National Trust for Scotland: FIGHTING TO SURVIVE

You don’t need to move mountains to enjoy a fabulous first ski holiday abroad. Novice skier Sonja Cox chose France, where the choice and variety of skiing is simply awesome

A feeling of euphoria overtakes the nerves when whizzing down the mountains in the shadow of beautiful Mont Blanc on New Year’s Day, and it makes the occasional beginner’s bruise worth it (well, nearly).

We were on top of the world by the end of our holiday, and perhaps a little nonchalant – but to begin with, wewere nervous wrecks. Neither of us had more than a couple of hours on skis, and our six-year-old had never been on skis!

We called Esprit Ski, who booked everything for us. They recommended the Paradiski experience, one of the biggest and most varied ski areas in the world courtesy of its three resorts, Les Arcs, Peisey-Vallandry and La Plagne, which are linked by the biggest gondola in the world, the Vanoise Express. This incredible chair lift is a technological tour de force that enables skiers to move between two massifs in minutes.

Paradiski offers 435km of pistes for all levels in the midst of beautiful forests and glaciers. Peisey-Les Arcs is the jewel of the area, and our all-area ski passes meant we could take any chairlift to reach the best slopes and high-altitude beginner areas.

Our cosy chalet was in Plan-Peisey, in the heart of the area. It’s a quiet ski village at an altitude of 1,650m, which offers plenty of shops, bars and eateries, as well as cool sports equipment stores. Most visitors have to climb up to the village by cable car, but we were lucky our chalet was right in its centre, just across the road from the main chair lifts. This was a great selling point for us, as we only had a few steps in our ski boots and we were on to the lifts.

Plan-Peisey is right on the link between Les Arcs and La Plagne ski areas and is ideal for family ski holidays, as initially the children’s lessons are held in the ski garden about 30 yards adjacent to the chair lifts in a nice, safe spot.

Our daughter was taken care of by Esprit Ski’s team and escorted to the ski garden each morning, which meant we could go off on our daily lessons, safe in the knowledge she would be well looked after.

The first thing I learned – the hard way – was to listen carefully to your ski instructor, remember the routes she takes, and study the colour-coded signposts along the slopes. Youcan very easily get lost if you don’t, and find yourself on black runs that you can’t handle. Second of all, make sure your gear – ski jacket, salopettes, hat and gloves can withstand bitter cold. Good sunglasses or goggles are also handy.

On our training slopes, there were children’s groups whizzing about everywhere, with kids from just three years old flying past us with great gusto (to the strained voice of the instructor shouting “parallel ski!”). But it wasn’t long before we were flying past them with confidence, and once we’d found a gentle blue ski run we liked (La Foret), we did it most afternoons, after a leisurely lunch in the village, while our daughter stayed with other kids at the Esprit snow club.

We found the numerous blue runs through the forest surrounding the village a delight, and (better) skiers in search of a challenge will be spoilt for choice with the number of adrenalineinducing black runs.

We were lucky with the weather in early January, as there was always fresh, powder snow and beautiful sunshine. So, all in all, France turned out to be a good choice for our first ski trip abroad.

WHY ESPRIT SKI?

The UK's leading family ski holidays specialist has a huge range of childcare and family ski chalets in France, Italy and Austria, and offers 41 chalets and seven chalet hotels in 13 of the top resorts in the Alps.

Chalet sizes range from small and cosy, sleeping an individual family of four to six, to larger properties sleeping up to 52 guests, ideal for groups of families travelling together. Chalet hotels, with their wider range of facilities, sleep up to 213 guests.

Our accommodation– Chalet Renard – was one of the Chalets des Deux Domaines, an exclusive enclave of six detached chalets linked by terraced paths and steps, just a short walk from the Vanoise Express, at the perfect midpoint of the massive Paradiski area.

The chalet is built into the hillside, so the entrance level and main living and dining area is on the second floor with most of the bedrooms on the floors below. All the rooms enjoy superb views from a balcony or terrace, out over the valley below, and the bedrooms are spacious and well-designed for family needs with four rooms sleeping two to three comfortably, each with good quality full bathrooms and double wash hand basins. The fifth bedroom occupies the entire third floor, accessed via a spiral staircase, and is a fabulous suite for a family of 4-5 with its own private balcony tomake the most of the setting.

The interior style is modern and fresh, with contemporary furnishings in the open-plan living area which has an open fireplace and a wrap around balcony to appreciate the valley views in both directions.

In chalets, all the cooking is done for you. There's a buffet and full cooked breakfast to start your day, and

“NEITHER OF US HAD MORE THAN A COUPLE OF HOURS ON SKIS”

afternoon tea and cake to keep you going until supper time, when the young chalet cooks serve you a four or five-course delicious home-cooked meal with wine and coffee. Children are given their tea earlier, fully supervised by Esprit staff, and can then buzz off to Cocoa Club, where they have fun and games until 9.30pm, whenthe adults have finished eating. We found dining in the evening with the other families very enjoyable, as everyone loved sharing the highs and lows of their day on the slopes, and comparing routes and injuries!

But the greatest advantage when booking with Esprit, in our opinion, is that it offers a huge choice of childcare in every resort. This was our main consideration, as our inexperience on the slopes underlined the need for safety, above all things.

Esprit nurseries run all day, six days a week, with some local and seasonal variations. The price of £319 per child includes lunch and six full days’ supervision and care. Outdoor activities are organised when appropriate, depending on the age of the children, weather conditions and parental approval.

There’s a strict ratio of nannies to children in all Esprit nurseries and all are properly qualified and Englishspeaking.

Esprit recruits nannies with an NVQ Level 3 in Child Care or an equivalent recognised level 3 child care qualification. All staff working with children are also subject to the new Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Check.

The Snow Club is fun for children over nursery age. Teams of Esprit snow rangers, trained in supervising children, run half-day Snow Clubs to ensure that the fun carries on for children aged 3-8 years, whofind a full day’s skiing too much. Six half-days including lunch is £199 per child.

Cocoa Clubs, for six to 12-year-olds who are not yet ready for bed when adult-only dinner starts, is an evening club which is free to children in any form of all-day Esprit care, and are otherwise pre-bookable at £59 per child per week. There’s even a free baby-listening/child patrol service offered in all chalets.

Exclusive Esprit-only ski classes, with the local ski- school’s best English-speaking instructors, take a maximum of eight children in a skiclass / max six per class for three and four year olds.

Sprite and Spritelet classes, dedicated exclusively to Esprit’s young guests, offer five levels of classes, typically two to two and a half hours per day, run on five mornings per week ( afternoons for 3- 4 year old Spritelets).

Children are escorted to and from lessons by staff.

Youngsters who have outgrown Sprite classes and are attending a local ski school will benefit from the new ski chaperone service. Esprit staff can accompany them to their meeting point and collect them from the end of the session, and cost from £69 per child for five days.

Saturdays can be a dilemma for families if children who have been learning all week are keen to show off their new skills to mum and dad, but parents may not feel confident about taking them out on the big slopes. In this case guides can be arranged for either individual families or groups, from just £139 per family.

Esprit Ski Savers offer a wide range of money-saving and added value opportunities, from free children’s ski and boot hire (including free helmets for all children), thousands of free child holidays, fantastic savings on adult lift passes, and free children’s lift passes.

Pre- booking all your ski pack requirements is recommended. Skis, poles, boots, snowboards, tuition and lift passes can all be sorted out before you leave Scotland.

There’s something magnificent and beautiful about the view from a mountain range, and our ski skills had come a long way in one week. And what a week it was!

Now’s the time to book your ski holiday before all the flights fill up.