Devotees ski down hills, though rarely down slopes as steep as those that Alpine skiers tackle. They ski up hills, too - using something like the "herringbone" technique familiar to Alpine skiers. And they ski on terrain that goes neither up nor down to an appreciable degree, with less effort than walking and much less than is required of a downhiller on the flat.The essentials of cross-country equipment are that the skis and boots are light; that the two components are connected only by a flexible binding at the toe, so your heels can lift off the skis as you stride along; and that the ski has a sole that grips the snow when you want it to, and slides easily over it when you don't.This last is the key ingredient in making efficient progress on the flat (though there is also the more energetic "skating" technique). Most of all, you'll find what downhill skiing so rarely provides: a landscape populated by nothing but trees, wildlife, and you.Cross-country is the modern equivalent of skiing in its original form - a means of travelling. You'll find that a hill of nursery- slope gradient, in downhill terms, can offer thrills you've never imagined.

Guidance is needed, and available.Ste-Foy: tourist office/ski school 00 33 79 06 91 70; mountain guides 00 33 79 07 24 59. Alta, Utah: lodgings, reservations 00 1 801 942 0404; ski school 00 1 801 742 2600. CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING TO MOST downhill skiers, cross-country skiing means plodding around valley-bottom circuits a few kilometres in length - but that's as it is practised in downhill resorts. For a lot of less-than-athletic holidaymakers who have never known anything better, this may be a source of some satisfaction.

But it is scarcely as good as it gets.For the real thing, look elsewhere - at least to resorts where cross- country is more than just a pastime for deserted spouses, and preferably to places where the cross-country trails take you deep into the countryside, away from resorts. You'll discover the satisfaction of travelling serious distances entirely under your own steam. Especially worth a try are the one that passes through the "village classe" of Monal, and a second descending the north face of the 2,930m Fogliettaz, starting with a walk of an hour or so. There are easy and intermediate runs on the lower half of the mountain, in the trees, with tougher stuff on the open, blissfully under-populated slopes above. Don't be put off if the top chair seems shut - they're probably just waiting for a customer.The black run here often offers a close approximation of off-piste skiing, but if even greater seclusion is required there are excellent off-piste routes well away from the lift system.

They must be content, though, to focus on quality and not quantity.It's doubtful if anywhere in Europe can match Alta's snow, but Ste-Foy's record is a good one by Alpine standards - and in other respects the skiing is just as compelling. The lifts start some way up the mountainside above the village, going up in three stages from 1,550m to 2,620m. Though the main appeal of Alta is to powder-hounds (who can cope with the deep snow on the steep slopes above the lift bases, and at Devil's Castle), it is also excellent for beginners and is even bearable for intermediates. Ticket sales are limited at peak holiday times, so it's unlikely you'll run into lift queues.

Slow, old lifts give you plenty of time to study the terrain as you ride up, and slope capacity remains well ahead of lift capacity. But if the day dawns bright after a fall of two or three feet of fresh powder, Salt Lake City is suddenly afflicted by a sudden outbreak of the mysterious viral illness called Alta Flu, which results in large-scale absence from work.Even so, the slopes are usually quiet, and they are never crowded. At the end of the canyon, where once stood a prosperous silver-mining town, there is nothing but a couple of car parks and a dozen small hotels and condominiums dotted around the valley floor, amounting to 1,100 beds altogether In principle, it should be virtually skier-free on weekdays. It is largely on the strength of the snowfalls in Little Cottonwood Canyon - shared by the next-door but quite distinctresort of Snowbird - that Utah gets away with the boast: "The Greatest Snow on Earth".Alta is the winter weekend playground of residents of Salt Lake City, less than an hour away by car.