The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
How the super-rich ruined skiing
From £3,000 skis to £300,000 luxury chalets, the ultra-wealthy are squeezing the middle classes off the mountains. Matt Hampton susses out the competition…
As a paid-up member of the middle class, I have always, arrogantly, considered skiing something of a birthright, along with National Trust membership and the occasional evening at the theatre.
But having begun with full disclosure, I sadly now have to expose how the mighty have fallen.
Caught out recently in a discussion about the best ski schools for kids, I realised I have been having quite different holidays from the 1 per cent. Of course, I knew to name-drop a good independent operation – Evolution 2 perhaps, or Oxygene, both of whom I’ve had good experiences with.
No, no, no. Apparently, Reed’s is a much better option for young chargers. Affiliated to the Surrey public school of the same name – which counts actor Tom Hardy among its alumni – its Ski Racing Academy is the place for aspiring Winter Olympians. I’ve been outclassed at my own game.
But what’s new? Luxury holidays have always existed and have always been slightly out of reach for most. That’s the appeal. Ogle at Chalet Coquelicot in Courchevel – at anything up to €280,000 (£244,000) per week, it is hard to imagine who could be comfortable there. Or set your cap at Les Fermes de Marie in Megève – a classic haunt of the jet set. For £1,300 per night during the February half term and a minimum seven-night stay, they should have called it Les Fermes de Marie Antoinette. Only the super-rich need apply.
What is new, however, is that the super-luxe market has grown in the last two years, despite the fact that ski holidays are more expensive than ever and the cost of living crisis is taking its toll on the average skier.
“The reality is, there is resilience in that sector,” said Simon McIntyre, managing director of online travel agency Iglu.com. “Luxury and five-star accommodation is performing well in comparison to this time last year, with double-digit growth.”
So who are these favoured few flocking to – and monopolising – the slopes? According to the trade body Mountain Trade Network, they are the 12 per cent of UK skiers (up from 8 per cent in 2022) who take an average of two ski breaks a year.
A decent salary might afford most of us a Three Valleys lift pass – full area from £325 a week this winter – but not a private jet or skiing butler. Evidently, there are different levels of luxury: the haves and have-yachts. The truly loaded have fuelled endless development in the Alps in recent years, with super chalets that cost a cool half a million for a week’s stay, notably featuring a helipad and cinema.
When there is this type of money to be spent, is there any wonder previously affordable resorts have begun to seriously court the super-rich? Val Thorens, for example, once the haunt of student ski trips and shoebox-sized apartments, has been tastefully upgrading itself for the past decade, and is now home to various five-star addresses including the Koh-i-Noor and the Pashmina.
But rest easy my middle-class friends, it’s not all bad news. As Rupert Longsdon, CEO of the Oxford Ski Company pointed out: “What would have been a fairly ropey block of apartments has now been knocked down to make way for a well-built, well-appointed equivalent, and there is a market for this.”
That market is us – the folk who have tumbled from the top of the food chain. Take the very pleasant four-star Residence Montana Village Soleil apartments in Val Thorens – ski-in/ski-out, and costing from £1,545 for a week with Ski France. We don’t even need to break the bank for private guiding or lessons either (try apps such as SkiBro or Maison Sport instead).
The middle class might still be able to fulfil their appetite for frolicking in the snow, but now we have competition on our hands to be top of the class.