CAN a first-time family ski trip ever be relaxing?
To give that question some personal context, I should tell you that a simple family trip to the sedate and serene coastline of Jersey (you know the drill, three children, aged 6, 7 and 9, wife in her 30s, frisby, pre-departure argument, goggles, cheese sandwiches, sun-lotion) normally activates high anxiety status, with my beach-side disposition personifying a mixture of meerkat, hummingbird and sparrow hawk, and you get an idea of how a very kind invitation to spend a week 9,000 feet up a mountain with the aforementioned children, who have never skied before, and a wife who has never skied before could probably qualify as aversion therapy.
I realise that the protective instinct of any parent is the most natural thing in the world, and we all succumb to unfounded fears now and again. However, in my case – as in the dénouement of Mr Worry – if I were suddenly relieved of all worry, I’d be worried about the shortage of things to worry about.
So why accept the invitation, I hear you ask? Well, mostly because deep down I know that things normally turn out OK and I certainly want the rest of the family to experience new things, regardless of my hang-ups.
A direct flight from Jersey always helps, and our ultimate destination, the Chilly Powder chalet in Morzine, a picture-postcard mountain resort in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France, is only an hour and a bit away from Geneva airport. With both Blue Islands and Flybe operating direct services to Geneva and a flight time of just over an hour, a morning flight could see you skiing in the afternoon.
After a smooth trip over, we negotiated the bustle of Geneva airport courtesy of our unflappable driver, Dan, from themountainlodgecompany.com, who then guided us quickly into French territory, propelling us higher and higher into a flawless nether-world.
This really is mother nature on her wedding day. A huge snowfall in the preceding 24 hours had suspended the world, a soft white duvet lying in folds over everything, burnished by bright sunlight and diamond vapour. As we tumbled out of the minibus on reaching our destination, we might as well have been pushing through the coats at the back of the wardrobe into Narnia.
The Chilly Powder chalet hotel Au Coin du Feu (‘By the fire-side’) fits in seamlessly with the beauty around it, cosseting its guests in a warm glow against the imperious backdrop of alpine rock and snow. The chalet nestles at the foot of the slopes that link Morzine with Avoriaz in the Les Prodains area, part of the vast interconnecting Portes du Soleil ski-sports resort which stretches between Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Au Coin du Feu is a few minutes’ walk from the main lift into Avoriaz and its multitude of skiing options, and only seconds from a beginners’ button lift, great for pottering about or for those with smaller children.
We were greeted at the door by chalet manager Nick Page, who immediately made us feel totally at ease. Our welcome put me in mind of a visit to old friends in a new home.
Nick gave us a tour and introduced us to the capable and skilled team he oversees. The focus is very much on complete family well-being, with babies’, toddlers’ and small children’s needs high on the agenda so that mums and dads can totally relax.
We also met the owners, Paul and Francesca Eyre, who share a passion for Alpine life and have ensured that their chalet has consistently ranked among the best in the region. It didn’t take us long to see why.
Skiing holidays can be a bit, well, bitty. There’s a lot of stuff to think about, but at Chilly Powder the organisation was exemplary. Our skis, boots and helmets arrived at the prescribed time not long after our arrival, with doorstepskis.com doing the honours superbly.
And after only a few snarls and yelps, everything was deposited safely in the drying room ready for the next morning.
Again, as another example of intuitive appreciation of what families value and need on a skiing holiday, lessons are organised for the children by Chilly Powder, with small groups of similar abilities being looked after by ESF instructors each morning, so that the adults can take in the stunning and visceral beauty with few worries beyond the next parallel turn or snowplough.
It struck me just how quickly you can adapt to a new routine, and the efficient and calm authority of the instructors eliminated my concerns about our kids’ welfare immediately.
For further peace of mind, Chilly Powder actually employs a ski assistant to ensure the best experience for the children across all the ESF groups. Ours, Nick Cunniffe, was superb – even arranging for a secure ‘cage’ at the top of the lift for our skis so that the children didn’t have to carry them down each day, although as a ski-to-the door chalet, most Chilly Powder guests do just that.
So, having eliminated my worries over what the children would be doing, I deposited my wife with the slope-side Avoriaz Alpine Ski School avoriazalpineskischool.com (when I say deposited, I over-estimated her ability and she ended up literally skiing into their office door), leaving me clear to enjoy what must be some of the best skiing in the world.
I honestly can’t recommend it highly enough. The sheer variety of slopes, allied with their accessibility, is extraordinary.
Thinking about our Chilly Powder experience, it seems to me that the chalet’s uniqueness in an incredibly competitive market is to intuitively understand what travellers value in a ski trip.
Accommodation is a key part of this, with many of the impeccably finished bedroom suites having capacity for five, which is a rarity. Our suite came with a mezzanine floor, two single sleigh beds and a cabin bed, which the kids loved. Add full-length windows looking out over the slopes and you have something very special.
In the grounds of the chalet is a well-tended jacuzzi, which opens early evening before the children have their meal at 5.30 pm. We made good use of this, and ice-cold drinks arrived without any bidding, thanks to head barman Richie, who also expertly chooses the wine to go with each course of the adults’ evening meal, which starts with appetisers at 7.30 pm. Richie also blends a great vin chaud, which we’d recommend once you leap out of the jacuzzi!
Our week passed exceedingly quickly, with a new routine of adventure in the mornings, huge lunches, afternoon naps, sledging, snowballs and gourmet dinners replacing all else. It surprised me just how quickly all other thoughts and worries were replaced with pressing questions such as ‘Which run shall we try tomorrow?’ or ‘Which wine goes best with the lamb?’.
The final excursion of the week was to try what I thought was to be a gentle early-evening descent down a pre-set toboggan run, courtesy of indianaventures.com. What I actually experienced was more akin to being fired out of a cannon into a forest.
The Luge Nocturne, as they call it, consists of a miner’s helmet with torch and a plastic toboggan with metal brakes. The idea is that you efficiently follow the leader of the group down 4km of Pleney’s ski slopes to the bottom.
My descent, however, was punctuated by bloodcurdling screams as I routinely lost control, flipped over, span around and generally pin-balled between trees and over gorges, trying to keep any of the rest of the group in sight.
I finally worked out the nuances of braking just as we neared the final part of the journey, but in a typical error of judgment still managed to end the trip facing the wrong way with the sledge on top of my head.
Great for stag parties, I’d say, or if you want to make a quick £250 by sending the footage in to Harry Hill. Needless to say, I was most relieved to arrive back at Chilly Powder and the glow of the fire.
Over the past 20 years, Paul and Francesca have worked hard to create the perfect skiing holiday, but they are also focused on a future which is about continued investment in the business, with plans to develop a spa complex as an extension to the chalet, as well as further enhancing their increasingly popular summer holiday experiences.
Francesca took some time to talk me through some of the history and motivation behind their efforts, explaining the care and attention they have paid to local tradition, the charitable work undertaken and the spur of doing the very best they can for their family, with three highly sporty and multi-talented children, Ben, Eloise and Jamie, firmly integrated into Alpine life.
They maintain an unswerving belief in what they do, which seems to me to be a rare and precious thing. But then, so are holidays like this.
The answer, then, to my initial question is: yes, it is entirely possible to feel liberated, energised and refreshed on a first-time family ski-trip. Go to Chilly Powder.
