We found that, in general, meals worked out at about pounds 6-pounds 8 per head, with drinks. You’d be hard pressed to make your pound stretch that far in Zermatt or Obergurgl.One rewarding wheeze is the “Fresh Tracks” breakfast. Take the 7.30am Whistler gondola up to Pika’s restaurant, enjoy a sumptuous Canadian plate of sausages, bacon, eggs and pancakes, all laced with maple syrup, and then be first on to the slopes around 8.30am once the piste control has declared them open and before the hordes arrive. Your first morning, when you’re bound to be awake by 5am with jet lag, is best for this expedition.The weather can be a problem at Whistler.

None of the hotels is too far from the resort’s gondola stations. Both mountains have huge restaurant lodges two-thirds of the way to the summits where the lunchtime fare comprises practically any cuisine you can think of. The neighbouring mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb are well served by lifts. The delay foreshortened the hours of daylight left to enjoy what we were told was the stunning 75-mile drive from Vancouver to Whistler.Once there, though, the resort works well.

A massive rebuilding programme turned Vancouver airport into a disaster area – almost two hours to reclaim baggage and a shrug of the shoulders when you inquire as to its fate. Mind you, you’re not in the best of moods when you first arrive. “Over there,” says Bruce, “the attitude is, `Aren’t you privileged to be spending your money in our country?’ Whereas here in Canada it’s, `Great you’re here – what can we do to make your stay enjoyable?’”And Bruce was right about that. Bruce sounded a true note, it seemed to me, when comparing value for money in Whistler as against most European resorts. You rarely get European instructors daring to talk about politics, for example. But Bruce and Kylie loved nothing better than a good political chitchat while on the gondola or the chair-lift.