Peter Boumphrey

Downhill skiier and former Army officer, Peter Boumphrey had a vision to build a purpose-built ski resort in southern France in 1965. He found an area of land close to the Italian border, and also close enough to Nice airport to enable British skiiers to enjoy the sport in the winter without fear of not having enough snow. After lengthy negotiations, the resort of Isola 2000 was opened in time for the 1971 winter season.

Boumphrey, who has one of the pistes at Isola named after him, had been skiing since the age of three, when he went on a family holiday to Switzerland. By complete contrast, he was also an excellent trumpeter, and to earn spare cash in the summer of 1937 he toured cafés in Paris and Budapest, playing with various dance bands. Back on the slopes in 1938, aged just 19, he finished second to Jimmy Palmer-Tomkinson in the Arthur Lunn Trophy (slalom) at Wengen, which resulted in him being chosen as a reserve for the British team at that year’s World Championship at Engelberg. However, Duncan Kessler could not compete in the Worlds, and Boumphrey got his chance, finishing 28th in the slalom. The war years then intervened and in 1948 Boumphrey was a member of the British Olympic team at St. Moritz, when he skiied in specially adapted tinted contact lenses that had been made for him.