My wife Lily and I learned to ski properly rather late in life, but we and our children have caught the ski bug and now go skiing every year in Zermatt in Switzerland, under the guidance of our instructors Marianne Lochmatter and Felix Kolly.

Below, the photo on the left was taken in Zermatt, not far from the famous Matterhorn, while the photo on the right shows our children in short skis, with the Matterhorn in the background.

The photo below of the children was taken in 1999 in Breckenridge in Colorado, where we all learned to ski for the first time.

Sam is an excellent skier, and harbours ambitions to train as a ski instructor. However, Abby is perhaps more stylish.

Short skis are very interesting, and help one to improve technique by forcing one to distribute weight correctly on the two skis. It took a lot of persuasion to get Lily to try them. For the record, the photo below on the left shows her on such a pair, whereas the photo below on the right shows me in more traditional gear.

The photo below shows Lily and me skiing down behind Marianne, after having delicious cakes at one of the mountain restaurants.

The final photo shows us with my parents and my brother John. My parents go mountain hiking while the rest of us ski.