Then there’s access: on our previous ski holidays we have faced the torture of bus transfers of up to four hours from the airport. La Clusaz is in the Massif des Aravis ski area, in the Haute-Savoie region, which is about 50 minutes’ drive from Geneva. Our flight from Dublin arrived at 9.15am on a Sunday, which meant we could have been on the slopes by 11am. Instead we opted for a few hours’ sightseeing in Geneva and still arrived in the resort before teatime. A tour company that we found on the internet (its details are in the panel, right) transferred our group from Geneva to La Clusaz in a comfortable minibus for €130.

If you’ve had the misfortune to walk any distance in ski boots carrying skis and poles, you will know that finding accommodation near the ski lifts is another vital component of a successful holiday. Anything more than a five- or 10-minute walk turns into a Shackletonesque trek that will leave you exhausted before you even click on your skis.

Thankfully, we found a charming little two-star hotel, the Christiania, that was the very definition of central. Our bedroom overlooked the centre of the village and was across the road from the Caisse Centrale, where you can buy ski passes. We couldn’t quite ski to the front door, but a short walk through the village brought us to the two main télécabines (cabin lifts) for the resort, La Patinoire and Beauregard.

There are plenty of places where you can rent equipment when you arrive. We popped into Goy Sport, whose staff were friendly and didn’t even look for a deposit. Expect to pay about €110 a week for skis, poles and boots for an adult.

No amount of planning, strategising or scheming can guarantee perfect snow. We went to the highest ski area in Europe one year in search of quality white stuff, and even there they had to turn on the cannons to make fresh snow. It made us wonder if we had embraced the sport at a time when global warming was in the throes of killing it off completely. Were we doomed to ski on artificial snow for the rest of our days?

As luck would have it, our trip to La Clusaz coincided with the best snow the resort had in nearly 10 years – God was in his heaven and all was right with the world again. As with most modern resorts, La Clusaz has extensive snowmaking facilities, but nothing can beat the feel of real powder under your skis.

It’s a relatively low-altitude resort – the village is at 1,100m, and the mountains rise to 2,600m, so the best time to visit is probably in February or March.

La Clusaz has access to five linked ski areas, with a total of 84 slopes and 54 lifts. It’s probably best suited to intermediate skiers (“intermediate” is probably a generous description for the snowploughing descents that Mrs Kelly and I attempt each year): it has just seven black runs, plus about 25 each of reds, blues and greens.

We found the best snow at Massif de Balme, the highest of the village’s five peaks, at 2,600m, which you get to along La Motte, a charming green run through a forest. All the views in La Clusaz are stunning, but it’s worth trekking to the top of Massif de Balme for a breathtaking panorama that includes the majestic Mont Blanc, in the distance.

Because this area is made up of mainly challenging red runs, and as it doesn’t get sun until late afternoon, it is much quieter than the rest of the resort.

Another slope that merits a mention is the red run that links L’Aiguille (2,257m) and Balme: take the chair lift to the top of L’Aiguille, then ski the Fernuy run all the way down.

We also enjoyed the genial Guy Périllat blue run, which takes you from Massif de Beauregard (1,690m) all the way home to the village – a nice one to finish off the day.

Adrenalin junkies such as my friend Dee were also well served: she skied red and black runs to her heart’s content – and when she got bored with that she did a tandem paraglide from 1,700m with her skis on.

There are other snow-related activities you can try out, including speed riding – a terrifying combination of skiing and paragliding – heliskiing and night skiing.

There are also great off-piste opportunities, though, being a relative novice, I wasn’t inclined to try them – except for one afternoon when I fell off a button lift and had no choice but to go cross-country back to the piste; Mrs Kelly, who was on the lift behind me, stepped over me deftly in creases of laughter.

As we didn’t book our accommodation until the last minute we had to go half-board. Premonitions of dodgy nightly buffets made us very nervous, but we need not have worried: the food was spectacular.

A five-course meal was served by friendly staff in the hotel’s comfortable dining room each night. We were stunned to be tucking into sea bass, foie gras and pigeon, particularly as the hotel had only two stars.

Fellow diners told us they had been coming to Hotel Christiania for 30 years. It’s not surprising. In fact, La Clusaz generally seems not to buy into the seasonal price hikes that often beleaguer French resorts.

Our experience of the village’s restaurants was limited to lunches, but we were impressed everywhere we went. (We can particularly recommend Ugo’h Café, at 248 Route des Grande Alpes, 00-33-4-50631366.) Local specialities include diot (Savoyard sausage), farcement (savoury cake made with potatoes, bacon and fruit), polenta and regional charcuterie and cheese. Locals are obsessed with fromage , so it’s not a resort for the lactose-intolerant.

