run I’ve seen and there’s even a cute
Alpine-style bar.
Not that Lucrezia was taking much
of it in as I dropped her off for the
first of two sessions, a slightly terrified
look on her face, made possibly worse
by the fact we’d had a bit too much
wine the night before. The group
Accelerator course is designed to teach
basic technique and build confidence,
but mostly, it’s about helping
participants become comfortable with
the prospect of falling over –
something my wife did a lot of in the
first class...
S
till, it all seems to have paid
off by the time we meet for
lunch on the summit of Val
Tho’s highest mountain after
that first lesson. “Howwas it?” I ask.
“I’m still rubbish and my bum
really hurts,” she replies. But it’s clear
something has changed for the better:
for a start, there’s a smile on her face.
The brisk air is having its effect, I think.
I’m also grinning – not to mention drenched in sweat
– having spent the past two hours on some of the best,
most calf-busting off-piste I’ve ever come across, which
ended, slightly embarrassingly, with a small dip. I’d
tried to skim across a narrow river on my board, only to
sink and give myself a drenching - much to the
amusement of a watching group of teenagers.
Still, the pay-off for both of our wet bums and sore
thighs is precisely this moment, when you can kick off
your boots, kick back in the sun with a cold beer and
just take in the surroundings. At the Caron Freeride café
(+33 607 310414)
, which sits atop the magnificent Cime
de Caron mountain, the 360° views are, quite simply,
unbeatable. Eating bison burgers 3,200m up, gazing over
the basin that makes up the Trois Vallées and beyond,
this is the Alpine experience I was talking about. It’s
exactly what you need to convert a non-believer.
The next part of that conversion process arrives just a
few hours later, as we clamber onto the treatment tables
in the Altapura’s spa. There are few better ways to ease
tired muscles after a day on the slopes than by putting
them in the hands of a professional for an hour-long
session. It’s one of the best massages I’ve ever had, but
that should come as no surprise. The Sibuet family,
which owns the Altapura, is responsible for some of
France’s chicest hotels and the group has long been
renowned for its fab spas. This particular example is a
calming oasis of birchwood and stone, the smell of
mountain flowers in the air, as we pad around in fluffy
cotton robes with that particular sensation of exhausted
contentment you only get after a day on the slopes.
And that leads us to golden rule number three: choose
the right hotel. If you intend to spend the entire day on
skis, before heading straight to the bar in your boots,
then the choice of digs is less important. With a newbie
– especially one who needs to be convinced – where you
stay matters a great deal. The Altapura is precisely the
right kind of place to break someone in gently. It has
TIP 3
CHOOSE A
SKI-IN, SKI-OUT RESORT
That way you won’t have to carry all the equipment
0 4 8
T H E C H A L L E N G E
V A L T H O R E N S
