What do you think constitutes an expensive chalet? Would it be £10,000 a week for 10 people, or even £20,000? Well, if you are looking for chalets with Descent, then these kinds of numbers are pretty run of the mill.

In fact, the chalet we stayed in can reach over £30,000 a week during peak season, which is usually around the first week of March. If you haven’t been skiing since school though, you may be in for a surprise when you learn what you can get for your money now. Of course, the actual resorts are still the same, and Descent has a presence in most the big French and Swiss names - Les Gets, Méribel, Courchevel, Verbier, Zermatt, Klosters, St Moritz and of course Val d’Isère, the venue for this trip.

Some of the resorts, including Val d’Isère, have more than one Descent chalet – we were in one of the biggest, Chalet du Crêt. I have to admit that this was my first trip to the resort, so I did not have a direct frame of reference, but as it has always had a reputation for excellence the chances for fun seemed good. In the weeks leading up to the trip I (and presumably Descent too) spent an inordinately long time staring at the snow reports, and muttering quiet prayers. We had all heard stories recently of people arriving for their ski holidays earlier in the year to be greeted with green fields. Luckily, Val is a high resort, and only a few days before arrival there was a fresh load of snow – easily enough to see us through the weekend with perfect on and off piste conditions.

There are three options for getting to the Alps – train, car and airplane. For such a short break, it could only be the airplane for us, so early one Thursday afternoon we landed in Geneva, to be met by Dan and a huge VW. Now Val d’Isère may have great snow, but it is definitely not too close to the airport, and three hours by car is getting on for too long, especially when the last hour is on winding mountain roads. Next time it will have to be the helicopter for sure – saving two and a half hours travel. I’m not complaining too much though, and, as we were yet to find out, this would not be the only time that Dan would be our chauffeur…