The local economy still relies heavily on income from sales of Reblochon, Tomme de Savoie and Chevrotin cheeses, so make it your business to try cheesy dishes like tartiflette, raclette and fondue. The village also has an array of bakeries, patisseries and chocolate stores.

Our group of mainly thirtysomethings had long since lost our ability to party into the wee hours, so the relative lack of nightlife here didn’t bother us.

We still enjoy apres-ski, of course, and particularly liked Bar le Salto (91 Montée de la Croix, 00-33-4-50633701), which is owned by a French-Scottish couple – and, conveniently, is at the foot of the Crêt du Merle chairlift – and Les Caves du Paccaly (10 Passage du Vatican, 00-33-4-50633739), which serves steaming bowls of mulled wine.

I normally find it depressing to go to the trouble of travelling only to find yourself surrounded by the people you left behind. But La Clusaz’s visitors are predominantly French and Swiss, so we heard scarcely anyone outside our group speak English all week.

The French call La Clusaz their best-kept secret. Visit soon, before the hordes find out about it.

Deep in the Reblochon zone, this pretty Savoie village reeks of French mountain culture. Tasteful wooden chalets line the streets, a lovely 19th-century church dominates the village square, and there are some excellent restaurants and a good handful of bars. Almost everyone seems to be French or Swiss, locals and chalet owners up for the weekend comme normale, and in no particular panic to party, ski like maniacs, or rip off the tourists.

The first evening after I arrived I sat at the bar at Les Caves Du Paccaly, and my reasonably priced glass of wine was accompanied by a complimentary board of local cheese and cured ham. And why wouldn’t it be?

The locals are on to a good thing. This resort of five linked mountains is sometimes dismissed for its low altitude, yet during the snow-poor days of last January, the coverage was better than in the heavily trafficked Three Valleys.

It has also produced more than its share of world-class athletes, a reflection of its diverse appeal. Cross-country World Cup gold medal winner Vincent Vittoz is a habitué of the 52km of pretty trails at La Clusaz’s Plateau des Confins, host of the World Cup in 2004. Seb Michaud moved to La Clusaz aged 15, destined for the French National moguls and freestyle team. Another local boy, Candide Thovex, took gold at the revered X Games.

In the shadow of these freeride gods, I clicked into my skis with guide Antonin Lieuthagui of Dimension Freeride, himself a snowboard freeride gold medallist. He took me up to La Balme, the mountain with the most off-piste options, to share some of Seb and Candide’s favourites – big treeless snowfields speckled with drops, cliffs and wide carving slopes. Here he pointed to one sheer rock face with an impossibly narrow chute funnelling over its far side. “The access is a bit difficult,” he admitted modestly, “but the run down is very easy.”

I wasn’t quite ready for that, so we cruised the empty wide slopes and then looped over to another of La Clusaz’s five mountains: Beauregard. Here lay a parallel universe of snowploughing beginners, loping retrievers and tanned grannies, a world of future freeskiers riding the magic carpet.

Each of the linked areas has its own character. The wide slopes of L’Etal are pleasant in the afternoon light; L’Auguille, just across the valley, offers easy straight fall-line slopes; the meadows of Manigod are a favourite with families.

It was here thatI swapped my skis for, well, shorter skis – so that they didn’t tangle in the hooves of Quick, Narcisse and Si Jolie, my Hermès-harnessed horses. “Ski joering” – being pulled on skis behind a horse – is part gentle outing, part hair-raising high-speed expedition.

We stopped to set up a photograph on a long flat run where the snow was softer, then Julien and Si Jolie took off just in advance of Quick and me. Quick lived up to his name and gave chase, while I held on to the harness for dear life. Powder flew from Quick’s pounding hooves up into my face, the road in the distance neared with alarming speed.

One of us had to go: I flung the harness down and Quick shot off, crossing the road and trotting straight back into his box. Done for the day, he tucked into a mouthful of hay.

Shortly afterwards I was enjoying a lunch that would rival the finest mountain restaurant in Zermatt or Val d’Isère at Le Vieux Chalet, a rustic and chic Savoyard inn on the side of the piste. It was just another of La Clusaz’s delights to enjoy, before I headed to the cross-country trails that loop the high frozen lake, followed by a massage before a wine tasting and dinner at Restaurant L’Ecuelle. Perfect..