, we’d all become seven-year-olds.
Fact box:
Yukigassen snowball fights cost €10 (£9)per person, in teams of seven, and can be booked through Avoriaz Tourist Office; +33 4 50 74 02 11.
Daniel and friends travelled to Avoriaz by train. Return rail fares start from £112, through Voyage SNCF; 0844 848 5 848.
