ICE ICE BABY

With slopes for every level and entertainment for Villars-sur-Ollor is a winter resort you'll want to return to, writes Caroline Bishop

- Caroline Bishop

The mountain train pulls away from the top station on its 20-minute descent to the village, and my friend and I wave goodbye. Then we plant our poles into the snow and take off down a wide blue run.

Ahead of us, the undulating white landscape is punctuated by other skiers; craggy monochrome peaks watch on from afar. A child half my height zooms past and I hear my friend laughing as she follows me along a trail through the woods. If we're speedy, we should get down before the train.

It's the end of our first day in Villarssur-Ollon, a resort in Switzerland's Vaud Alps, and I skipped that mountain train ride in order to tackle this final run instead - a stretch I was once too fearful to do. But after learning to ski in Villars as a nervous 30-something and having returned many times since, I now feel confident exploring as my ability grows.

A two-hour train ride from Geneva, Villars isn't as well known abroad as Verbier and Zermatt (nor is it as pricey, thankfully), but it's certainly popular with the Swiss- and for good reason. Together with the linked ski areas of Gryon and Les Diablerets, it provides 104km of slopes for all ability levels, from absolute beginner upwards.

Earlier today I passed the short blue slope where I first tested my ski legs all those years ago, and I was reminded not only of how much I've improved since then but how much fun I've had here along the way. I learnt to correct my laughably bad body position during a lesson with a ski school instructor. I skied off-piste for the first time on the way to Gryon. I enjoyed a beer with friends at Jimmy's Bar on the slopes, and lingered at the top of the Grand Chamossaire chairlift to absorb the 360-degree sprawl of the Vaud Alps before zigzagging down a sunny red run.

Beyond the slopes