The Chalet Convert

I should confess at the outset that I have never been a chalet kind of girl. My mother, who took me skiing as a child, saw no reason to spend a holiday catering and cleaning when a good hotel could do it for her, and after more than forty years on skis I had inherited the habit along with the ski legs. So it is with some surprise that I report my conversion, high in East Tyrol, at Gradonna Mountain Resort.

Gradonna sits at Kals am Grossglockner, a small village at the foot of Austria's highest peak, deep inside the Hohe Tauern National Park. The transfer from Salzburg takes around two and a half hours, and it is a scenic one, climbing steadily into the high mountains. In winter the whole valley is a snow globe; in summer, I am told, it is a hiker's paradise. Either way, the resort is a destination in its own right rather than somewhere to sleep between runs.

The main hotel, a four-star-superior affair, is a long, modern structure of wood laid along a sunny plateau, angled so that every guest gets the view. Around it, scattered through the forest, are the chalets: chic, cubic and built of local timber, so that they seem to have grown out of the hillside rather than been placed on it. This is contemporary Alpine architecture at its most assured, and it is all ski-in, ski-out.

Hotel service on tap, and a front door of your own.

We shared ours with the friends we ski with every winter, and it was cosy and quietly luxurious. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame forest and mountain from almost every angle. Two floors of bedrooms, each with a pair of doubles and sleek bathrooms, sandwich a living floor with a proper kitchen, a long table built for lingering, deep sofas, a wood-burning stove and a balcony that catches the sun. Downstairs is a private ski room with its own infrared cabin, plus a washer and dryer, and enough storage for everything we had packed. We do not travel light. Nobody I know does.

The genius of Gradonna is that you never have to choose between a chalet and a hotel. You can order in, stock up at the resort's own little shop on local produce and organic cheeses, or pull on your snow boots and crunch across to the hotel for dinner. Because of the altitude, that means walking through the snow, and I had imagined it would be a chore. It turned out to be one of the pleasures of the week: cold air, snow underfoot and the lit windows of the hotel ahead. After the amount we ate, it was also entirely necessary.

And the food deserves the walk. The hotel restaurant holds a Gault&Millau rating, no small accolade, and it shows. Breakfasts are generous spreads of fresh organic produce that cater happily for every kind of diet. Evenings move from fine dining to lavish buffets, and the wine cellar will keep any oenophile occupied. Children have a dining room of their own, so the grown-ups can linger.

Then there is the spa, which, as a self-confessed spa aficionado, I judge harshly. Gradonna passed with honours. The outdoor pool steams gently in the snow; inside, the pool is calm and almost zen-like; and the treatment menu is exhaustive. I kept it simple, with a full-body massage and foot reflexology, and both were superb. After a day on the mountain, there is no better place to end up.

Cold air, snow underfoot and the lit windows of the hotel ahead.

The skiing is the largest area in East Tyrol, and it caters for every level. My advice, as ever, is to keep learning: we skied with Markus and the team at Ski School Kals, who know every inch of the mountain, make lessons a pleasure and go well beyond the call of duty. Kit came from Alpinsport Gratz, where the equipment is first class and the service fast and professional. For the younger members of the party there is a beginners' lift, a modern kids' club and a teen area with an outdoor climbing wall, but the beauty of Gradonna is that none of it intrudes.

What stays with me is the ease of it all. Skis on at the door, skis off at the door, and no frantic morning scramble. Just the mountain, the forest and the light pouring through those great walls of glass.

Gradonna gave us everything I want from a week in the snow: hotel service on tap, and a front door of my own. True ski nirvana.

Photographs courtesy of Gradonna Mountain Resort.