For a village with only around 1,500 permanent residents, Val d'Isère manages to pack an extraordinary number of events into the winter season.
The biggest, of course, is the Critérium de la Première Neige – traditionally the first World Cup ski race in the European calendar – which has been held here every December since 1955 (with the exception of the Covid year).
The world's best skiers compete not only against each other but against one of the sport's most demanding race pistes, with the finish line right in the centre of town. If you've never seen a World Cup ski race before, don't miss it.
Christmas and New Year is a fairytale time in Val d'Isère.
There's no need to dream of a White Christmas – it's virtually guaranteed. In the run-up to the big day, Santa arrives in the village centre in his sleigh and there's a parade through the main street, while on New Year's Eve thousands of people gather on the snow front for a huge party followed by the most amazing fireworks to welcome in the New Year at midnight.
Early January brings one of our favourite events of the whole season, the British Infantry Ski Championships.
We've been involved with Exercise Frosted Blade since the early 1990s and have watched the event grow more than ten-fold over that time. Nowadays almost 300 infantry soldiers arrive in Val d'Isère at the beginning of the season. Most have never skied before and some have never even seen snow.
Over the following weeks they undergo intensive training before competing in Slalom, GS, Super-G and Downhill.
The best then go on to represent the Infantry in the Army Championships and some even race against the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force in the Inter-Services Championships.
We've sponsored the event for many years and it has become one of the highlights of our winter. It's genuinely inspiring to watch complete beginners arrive in December and, just a few weeks later, see some of them racing one of the toughest downhill courses in the Alps.
So, if you see half a dozen young men standing at the bus stop at 8.30 on a freezing cold January morning wearing skin-tight downhill catsuits, carrying 220 cm skis and looking terrified, wish them good luck!
January also sees the first session of Classicaval, a three-day festival of classical music held in our beautiful 17th century church.
February is a busy month, with French school holidays stretching from early February into the first week of March and many other European countries having holidays over the same period, so everyone in town is simply too busy for any major events. However, every week during the school holidays there are torchlit descents by the local instructors and fantastic firework displays.
There are also sometimes mini torchlit descents which your children can take part in – sign up at the ESF.
For those who would rather participate than spectate, throughout the season there are regular evening races on the nursery slopes for alpine skiers, cross-country skiers and ski mountaineers, with some great prizes to be won.
March sees the second session of Classicaval, as well as lots of live music at favourite spots like the Rosée Blanche and the Petit Danois as the days become longer and warmer.
Towards the end of March or beginning of April every year, Val d'Isère hosts La Scara, widely regarded as the unofficial World Championships for junior skiers, with over 1,500 youngsters from more than 40 nations competing on the famous OK slope. Many of the world's leading skiers competed here as youngsters before going on to become World Cup stars, World Champions and Olympic champions, making it a fascinating event to watch.
The Scara is usually followed by the national ski championships of the “Low Countries” (Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg). With the highest point in any of these countries being less than 700 metres it’s no surprise they need to hold their champs in the Alps!
April also brings a number of "just for fun" events as the sun comes out and the season draws to a close.
Our favourite, of course, is the World Monoski Championships, held in the snow park on La Daille in mid-April every year. Nobody takes this too seriously and for many of the competitors the first challenge is simply staying upright! It's a fantastic day out and the highlight of the season for many.
There's a DJ, a barbecue and loads of fun in the sun, while everyone digs out the brightest ski suits and the most outrageous neon colours they can find. Most of the younger seasonnaires think it's fancy dress. We just smile, because that's exactly what everyone wore when we first came skiing in the 1980s.
It's a wonderfully fitting way to bring another fantastic winter in Val d'Isère to a close.
