Snow, the magical substance that falls from the sky creating a winter playground for adults, the one commodity that makes or breaks a ski holiday. Whether ranked as a Rookie or Super-Expert you can’t get away from the fact that the quality and quantity of the snow is a major factor in the success of your ski holiday. If the white-stuff is powdery and light then miraculously the beds aren’t so lumpy, the food is always hot and plentiful. Using a simple formula you can shorten the odds against choosing a resort that may have you rock-hopping mad. The magic ingredients that keep snow conditions good are a combination of north facing slopes and plenty of pistes above 2000m, this information is in most tour operators brochures.

El Nino maybe the cause of recent world-wide droughts but the flip side was that it gave some superb skiing conditions in North America last season. However, the USA is also naturally blessed with plenty of snow that British Rail would class as “the wrong type”. In case mother nature fails to deliver all US resorts and are backed up with huge snowmaking systems.

Canada’s ski areas are far enough north to receive and keep their ample snow fall throughout the winter and into spring. The two main ski areas being Whistler, on the West coast and the Banff resorts of Lake Louise and Sunshine mountain. For intermediates both destinations offer wonderful skiing and an abundance of adventures.

Try the rollarcoaster blue trail ‘Ridgerunner’ on Blackcomb mountain, one of Whistler’s two mountains, or ‘Franz’s run’ on Whistler mountain. Both offer a cocktail of speed and adrenaline that delivers a natural-high more addictive than any narcotic.

If you want to feel and look good on snow then the resorts of Colorado (Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Beaver Creek) pander to the whims of intermediate skiers with superbly maintained trails. The conditions are regularly rated as ‘excellent’ and are topped-up frequently with champagne-powder, a snow-type so light its consistency is more akin to tiny frozen-feathers than water. Colorado’s champagne-powder offers the finest skiing experience imaginable but is useless for making snowballs out of.

Dawn-to-dusk skiers will enjoy the unlimited skiing scope of the mega ski-areas. The Trois Vallees and Portes du Soleil regions in France are renowned for being the two largest inter-linked ski-domains in the world but there are other destinations with enough terrain to wear out the keenest piste-basher each day. Serre Chevalier in France, Gressoney in Italy and Flims/Laax, Switzerland are not so well known resorts boasting over 200km of marked runs.

Flaine, located in the High-Savoie region in France is another resort that offers smoother cruising runs than the QE2. Wide prepared pistes are the norm in the north-facing snow bowls above the village where you can literally fry-your-thighs on the lengthy lung-busting descents. The Ski Welt area links the traditional villages of Soll, Ellmau, Hopfgarten, Brixen and Westendorf offering endless tracks of gentle intermediate skiing among the traditional hamlets of the Austrian Tyrol.

Those who have notched up enough ski miles to acquire the coveted badge of Expert probably know what resorts thrill you. My inclination is to head to some of the more obscure resorts such as Andermatt - Switzerland, Alagna - Italy, La Grave - France - France or Snowbird and Alta, Utah, USA. These cult ski areas present a magnificent kingdom of off-piste terrain for the adventure-skier.

If you love the wrestling match with gravity that black runs offer than try out the vertical runs of Chamonix, steep enough to give a Bouquetin vertigo. Nearby, Verbier is home to Mont Gele with its many narrow couloirs and extreme faces that are only for the seriously brave or well-insured. Across the Atlantic check out Jackson Hole, Wyoming and watch the locals jump into Corbet’s Couloir. A dizzying twenty-foot leap-of-faith into a gunbarrel with vertical walls of granite and a landing-pad that drops away like a church spire.

Ski virgins would be well advised to start their downhill career plastic not snow. A course of around six hours at a nearby dry-ski slope can save two or three days once on holiday. If in a group of first-timers or near -all beginners than the resorts of Andorra are a great place to try winter sports without sliding into the red. The tiny principality in the Pyranees has the perfect learning terrain and bargain prices, another bonus is that the majority of instructors are British or Antipodean.

While the bulk of Andorra’s slopes may not give experts vertigo (getting to the bar is the main hazard) the duty free shopping in the capital, Andorra la Vella, is truly X-rated. On offer is every luxury brand imaginable at duty free prices. Weak willed shop-a-holics could end up with a credit card balance looking like you’ve spend a week at St. Badrutts Palace in St. Moritz and bought a round of drinks for the whole resort.

For skiers with young families there are now a number of tour operators (Mark Warner, Ski Esprit , Ski Hillwood and Club Med) that offer crèche services included in the price of the holiday. If you want your kids to grow up with a love of skiing then before all else children should have fun on snow. My initial choice would be to New England and the resorts of Killington, Stowe or Loon Mountain. The flight time is a cope-able five hours and the slopes are relatively gentle. The childrens programmes are excellent and the junior ski school focuses on having a good time rather than purely skiing. When they are old enough to ski with you look for ski areas with plenty of groomed blues, not for them you must understand, its to ensure you can keep up with them. A sad fact of life is that skiing-anklesnappers have no fear and will soon leave mum and dad standing as they approach take-off-speed.
Not being a lover of crowded runs and lift lines my favourite time of year to ski is the first week of January and just after Easter, these are also the cheapest weeks of the winter. After New Year the slopes are at their emptiest and the snow maintains its crisp texture, refrigerated by the chilled winter air .After Easter the Tour Operators pack up and go home, the days are long and warm, the snow is forgiving and long-lunches on the terrace don’t cut into skiing time.
If holiday time is limited try a long-weekend skiing. By taking two days off work you can get upto four days on the piste. Ski Weekend specialises in getting you from the office to chairlift and back again as quickly as possible. If you have only a day to spare then Airtours are running day trips to the Alps promising five hours on the slopes, prices start at £149 for the day including all travel.
Serious apres-skiers tend to head for and the epicentre of the apres-ski universe, St. Anton. The fun starts before you leave the slopes in the numerous bars on the slopes a few hundred metres above the village. The Krazy Kanguruh often has patrons dancing on the tables in ski boots while the Mooserwirt bar has live bands playing in the late afternoon. The revelry is nearly as wild as the ski area and its almost a sport in itself to sit and listen to skiers and snowboarders reconointing tales of the days sliding adventures growing ever more daring with every beer or Jagertee consumed. Needless to say the partying carries on to the early hours. If your idea of the perfect evening in resort is centred around a restaurant table Whistler, Canada would be my choice - try the superb steaks in The Keg or blow your entire holiday budget on freshly caught Pacific seafood at the Rim Rock Cafe.
Over the past few winters I have become a convert of driving to the Alps. The benefit of taking your own vehicle outweighs any downsides of the ten hour drive from Calais. Added bonus’s are that you can take as much luggage as you can squeeze in and cost and time taken against flying or taking the train is more than exonerated.
Ski-drive opens up some superb hotels and restaurants only available to the independent traveller with their own transport. Last Easter we drove to down to the French Alps for a final few days skiing before the season ended. By staying at the Hotel Monal in St. Foy we were only twenty minutes drive to Val d’Isere and less than five minutes to Les Arcs. At only 150FF (appox. £15) each per night the saving allowed us to discover some of the superb rustic restaurants that dot the valley walls such as Les Colonnes in St. Foy and La Ferme in Le Pre, the latter which does the most magnificent Bouef Bourguignonne. After checking out the weather report, each morning, we were able to make an informed decision on which of the surrounding nine ski areas to ski. On snowy days we made a beeline for the sheltered tree-lined runs of Les Arcs and on sunny spring mornings heading up to the glaciers of Tignes. Fresh snow, good friends, warm days and the freedom to roam - a perfect end to the season.