I set off for Sochi one January Friday afternoon after my business duties in Moscow with two aims in mind. One to check out Krasnaya Polyana, the Russian ski resort hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. The other, to go heli skiing Russia- style with the French- owned Russia heliski operator I represent with Total Heliski. I achieved one of the two- you can guess which one.

Sochi is actually a seaside resort on the black sea, on the border of Georgia, a 2hr flight south of Moscow. I disembarked from the dubious sounding airline called ‘S7’ to a temperature about 15 degrees warmer than Moscow. S7 is actually Siberian airlines rebranded, and was surprisingly a very good airline experience going by the crew, interior and food. I was to meet my French guide and another 6 French clients for the weekend.