The resort also has numerous bustling mountain restaurants in which to give tired legs a rest.

Once you’ve built up a bit of confidence and are comfortable on blue runs and drag lifts, you can enjoy a real adventure by skiing over to the resort of La Thuile, just across the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard, in Italy (don’t worry, you won’t be asked for your passport when crossing the border). The two resorts are also linked by ski lifts.

Besides skiing, there are plenty of other activities to enjoy in La Rosière, from snowshoeing to sledging, or just meeting the resident family of Saint Bernard mountain-rescue dogs, the gentle canine giants named after the eponymous col (the lowest point of a ridge or saddle between two peaks). The dogs are bred at Le Relais du Petit Saint Bernard, from where the pack is walked two or three times a day.

Best for experienced skiers

Red Mountain, British Columbia, Canada

British Columbia is always a good bet for skiers looking for a challenge, and few places are more hardcore than Red Mountain.

The resort has grown considerably over the past couple of decades and now boasts more acres per skier than any other ski hill in North America, with a challenging selection of steeps and tree skiing that are among the most testing in Canada.

Also available is cat skiing – in which a snowcat acts as your lift, often to more remote slopes – for just C$10 (US$7.25) a run (most other cat-ski operations charge hundreds of dollars a day).

The resort offers some top-quality on-mountain accommodation, particularly the ski in/ski out Josie boutique hotel, but take time to visit Red’s neighbouring town of Rossland, a characterful former gold mining town that, despite a population of fewer than 4,000, has produced numerous winter Olympians, including Rémi Drolet, who competed at Beijing 2022.

Best for families

Les Arcs, France

Les Arcs is part of the huge Paradiski ski area, one of the largest in the world, so the variety of skiing and accommodation available should include something suitable for most families.

Areas are set aside specifically for children and novices, there are well-respected ski schools and, for more accomplished skiers, the world’s longest black run, a descent of 2,000 vertical metres from the top of the resort’s high point, the 3,226-metre (10,500-ft) Aiguille Rouge.

More appealing for families are an 1,800-metre zip line, a sound and light show at the top of the Varet ski lift and two toboggan runs. And if all that’s not enough, there’s the Vanoise Express, a cable car system that runs the world’s largest cars. The double-decker vehicles can each take 200 passengers across a dizzying 380-metre drop to the neighbouring resort of La Plagne.

Best for snowboarding

Verbier, Switzerland

Glitzy Verbier is renowned for having some of the best snowboarding terrain in the world, whatever kind of rider you are.

Freeriders will find vast powder fields of all angles, from extreme to easy, and they often remain untracked long after the last snowfall, while freestyle enthusiasts can get their kicks in the La Chaux snow park, which has a variety of kickers, rails and boxes, and three lines, or routes (small, medium and large).

The resort’s extensive range of long, wide pistes and consistently good snow conditions should please beginner and expert alike, and if you’re looking for lessons, most instructors here speak excellent English.

However, Verbier is an expensive ski resort in an expensive country, so you may need deep pockets to make the most of its world-class slopes.

Best for heli-skiing

Bella Coola Heli-Sports, British Columbia

Heli-skiing is not cheap, so if you’re going to splash out the big bucks for the ultimate experience, you may as well go for the biggest and best.

Putting its faith in carbon offsets, Bella Coola claims to be the planet’s only “climate positive” heli-ski operation and has won the world’s best heli-ski operator award five times. It offers guests a ski area that is as big as the entire Swiss Alps, so you’re virtually guaranteed to be skiing on perfect powder in the company of just a guide and three or four other skiers.

Accommodation is in a luxury wilderness lodge close to the Alaskan border, where locally sourced food is prepared by chefs, after which you can relax in a hot tub or sauna, ready for more bucket-list skiing the following day.

Best in Asia

Hokkaido and Honshu, Japan

Japan is renowned for having some of the best powder skiing (on lighter, fluffy snow rather than on groomed runs) in the world.

The ski resorts on Honshu are even more numerous and range from the big commercial operations of the Hakuba Valley to tiny ski hills such as Manza Onsen, where you can immerse yourself in Japan’s mountain culture as well as enjoy its deep powder.

Most snow-sure resort

Cervinia, Italy

Cervinia’s altitude – it tops out at 3,480 metres – means that it is relatively snow sure and has a long ski season, running from November to May (you can even ski in the summer, on the Theodul Glacier). What’s more, it has a great range of pistes, some fine off-piste action and, the jewel in the crown, it sits beneath one of the world’s most iconic mountains, the Matterhorn.

The mountain’s forbidding north face rises up above the resort so steeply that you can get a stiff neck staring up at it, and while this isn’t the classic Toblerone view of the Matterhorn, you can see that spectacular vista by skiing to Zermatt, which is just across the border, in Switzerland, and connected by ski lifts.

Best for après-ski

Ischgl, Austria

Ischgl starts and ends the ski season with a huge party – this year it is on November 25 (€85/US$92 per person) and features a performance by American singer Demi Lovato. The merriment scarcely stops in between, so it’s no surprise Ischgl regards itself as the party capital of the Alps.

Bars such as the booming Trofana Alm, the frantic Elizabeth Arthotel (where dirndl-clad dancing girls grind it out atop the tables) and the legendary Niki’s Stadl do their best to cement that reputation, leading to a dilemma faced by many revellers – how hard can I party and still get up to ski the following day?

The skiing is as good as the partying, though, and is a great way to get over the inevitable hangover.

Best off-the-beaten-track resort

Brundage Mountain, Idaho, United States

Brundage Mountain sits above the shores of Lake Payette and the pretty mountain town of McCall (population: 3,800) in central Idaho, and is blessed with lots of powder, no lift queues and super-friendly locals who are proud to show you around their mountain, which boasts – with some justification, as well as rhyme – of having “The best snow in Idaho”.

It’s a bit of a schlep to get to Brundage – you need to fly into Idaho’s state capital Boise then take a two-hour drive north to the ski hill – but for keen skiers, it’s worth the effort for the fantastic skiing as well as wonderful views towards remote, fantastically named mountains such as the Sawtooth Range, Gospel Hump and the Seven Devils.

There’s another small and equally quiet ski hill, Tamarack, a few miles west of McCall, should you want a change of scenery.

Best up-and-coming resorts

Gudauri & Tetnuldi, Georgia

Even more snow-sure is the smaller but less accessible resort of Tetnuldi, deep within the Caucasus Mountains.

Next March the region will host the Freeride World Tour – an annual series that sees the best free skiers and snowboard free riders compete in individual events – which is some indication of the quality of the off-piste skiing on offer here.