Relatively late-comers to skiing, Chris & Vanessa Callow were persuaded by friends to try a winter sports holiday in France in 1991 and were well and truly bitten by the bug – from then on they skied at least once every year, foregoing a summer holiday when economic considerations dictated. The couple developed an early preference for intimate village stations and skied for many years in Les Contamines under the shoulder of Mont Blanc before buying their first property in Les Carroz in the Grand Massif – the chief considerations were the short transfer time from Geneva, the large ski-area and last but not least numerous high quality mountain restaurants.

 

With both children safely dispatched to university in 2007 the Callows crossed from consumers to providers opening their first chalet high on the South side of Les Carroz, the tape being cut by Manx snowboarding Olympic Competitor Zoe Gillings. Chris & Vanessa feel skills learnt in their previous lives as Manx Advocate and Head of Secondary PE have been key in the success of the venture, and are particularly pleased at the high level of clients returning year on year.

Chris’s lifelong passion for all things gastronomic places food and wine very much at the centre of the ManxSki experience – an association with top French Chef Hervé Willems that started at an Edinburgh cookery school in 2007 saw Hervé delivering the first Summer Cookery Course in the ManxSki Chalet in June 2011.