Easy skisy
Peter Fenton relaxes into a chalet holiday in the Alps
There was cake – lots of cake, baguettes, butter and jam, all laid out on the table. Now I remember what we used to love about ski chalet holidays! It’s been a while since I went on a skiing trip. I convinced myself that driving to the Alps and renting an apartment was bound to be cheaper. Yes, there was the early morning dash down to the ferry/eurotunnel and the 10-hour drive to the Alps, plus tolls (but blissfully empty motorways). And sometimes the misery of putting snow chains on the tyres in a blizzard. Not to mention paying for an overnight stay to break the journey. Then there’s the cost of mountain lunches, chairlift snacks, dinner in a village restaurant because who wants to cook on holiday, and anyway you’re too knackered from skiing all day.
But spending a week in a Ski Beat catered chalet suddenly brought back happy if now distant memories.
Still an early start for the flight to Lyon, but after a two-and-a-half hour coach journey we arrived at the Alisier 1 chalet in La Plagne, collected our skis from the hire shop next door and managed a full afternoon on the slopes. The next morning, fortified by a hot cooked breakfast served up by chalet chefs Emma and Sasha, we hit the snow again with Julien, owner of the Oxygene ski school, who gave us some excellent tips.
Lunchtime came and went with just a brief hot drink stop and it was only when my overworked leg muscles gave up the ghost that I headed back to the chalet late afternoon for that splendid tea.
Then there was the hot tub. And the sauna. Sitting in an outdoor hot tub while it snows heavily? Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. I swear one couple in our chalet spent more time drinking wine in the hot tub than they did skiing! Because, of course, wine is
included in the catered chalet package, and in Ski Beat’s case, a well chosen selection of red, white and rose.
After a well-earned snooze, we are called in to dinner: three courses of delicious dishes with vegetarian and vegan options.
Best of all I didn’t have to lift a finger. Eyelids drooping, I headed off early to a very comfortable bed. And repeat for another five days. I could handle this lifestyle, even if there was no skiing involved… but of course there was, and lots of it.
With global warming making winters unpredictable, the journey up the winding road to the La Plagne villages, in France’s Haute Savoie region, was not reassuring at first.
There was no sign of any snow until we were almost at 1,800 metres.
Thankfully, there was plenty of coverage, as the flakes started to fall on that first afternoon, turning some of patchier lower slopes whiter.
La Plagne is a huge ski area, and with the Vanoise Express cable car carrying you across the valley to neighbouring Les Arcs and Peisey/ Vallandry, the Paradiski lift pass gives you access to 264 marked pistes, 12 rated green (beginner), 137 blue, 79 red and 36 black, making up 425km of downhill.
And on the Tuesday morning, it was lit up by bright sunshine in a vivid blue mountain sky, the “best day of the season” according to locals, and we took full advantage, clocking up miles in the ideal snow conditions.
Intrepid skiers headed off piste to carve new tracks in the steep, deep snow away from the groomed routes. But such is the variety here, you can ski the whole area on intermediate blue-rated slopes as well.
On our way back towards Plagne Centre, we celebrated with a stop at La Bergerie, probably the liveliest of the mountain apres ski bars. A DJ, roving guitar hero and sequinned podium dancer amped up the crowd and soon the tables were groaning under the weight of ski-booted dancers and glasses of beer. Thankfully, it is just a short, easy ski back down afterwards – taken very carefully!
There’s plenty of fun to be had off the snow as well. La Plagne was the venue for the 1992 Winter Olympics bobsleigh and skeleton events, and the course has been kept open for tourists. It’s not a conventional bobsleigh, more of a heavily padded roller coaster carriage, called a Bob Raft.
Four of you cram into it, one behind the other then a hefty push sets you off down the steeply banked curves and straights of the solid ice sliding course.
Oh, and no one is steering and there are no brakes. Try to put that out of your mind when you hit 50mph. It’s a
teeth-rattling, adrenalin-pumping experience and not to be missed, even at €50 a go. For an extra €20 you can get a 360-degree video of your ride, complete with glimpses of your terrified face.
After that, you definitely need a strong drink, and the place to go is La Mine, a bar decked out like a, well, a mine. Live bands play regularly and the multi-flavoured shots tray, at €30 for 10, proved so popular with our chalet’s younger residents, few made it out to ski the next day.
And there’s another great thing about a chalet holiday, sharing with a bunch of people you don’t know could go either way, but there is something about the mountains, the skiing and the wine-fuelled evenings around the dinner table which helps bond a group of strangers.
I had my youngest son, Michael, 28, with me, there was another dad and his daughter and three younger couples and after a few games of Heads Up (charades with a smartphone) and some hot tub tale-spinning everyone became firm holiday buddies.
If you don’t have a group big enough to occupy a whole chalet, Ski Beat will try to place you with people you are likely to get along with… so a family with small children shouldn’t find themselves sharing with a 24hr-party crowd of twentysomethings.
Further bonding was guaranteed with a beer-tasting provided by local brewer Louis Meulien, who arrived at the chalet laden with crates from his Les Névés micro-brewery in nearby Bourg St Maurice. After slaving to keep us all fed, the chalet hosts had earned a night off, and we had to forage for ourselves. Some opted for meal delivery service Alpine Roots, which dropped a Raclette machine and what looked like half a ton of cheese off at the chalet in a large wooden chest (€17.50pp, minimum of four). Mike and I opted not to selfcater, ambling a few metres along the road to the Loup Blanc restaurant for some traditional Savoie fare: a plate of cured meats and a four-cheese fondue (€83, with ice cream desserts, half bottle of wine and two beers). Fabulous.
Finally, with my ageing ski legs threatening to go on strike, an admission.
Having been a confirmed spa dodger until now, I took up the offer of a massage from visiting service, Massage Me ( from €50, massage-me.com).
After a 30-minute pummelling from masseur John, they were rejuvenated and I was converted, raring to get back on the piste.
And all too soon the week was over.
But I had rediscovered the joys of a chalet holiday ( flights, transfers, food, wine, ski hire and lift passes all organised for you – no-brainer) and next year I’ll be leaving the car at home, possibly never to make its snow-chained way up a mountain again.
‘‘ After games and hot tub tale-spinning we all became holiday buddies
BOOK IT
Ski Beat offers a catered week at Chalet Alisier in Plagne 1800, French Alps, from £773pp with cooked breakfast, afternoon tea, three-course evening meals with wine, flights from Manchester or Gatwick and transfers. skibeat.co.uk
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