Ski en Colo, Évolène — a Swiss ski colonie de vacances for teenagers

Skiing is taught and practised in small groups. Each day the Aroéven animateurs run ski workshops arranged by ability, so beginners and confident skiers are coached separately. The remainder of the day is given to relaxed skiing and to exploring the terrain with the team rather than to formal lessons, which suits a first mountain holiday as well as a return visit.

The stay is sold as a package for one week, departing from Caen with return coach travel included. Accommodation in the chalet and the activity programme are part of the package. Travel insurance is offered separately and is not part of the package price. A health record form is required before departure.

The group stays at Chalet Le Camp, a functional, fully equipped wooden chalet between the village of Évolène and Les Haudères, looking out at the mountains. It takes a maximum of thirty-six people, so the whole group is housed together rather than split across buildings. Shuttles from the chalet serve the ski lifts.

The operator does not publish the meal arrangements for this stay. What it does set out is the daily rhythm around them: skiers come off the slopes in the late afternoon and the goûter, the French afternoon snack, marks the move from the ski day into the evening programme. Meal details should be confirmed with the organiser before booking.

Skiing in small ability groups with the animateurs is the core of the week, across the linked ski areas of Évolène and Arolla. Away from the pistes the group sledges, plays in the snow, walks down into the village and visits locally. Evenings are built with the young people rather than for them, so the programme shifts with what the group wants, and board games and quiet time are part of it.

The chalet is a self-contained base for the group, equipped for a residential stay and set between Évolène and Les Haudères with mountain views. Local shuttles link it to the lifts of the Évolène and Arolla ski areas, so the skiing is reached without a daily transfer by coach.

This is a colonie de vacances in the French tradition, run by Aroéven Caen - Normandie for the Fédération des Aroéven, an education federation attached to the state school system. Groups are led by qualified animateurs working to a published educational project, and the young people share in planning the evenings. For a twelve to seventeen year old it is a week of skiing in the Val d'Hérens with a group of peers, under the Cervin and the Dent d'Hérens.