About usMaybe you’re wondering about us, and why a family from England is writing a website about skiing? After all, the only skiing here is on artificial dry slopes or at indoor man-made snow slopes. No ski resorts here!
In this photo we're standing on the Cime de Caron in Val Thorens, France, with the majestic Mont Blanc (Europe's highest mountain) just visible in the background. What a day that was! The blue sky was completely clear of clouds. We could feel the warmth from the sun on our faces, yet the air at altitude was bracingly chilly. The run down from 3,200 metres to 1,800 metres to Reberty via Val Thorens was exhilarating. We're not expert skiers We’ve been keen skiers for over twenty years. We’re not advanced skiers – technique and style goes out of the window the steeper and deeper the slope. That doesn’t matter, though, because you can enjoy skiing and relish the challenge whatever your ability. Then there’s the fabulous mountain scenery to inspire you, wonderful! Before our children were born, we’d save our holiday time so that we could ski as much as possible. We’ve had fantastic holidays at wonderful resorts, and there are so many other places we hope to visit one day. We were shopping in a ski shop here in the UK years ago at the same time as a couple with a four-year-old. The child’s father could hardly contain his excitement at their imminent ski trip – apparently it would be the first time they’d skied since before their child was born. Why let children stop us from going skiing? Something about that comment stuck with us. Years later we both remembered it, and we decided that we wouldn’t let having our children stop us doing what we loved doing. We’d find a way to get our skiing time and take the family too. So when the family arrived, it simply didn’t occur to us not to carry on going on our skiing holidays. Skiing was what we did whenever we could. There was simply no way that having small baby was going to stop us from doing what we loved. Fighting talk indeed! That first family ski holiday we didn't place our eldest child in daycare - she was only a baby and had not been away from us before. We proved to ourselves that with forward-planning we could alternate going skiing and sharing the childcare. That was a compromise which suited us just fine, and meant that we both made the most of our individual time out on the slopes. Now, though, instead of just being the two of us, there are five of us going skiing. Yes, we have to be organised; yes, there’s no denying that it’s hard work. We're the first to admit that family skiing is hardly a holiday in the relaxing on a beach style. Although, none of our holidays are relaxing in the way they were before children! Is it worth it? Undoubtedly, yes! For us, the benefit of seeing the children learn new skills and improve daily in such spectacular surroundings honestly does outweigh the squabbles during the long overnight drive from England, and the organised chaos of getting everyone ready each morning.
There are also opportunities for plenty of outdoor play for non-skiing children. From when they were toddlers, our children loved playing in the snow. Snowman building, snow angels, sledging or simply messing around in the snow are all things that they eagerly look forward to when we go on our family skiing holidays. The reactions from other parents towards our family skiing holidays constantly amaze us. Friends say that we’re mad to even think of taking three children under the age of eight on a skiing holiday. Perhaps it’s because we’ve skied for so many years now, or that we’ve always taken the children with us, but we just couldn’t imagine it being any other way. This forthcoming season marks a huge milestone for our family skiing holidays because our youngest child is old enough to learn to ski, and is really looking forward to it. How did we come to write this website? A chance conversation got us thinking about just how much knowledge and experience we have accumulated over the years. A casual query led to an hour of recommendations about taking the family skiing - plus at least four sheets of scribbled A4 notes, and the suggestion that we should do something with our knowledge. The seed had been sown, but it wasn’t until about a year later that we came across a way that we could ‘do something’. A friend mentioned his new website, and the positive impact it had on his business. Now, we’re what you could call the cautious types (some would say sceptical, and that wouldn’t be too far wide of the mark!). Having seen the before and after websites of someone we trusted, we wondered if we too, could create a successful website. It would certainly be a solution to scribbling pages of notes any time someone asked our advice! Don't you need detailed computer knowledge to write a website? No! That's how we came to find Site Build It! (SBI), which gave us the opportunity to create this site. What a journey it’s been so far, and one we couldn’t have even imagined this time last year. Now we have somewhere to funnel all our enthusiasm for family skiing holidays. No more written notes the next time someone asks our advice! For us, for now, there’s our next family ski holiday to organise. And we’ve so much more information to share with you – so be sure to bookmark us and visit again soon. Catherine and Paul To return from the about us page to the home page, please click here.
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