Off-piste snowboarding is utterly awesome. (If you stay upright.) But off-piste nose-diving into two metres of snow is utterly exhausting! I found this out as I huffed and puffed and tried as hard as I could to extricate myself and my board from about two metres of amazingly soft white snow in La Plagne today. The snowfall here in the French Alps over the past few days is like nothing I have ever witnessed in a decade of ski holidays in Europe.

Overnight, tons of cms of snow fall on the landscape, trees, houses, cars and everything outside in a fabulous blanket of pristine white stuff. During the day ever more cms just keep on coming. And out there, amid the bonkers snowy slopes, a group of 16 SnowVole bloggers have been giving it their all on skis, snowboards and duals (a new crazy dude version of two-piece snowboards).

This is a press trip like no other. The age range is from Young Dudes (aka super freestyle snowboarding couple Si Cudlip and Faye Young) to Old Dude! (aka Richard Kane) and all ages and varieties in between. (I am pleasantly surprised to find that I am not actually the oldest on this funky style snow bloggin’ trip. Not quite!)

We are being hosted in a SnowChateaux catered chalet in Les Coches, near La Plagne resort. The banter is fantastic – and the skill range is awesome. As the Young Dudes carve impressive paths off-piste, Utterly-up-for-it-Jake pulls urban tricks and stunts on metal rails, wooden steps and any obstacle that catches his enthusiastic attention. Jake is demonstrating Duals and being filmed by super cool camera man LifeCinematic John.

Other SnowBloggers include Alex, who designs and makes his own snowboards, Young Richard, who does something on-line and creative, Ski and Snowboard Show Nico, as well as SnowVolers, Uncle Phil and Slash.

In fact, we have Uncle Phil to thank for our trip. He set up the on-line skiing and snowboarding community SnowVole with mate Slash. He then decided that the way to get word out there about SnowVole was to invite an eclectic bunch of skiing and snowboarding bloggers to France, courtesy of SnowChateaux, for an early season holiday. We have also been given free ski passes in a wide range of resorts including Les Arcs, Les Plagnes and Meribel. We are still to ski and ride Tignes and more of La Plagne.

We have laughed and joked, and witnessed exciting on-piste and off-piste action and generally got chest-deep in mega tons of snow.

And still it’s only half way through our trip. The G-Force is also with me this week as my paid plus-1 and has been led astray and off-piste by the young dudes. I reckon I’ll be with them tomorrow if my sore back has stopped making me feel more Old Dude than Young Dude!