Well, perhaps she was right. Although with the snow quality at the Alberta
resorts of Lake
Louise and Sunshine Village – even some early season powder caches –
it would have been hard not to feel in good form.

But I wasn’t in the heart of the Canadian
Rockies simply to click on my skis and shred the mountain. I had signed up
for boot camp, a new concept run by Travel Alberta which involves skiers
getting into shape on trips with personal trainers, fitness gurus and yoga
teachers constantly on hand to hone, tone, instruct, advise and cajole.

The aim is to make it easier to maximise your skiing potential because the
exercise regime, both mental and physical, has made your body stronger and
more supple and with added core strength.

For those whose main off-slope activity on a skiing or boarding holiday is
carrying a tray of gluhwein back to your table in an après-ski bar before
jigging about to a healthy serving of Euro-pop, this may all come as a bit
of a shock. The route to this ideal state of ski fitness involves a fair
degree of commitment and hard work. The yoga is the easy part.

There are one or two activity sessions a day. You may find yourself doing
fairly conventional stuff in a gym with a personal trainer – push-ups,
sit-ups and lunges. But out on the snow, you could find yourself playing
catch with other members of your group – with medicine balls.

Another outdoors activity involves relocating to a forest in what feels like
the middle of the wilderness, where Tracy Garneau, one of the world’s top
ultra-long distance runners, leads the group on a jog around a lake before
organising 50-metre repeat shuttles up and down steep steps built into the
hillside.

Then there’s the sled race. Participants tow a sled loaded with a 25kg gym
weight (“nothing too heavy and the course is flat”) across a snowy field.
Oh, and all this outside stuff is in temperatures that can drop way below
zero. Not that you stand about in one spot long enough to notice the cold.

You suddenly realise that there’s another big bonus to the programme – you’re
in beautiful, remote spots that you wouldn’t normally venture to, even on a
ski holiday where it goes without saying the scenery is beautiful.

But here there are no chairlifts, cable cars, mountain restaurants or bars in
sight – just pristine woodland, with the occasional lake visible through the
trees or a tumbling stream overhung with the snow-laden branches of pines on
the ice-rimmed bank. “Yep, I’m coming, I’ll catch you up – just stopped for
a moment to look at the view.”

The activities are split between the towns of Banff,
close to the ski areas of Lake
Louise, Mt Norquay and Sunshine Village, and Jasper, where the local
slopes are at Marmot Basin.

The two towns are linked by the scenic Highway 93, also known as the Icefields
Parkway. This thin strip of high altitude tarmac cuts through a landscape of
ice and jagged mountains. A tentacle of the Athabasca Glacier reaches almost
to the road at one point – the glacier is part of the Columbia Icefield,
1,000ft thick in parts and one of the largest accumulations of ice and snow
south of the Arctic Circle.

The journey is a respite from boot camp – but not one to be undertaken without
proper preparation, because this is no place to run out of petrol.

And rigorous as the boot camp regime may be, there doesn’t have to be any
shortage of luxury when you return to your hotel from either the slopes or a
training session. Accommodation for the boot camp package can be tailored to
individual requirements. We stayed in style at both the baronial Fairmont
Banff Springs – where Briana conducted yoga sessions at the marvellous
Willow Stream Spa – and at the lakeside Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

The skiing, on excellent snow, was a well-deserved treat after the prep work
of boot camp. And, aches and pains aside, we felt better for it.

Essentials:

Ski Solutions (020 7471 7741, www.skisolutions.com)
can organise a ten-day ski boot camp, including flights, hotels and personal
trainers and instructors, from £2,050.

Where to stay:

Fairmont Banff Springs (www.fairmont.com/banffsprings),
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (www.fairmont.com/LakeLouise),
Lobstick Lodge, Jasper (www.mpljasper.com).
More information on skiing in Alberta at www.travelalberta.com
and www.canada.travel.