The name was put on a flier by a company providing a holiday for a group I was getting together for a non-YH holiday in 1997 and has somehow stuck. My name being Peter Edge, it seemed somewhat appropriate. My first group skiing holiday was by coach to Grindelwald Youth Hostel in 1990. It was an amalgam of the local ski club in Lancaster, the local YHA group and a small number from the YHA local groups network we picked up on the route. The following year we went to Zermatt Youth Hostel and by 1993 I had 3 youth hostel holidays with full coaches on their way to the Alps.

School teaching got in the way somewhat and I nearly gave up in 1995 (organising skiing holidays that is). In 1996 common sense prevailed and I left school teaching instead. But it was when staying at Tignes Youth Hostel during Easter 1997, that things really began to look up. I was approached by Philippe Jouannet the manager of Seez-les Arcs and Tignes Youth Hostels and also chairman of FUAJ Montagne to 'do something about the British'. Philippe felt that what was needed was an enthusiast who was an English voice at a British telephone number willing to have a chat about it all and give advice following it up with a simple way of booking and paying. 'There are thousands of British people on the slopes of Tignes, Val d'Isere and Les Arcs and the only Brits we get are your groups.' My own view was that there was a cultural divide amongst youth hostellers.

It was the natural thing to do to stay in a youth hostel when walking or cycling but somehow when skiing abroad it never entered peoples' consciousness. The self-same YHA members would automatically stay in a hotel or an apartment in the Alps. Only now, with the large adverts in Triangle magazine and the buzz from people who have already been, is the realisation taking place in a big way that the youth hostel is the place to stay when you ski or snowboard.

I was, as stereotyped by the bar room song, a climber and rambler from Manchester way. The youth hostel was always my preferred accommodation when in the hills and after being introduced to skiing continued to spend nights at Glencoe, Braemar, and Glen Nevis Youth Hostels on winter outings. Why not stay in Youth Hostels abroad to ski? Indeed why not? With an increasing youth hostel involvement as a YHA life member, a founder member of The Lancaster & Morecambe Local YHA Group and a volunteer warden at Slaidburn Youth Hostel in the Trough of Bowland area, persuading people to stay in French youth hostels to ski seems a natural cause to pursue.