Ski Chalet Holidays Forty Years Of Fun In The Mountains

Ski chalets are a strange hybrid of hotel and second home. They were invented in the sixties to provide a safe haven in the European Alps for the English, who hated going abroad yet looked on the Alps as their own. They could relax without having to speak a foreign language, and their appetites would be satisfied by a boiled egg and a bowl of porridge for breakfast, rather than 'some awful foreign muck'.

Initially, a handful of Brit entrepreneurs rented some private chalets for a winter (one bath to 12 people). They installed breathless young 'gels', who said they could cook but couldn't, gave them a miserable housekeeping budget up front which the girls spent on themselves, and told them get on with it.

The Brits lapped it up. Strapping young men came out in their droves to sample first the chalet girls, then the skiing, and finally what there was in the way of food. There was none to speak of as the chalet girls were too busy skiing with the young men, and had already blown the food budget. To calm them down when they came back from skiing 'absolutely starving', the gels would bake the young men a cake for tea. Then they let them drink loads of paint stripper, known in smart circles as 'vin rouge', before, during and after an awful dinner.

But it didn't matter - everybody loved it. The bachelors went home in love, and the Brit entrepreneurs were coining it in. The gels, who were paid a pittance, could supplement their meagre incomes by sending a telegram home to Daddy, who was frightfully important in the City.

After about fifteen years things were beginning to look a bit tawdry. The catered ski chalet ethos was well and truly established but starting to get a bad name; the punters wanted something better. They had a lot more to spend as Mrs Thatcher was in charge. Changes were afoot. Unreliable chalet girls were replaced by girls who could cook, or couples of a more responsible nature, who would share chalet duties with ski guiding.

There was enough money sloshing around in the eighties for keen independent skiers to buy properties mainly in the French Alps and set up small ski chalet holiday operations of their own. There were, and of course still are, large tour operators with dozens of chalets, but the very nature of a catered chalet holiday is the personal service that a group of friends can get from like minded people, whose livelihood depends on making them feel welcome and relaxed.

Yesterday's rough and ready has been replaced by today's sophisticated. Competition is strong, mainly because so many people have upped sticks from the UK, and set up in the mountains where they see an easier way of life and a more relaxed way to run a business.

The service offered by today's independent chalet owners is almost unrecognisable compared to that of the sixties. Bedrooms mostly come with their own bathroom, the food can be first class (many a five star chef is plying his trade in the relative peace of the Alps) and the wine is of a superior quality nowadays, but is still usually unlimited. There are exceptions of course, and it's still possible to find budget ski accommodation not unlike the early sixties. Basically you get what you pay for, and if you want cheap and cheerful, it's not difficult to find!

The best ski chalets are often designed and furnished to remarkable standards, complete with saunas, satellite phones and broadband connections. Skiing with the guests is often offered as a complementary service, as is a minibus, which doubles as a taxi service from the airport.

Strangely though, there is still cake for tea...