Having never seen more than a mere sprinkling of snow before in my life, I was pretty excited at the prospect of going to the French Alps to work a ski season looking after chalet guests. So excited in fact I didn’t sleep at all during the 26-hour journey to the training resort of La Rosiere. After an hour winding up the mountain we drew close to the resort and I was blown away by the fantastic panoramic view over the Alps. We spent a week at La Rosiere learning how to cook, clean and generally look after a 12-person chalet (not a very long time for people who had never cooked before!) and meeting the other seasonaires before being assigned our resorts.


Chamonix below the cloud

I was allocated Chamonix. I didn’t appreciate then that I would be working in one of the world’s best resorts. The drive was beautiful; over a long bridge and into the Mont Blanc Tunnel, before emerging into imposing mountains on either side. Arriving in Chamonix was completely different to La Rosiere as Chamonix is only at height of 1026 metres compared to La Rosiere’s 1850 metres. We were shown our chalets and a few hours later were on the slopes – the guests not due for another week.

I had been worried that everyone would be experienced snowboarders or skiers, but luckily there were a few other beginners besides me. We went to the beginner slopes and after a few falls on the button lift, I started to find my feet on my snowboard and decided I was ready to venture to the top of the beginners’ slope. This turned out to be a mistake. I flew down completely out of control, crashed, hit my head on some ice, and gave up for the day.

The next day however, a group of people who were heading to the top of the mountain persuaded me to forget the previous day’s pain and join them. The snow at the top of the mountain was much softer and I soon regained some confidence and started to improve. After that week of free time, the guests started to arrive but even with our work load we were able to spend time on the slopes. Six days a week between 11am and 5pm we were able to use any of the four ski areas which meant plenty of time to practice on an endless variety of runs - with just the odd day spent recovering in bed!


An 'off piste' landscape

I had heard much about Chamonix being legendary for its miles of “off piste” and after a couple of months, felt ready to try this unknown pleasure so I went out with some of the more experienced boarders. It was fantastic and a completely different experience. It was so much more fun to turn in the powder, and great to get to the bottom and see my carved turns in the fresh powder snow.


Vallee Blanche

By the end of the season I regularly boarded off piste trails like the dramatically named “Avalanche Bowl” and, unlike my mother, even managed the notorious 17 kilometre Vallee Blanche!

Working a ski season is hard work and low paid, but the rewards are high - I‘m definitely returning for a second season.

For information about ski jobs visit www.natives.co.uk

For more information about the resort visit ww.chamonix.com