By Tony Bowden
Tim Greenwood, George Tate and I have just been introduced to this Company by a friend from Whistler. We have just had one of the best chalet holidays you could wish for, and as a new Company we felt that they deserved some help in spreading the word. It is run by Duncan and Natasha Robertson and Colin Mayo.
We arrived on an early Jet2 flight from Manchester on Saturday Jan 7th and were met at the airport by Duncan to take advantage of our free transfer to Verbier. We arrived for lunchtime had time to hire skis, get ski passes and ski in the afternoon, all facilitated by the free transport.
We came back to the chalet (ski in) - no Medran rat race any day for us - to be greeted with freshly baked cakes and tea. This was later followed by a great meal in the evening. The meal is always preceded by a cocktail and the wine, as much as you like, was very much above average, and is all included in the price. The cooking is superb.
We were staying in the Chalet les Pierres which is a steep 60 yards from the main road leading to Savoleyres, where there was a good Supermarket and the nearest pub, Au Mignon. The piste can be accessed though from the ski in route, which is two minutes walk to the nearest poma. The very extensive chalet comprises three lovely double rooms with en suites and a three single bed room with en suite. There are two further twin bedded rooms which share a large bathroom and are definitely not en suite, but the chalet is so spacious with a large dining cum sitting room, complete with roaring log fire, that this was not a problem. We had the non en suite rooms incidentally. They also have internet access and are happy for you to use it.
Colin and Duncan later told us that they were trying to offer a chalet holiday with a difference, and certainly nothing was too much trouble. In addition to the creature comforts, Colin and Duncan are both fully qualified ski instructors and are attached freelance to the Verbier ski school. However their priority is to the chalet guests and, as well as the free tour of the piste on the first full day, they offer the full range of lessons from beginner (we had one in our party) to extreme - Colin has skied the Argentine couloires with our Whistler friend, and having done the two day improvers course as an extra ourselves we can vouch for it being excellent value for money.
Brambleski are taking on a second chalet for the last eight weeks and there are still vacancies. Our holiday cost was around £390 plus £100 air fare, so it represents excellent value, but if you wish to find out more their website address is www.brambleski.com or you can contact Colin or Duncan direct through duncan@brambleski.com. So if you still have some time this year or want somewhere with a real difference for next, we would thoroughly recommend you try them. They deserve to succeed.