The excitement for Winter builds! Val Thorens opened it's slopes yesterday with 20cm of snow in resort and 40cm up top and Winter season workers are starting to arrive in their resorts all over the Alps. With an especially mild November at the moment it is easy to forget that Christmas is less than a month away but it is coming upon us fast! www.ski-savvy.com has some excellent Christmas ski deals to France on at the moment with LOW prices from £303 which will rise as departure date gets nearer so the perfect time to get booking! If you can't wait that long, the forecast is for snow for high ground in Northern England and Scotland within the fortnight so pack the sledge and head Northwards!

Learning to snowboard

Until living in France for the whole winter I’d never really thought about learning to snowboard, I was quite happy exploring the mountains on two boards with independent feet rather than one, but last winter season, with the feeling of unlimited ski days ahead of me I thought I’d give it a whirl.

My first new experience happened in the ski shop. Apparently the first thing you should know is whether you are goofy or regular. I didn’t know so the assistant pushed me over from behind. I thought this was slightly harsh but he said it was to test my feet to see which one would step out first... It was my right foot so I was regular and that foot should go first on the board.

Having put my boots on (vastly more enjoyable than ski boots – one up to snowboarding) I headed down to the ‘debutant’ baby slope in Mottaret centre. After a couple of hours I felt to have mastered absolutely nothing apart from managing to see why most snowboarders you see on the slopes are sat down – it was the position I ended up in most too.

I then called it a day and swapped by board for skis to reassure myself I was capable of one snow discipline and booked in for some beginner lessons.

So, on Monday morning I went and stood under the “beginner” snowboard class sign outside ESF in Mottaret centre. Other people started to show up in the form of two French children and an OAP who looked as though he wasn’t sure what he was doing there. Despite this the class started off well.

We all took turns at practise turning, first going down (picking up scary amounts of speed) then turning with the front edge then the back. This was a slight problem as the board seemed to want to go straight into the group of people standing about at the bottom of the hill at one point but luckily they saw the funny side! The children turned out to be the best at this, as one might expect.

Falling on my knees seemed to be my weak spot and by the time 12.00 came, I was relieved to be able to give them a break and swap board for skis. On my way back from an afternoon upright on skis I passed the OAP who was still with snowboard and I got a sudden flash of panic – should I have stuck at it and been practising all afternoon too, will everyone else be 3 times better than me when we regroup tomorrow??!

In fact, they were, but I could convince myself it was marginal. We went up “Plattieres” gondola to the top of a blue and attempted to swish our way down in nice even waves. The instructor was a bit preoccupied so it was easy to slip down on the back edge while his head was turned. He was in fact preoccupied because the young girl had taken off her board and refused to carry on. She started to walk down the piste and let go of her board. A snowboard, unlike skis, has no brakes so when she dropped it; it set off hell for leather down the piste with the instructor haring after it.

This caused a nice distraction and after a few more wavy attempts, and getting the hang of it nicely, we were safely at the bottom.

I decided to go it alone from then on, I had grasped the basics (honestly) and just needed to practise at my own speed. So I strapped on the board again the next day and progressed quite well! Aside from a worrying moment when a colleague rang me when in the middle of a flat piste, unable to move with people whizzing past on either side, I was steadily impressing myself!

I kept on snowboarding every few weeks and have improved immensely since those interesting(!) few hours on the baby slope...

I’d definitely recommend snowboarding as it is exhilarating when the sense of achievement kicks in! I would also recommend getting knee pads to protect from the pain I experienced... And sticking at it, it does just need practise and after a solid few days of boarding, it can be grasped and the fun begins!

The Three Valleys is a great ski area for beginners and experts alike. Check out www.ski-savvy.com for cheap ski package deals to Meribel, La Tania, Mottaret and Brides Les Bains starting at around £203 per person per week.

11.11.11 - a special date which also signifies one month until the in-resort team head out for the mountains, very exciting times! The gloomy grey skies at home make crisp snowy pistes and blue skies seem far away in time and space but the countdown is on! With early bird offers under way the website is a hive of activity and tweets are zooming around netspace about the forthcoming season! So come along and check out www.ski-savvy.com to see the latest offers and grab yourself a cheap ski deal!

Today is a very exciting day - ski-savvy.com is now live! Lots of amazing deals on cheap ski holidays to choose from with the ski season closing in... Clocks have gone back so what better way to spend a dark evening than planning a forthcoming ski trip to one of the best resorts in France :-) It's just over six weeks until the Ski Savvy starts out in the Three Valleys and we're looking forward to every minute of it!