Chill Factore, Manchester

Off-peak, you get 90 minutes for £17 which includes skis, poles and boots (no reduction if you bring your own). There is a changing area with lockers and loos, and several benches where they sort you out with skis.

I liked the height/weight machine which you stand on and punch in a few answers so that it can issue a chit with details of the length of skis, poles and the (all-important) binding settings you need. They immediately pass responsibility for this analysis back to the customer by requiring a signature, but it felt more reassuring than the process on holiday where a ski technician with a Gauloise hanging from the corner of his mouth merely glances at you before jamming his screwdriver in the bindings and cranking them to whatever potentially bone-shattering setting he feels like.

The bindings, you see, do the job of clamping boot to ski but are spring-loaded so that the ski should detach if you fall – thus reducing the risk of leg injury. If the bindings are too loose for your height, weight and skiing ability they will release when you don’t want them to. Too tight, and in a fall you have an equally good chance of meeting some nurses on your holiday.