I spent the run-up to my first ever proper winter holiday – and by that I mean going somewhere where there’s snow everywhere – checking weather forecast after weather forecast, only to find them all declaring this one of the worst years for Alpine snowfall in decades. I anxiously scanned photos of muddy slopes that looked more like Alexandra Palace after the end of a school snow day than a deep-powder winter wonderland.
Fortunately, the day before I arrive, around a metre of snow is dumped on Chamonix. So there I am, high in the French Alps, bag packed with borrowed ski gear, ear warmers and assorted thick socks, ready to learn to snowboard – and there is more snow than I have ever seen in my life. It looks, and feels, like Christmas.
As well as ticking off a dream I’d had ever since spending hours playing cult snowboarding game SSX Tricky on the PS2 (not to mention 1080 Snowboarding on the N64), I have come to Chamonix to check out a new hotel that opened last December. The Rocky Pop, five minutes’ drive along the valley at Les Houches, claims to represent a new concept in ski resort hotels, something different from the usual wooden chalets or giant concrete hotel blocks.
Initial impressions are good. The hotel’s illuminated cinema-style frontage is emblazoned with the words “we will rocky pop you”. Said in a French accent, it sounds half-flirtatious, half-threatening, like something a gangster would say in some new-wave film. I think the basic message is that this hotel is a fun destination. This means “pop” decor, with models of R2D2 and C-3PO inside the front door, a Pac-Man motif across the ceiling and vintage arcade games in the bar.
Hotel director Romain Trollet, who came up with the concept, says he took inspiration from, among others, boutique mini-chain Mama Shelter. The styling is more urban than ski resort, and far more zeal has been put in to creating cool communal spaces rather than the bedrooms, which are functional but fine. Why spend time in your room anyway, especially when there are slopes covered in fresh snow to tumble down?
Why indeed, I think later that day, as, clad in snowshoes, we walk through the resort and up to mountain restaurant Les Vieilles Luges, which is as traditional a log cabin as you could wish for, for a fondue dinner. Snowshoeing back down the mountain in the dark, cheese and wine curdling in my stomach, is a different kind of adventure altogether. I consider myself lucky not to have broken a bone before ever taking a snowboarding lesson.
For the next three days, as I begin to learn the snowboarding basics, the Rocky Pop is my base, and a pretty good one at that. The food in particular is bang on for anyone spending all day burning calories on the slopes: the breakfast buffet is excellent, while dinner offers all the refuelling carbs skiers crave, with a menu of freshly baked pizzas and massive gourmet burgers, as well as French classics.
The atmosphere is fun and casual, too: the kitchen is fronted by half a red van (to go with the street-food-style menu), and guests eat at long communal tables. It feels as though it could be as comfortable for a lively family meal as for a group of friends about to launch into a night of boozing.
By the end of my first lesson I already feel as if I am getting into the swing of things. My instructor, from the ESF ski school, is a hardened Chamonix local, happy in the freezing air with far fewer layers than me, whooping regularly and giving me pep talks on the chair lifts while he smokes a roll-up.
Having such a chilled teacher makes it impossible to get stressed out about my learning abilities – which is a good thing, because every time I panic on my snowboard, I fall over.
By lesson two I have been coached to the point where I can get down a blue slope without falling – except for the time a flurry of Parisian schoolkids ski through me and I fall flat on my face – and I have managed to learn the idiosyncrasies of getting on and off various types of chair lift without making a fool of myself.
By the end of my trip I have made it down a couple of reds, too, and, thanks to the thick snow, I don’t have too many bruises to show for it.
Back at the hotel, I also feel like I am relaxing into things. My room is comfortable and I’m sleeping extremely well. The design may be simple but the furnishings and accessories are cool. There’s a wooden desk, and red tin lamps hanging from wires. The bigger rooms are decked out with funky retro furniture.
There’s also a penthouse, which sleeps up to 12 people, dorm style, in two bedrooms. It would be great for a big group on a budget trip, working out at just €10 a head in low season, and €25 in high.
The mood among the hotel guests is pretty easygoing, and they include a couple of families, and small groups of people in their late 20s or early 30s. I don’t spot any gangs of first-year students.
As a winter holiday novice, I’d been warned that Chamonix draws both extreme skiers and extreme drinkers, but I feel Rocky Pop manages to accommodate both camps, as well as someone like me, who’s quite happy to tumble down a red run or two, have a couple of drinks and then call it a night.
• The trip was provided by Inghams (01483 791114, inghams.co.uk), which is offering seven nights’ half-board at the three-star Rocky Pop Hotel from £729pp departing in February 2017; or from £699pp departing in March or April. The price includes flights from Gatwick to Geneva and transfers
View all comments >