Suddenly, I know how Posh feels – what to wear to the airport? Not, in my case, because I need to assemble yet another fabulous couture ensemble for the awaiting paparazzi, but because it's one of those scorching late September days Britain sometimes serves up by way of apology for another underwhelming summer. And I'm going snowboarding.
It's a strange feeling to do the Tarentaise rat run – the road between Geneva and the French Alps soon overfamiliar to frequent visitors – in full bloom, the monochrome of Lake Annecy and the gradually gathering mountains swapped for turquoise water and lush green forests flecked with gold and red. And the temperate theme extends alarmingly high. By the time I reach Tignes les Boisses' Hôtel Les Mélèzes at 1,850m, of the craggy peaks crowding the wraparound views, only the Grande Sassière across the Isère valley shows any snow.
I'm here for the ski and snowboard test camp jointly run by tour operator MountainSun and ski and board hire company Edge 2 Edge. Part of the vast Espace Killy ski area which is also home to Val d'Isère, the Grande Motte glacier above Tignes hosts skiing almost all year round, and, after its three-week autumn closure, the 25 guests gathering on the last weekend of September for a pre-dinner drink in the chalet hotel's snug bar are its first visitors of this winter. Running until 13 December, the camp has an eye-catching price tag – the standard package of three nights' catered accommodation, three-day lift pass, airport transfers and use of new-season boards, bindings, skis and boots by top brands starts at £99.
I'm not first on the slopes, possibly because of chef and hotel manager Roger's generosity with the Talisker single malt after dinner. But my timing is good. At 10.30am I board the funicular railway, which bores 3.5km through the mountain before emerging into swirling grey cloud. Thankfully, it has evaporated by the time the Grande Motte cable car carries me to 3,456m and the glacier's highest skiable point.
Tignes' out-of-season skiing can offer up to 20km of piste – I share five open runs with a couple of kids' teams on race training and around 50 other downhillers. A couple of snowfalls have dusted the glacier, but it still has a grey palour. Still, this is unmistakably an Alp, and a mighty one. Unsweetened by their more familiar winterwear of several million tons of whiteness, the raw, angular ridges and peaks of Grande Casse, Mont Pourri and the Mont Blanc range layer into a stupefying panorama. And, it occurs to me as I make my first carves, I could blow the cost of this whole trip in four hours on Tamworth SnowDome's 170m of indoor, man-made snow.
The last time I was at Tamworth, I don't remember having brand-new, high-end kit chucked my way either. The Edge 2 Edge team are pioneers of a new service that lets you order or be fitted in the UK then have your equipment delivered to resorts in the Tarentaise region, bringing to the camp new-season boards, skis and boots by Burton, Head, Salomon, Scott, Atomic and more. Thanks to them, I finally get to ride Lib Tech's Skate Banana snowboard, whose radical "reverse camber" construction made such an impact it was near impossible to lay hands on one for its first two seasons. The seven points of contact provided by its subtly bumpy outline give amazing control and make breezy work of Grand Motte's crunchy-then-mushy covering. Before I know it, I'm being chased down the mountain by ski patrol, the last man down. "I know," grins ski tech Matt when I swap my Banana for a Burton at the end of the day. "It feels like you're cheating, doesn't it?'" (See the new version in Latest Kit, page 10).
Down in the valley too, the camp punches above its weight. A ten-minute shuttle ride from the main base station (and linked during heavier snow by the Les Boisses lift to Espace Killy's 300km of runs), Les Mélèzes is a simple, spotlessly clean 20-room chalet hotel with the usual alpine extras like hot tub, sun terrace and sauna plus a Wii, Wi-Fi and Sky TV. Served in a dining room whose large windows reveal spectacular views of the valley, Roger's food is, for the price, frankly astounding. Dinners include whole poussin with orange zest gravy, herb-crusted rack of lamb with dauphinoise gratin and roasted veg, and seared fillet of pork with wholegrain mustard and mushroom sauce. And the throng who fill the bar, many pre-bonded by previous trips with MountainSun (its repeat rate for guests averages about 60%) variously enjoy relaxed and borderline riotous evenings, side by side. The prices help – here a pint of beer will cost you €4.50 against the valley average of €6. This trip's only reminders of in-season fiscal realities are at the Panoramic mountain restaurant, the only one open at this time of year, where coffee costs €3.60.
On this, the inaugural outing of the three-year-old camp's 2009 run, there's even the opportunity to trade in my last afternoon's skiing for Franceraft Savoie's final white water rafting excursion of the season out of Bourg Saint Maurice (for a €60 supplement). Surrounded by flitting birds, dappled sunshine and the dramatic cliffs of the La Pucelle gorge, the 22km, rapids-studded stretch of the Isère river adds another satisfying snowsports holiday first to the tally. And with my bags waiting for me in the MountainSun transfer bus at the end, that run back to the airport is neatly snapped into two palatable halves.
• MountainSun (skiandboardcamp.com; mountainsunltd.com) and Edge 2 Edge's (edge2edge.co.uk) three-day, three-night ski and snowboard test camps start at £99 including catered accommodation, transfers from Geneva, lift passes and equipment. Reflecting the increasing lift prices as new snow opens up more of the ski area, prices rise to £125 in November and £149 in December. In full winter season, MountainSun also offers three- and four-day breaks starting all week, as well as week-long packages to various resorts, from £139 for four nights.
