A cross-country skiing holiday in Scandinavia proves the perfect getaway for COLIN NICHOLSON to enjoy with his mother and father

YOU may think that taking your children skiing poses quite enough logistical challenges, thank you very much. But how about going skiing with your parents? Well, let me tell you, it's not that different.

Downhill skiing was out of the question for Raili, my 72-year-old mother, and Martin, my 70-year-old father, with their dodgy knees and so on, so we opted for a bit of cross-country.

For this, the original form of skiing, you need no lifts or pistes or head for heights.

Click here for amazing Norway deals

Instead, you don lightweight boots and skis to glide along gently undulating trails, either at a walking pace or quicker depending on your proficiency.

The Nordic countries are the place to do this, as cross-country facilities in most Alpine resorts often amount to little more than a loop in a field.

Finland has an extensive network of trails through snow-coated woodland and past glinting lakes but I had my eye on something a little more spectacular.

Norway has cross-country tracks on high-altitude plateaux where you get all the above benefits combined with beautiful mountain vistas.

We picked the resort of Beitost¸len, around 50 miles from Lillehammer, the town that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Here the highest of its 200 miles of trails boasts deep powder well into April.

Following a direct flight to the airport of Valdres, we checked into the contemporary Radisson Blu Resort at the gateway to the striking Jotunheimen Mountains.

Cross-country skiing is as hard as you want to make it.

All beginners have to do to get started is walk on skis in ready-cut furrows in the snow and enjoy the gentle glides downhill.

With the sun glinting off crystals in the snow, we set off on a few tentative sorties.

I was concerned what might happen if either mum or dad slipped over while skiing. I needn't have worried.

Our only falls, and we did all fall, were glides into soft powder that had us in stitches at our ineptitude.

The husky-sled ride I'd organised also proved a hit and it was with excitement combined with relief that we sat down to lunch in the "lavvo".

More appealing than it sounds, it is a Nordic wigwam where they serve meat stew heated over an open fire.

My greatest fear was always that my parents would slip on some ice on the road outside the hotel.

My partner had ingeniously bought rubber, pull-on crampons for £5 each which my parents variously left behind or refused to wear on spurious grounds.

Pinched their toes, wrong colour, didn't match their outfit: you see what I mean about parents being like children.

Incidentally, if you are brave enough to take on the double whammy of your elderly parents and children, the Nordic resorts are perfectly set up for this as the cross-country trails intersect with the pistes.

In fact, we could have gone to Beitostolen with my sister and her family, who prefer downhill, as the chairlift operators cater for both types of skiers, enabling you all to travel together.

My parents gasped at and ogled views they never thought they would see on cross-country skis.

The recalcitrant knees were behaving themselves and everything was going well. Until, that is, we got to the lone incline two-thirds of the way around the highest trail, a loop of five miles.

It was only a gentle descent, with a nice run-off but it was not modest enough for my parents, who by now were used to flat tracks.

"It's too steep. We daren't risk it."

As they get older, parents seem to develop a peculiar sense of danger.

Their driving has me covering my eyes and they attempt perilous balancing acts on steps around the house that would make an acrobat wince.

To be honest, by this stage I should have sent both of them up to bed without their supper, particularly as the previous night my mother ate far too much smoked fish and reindeer stew with berries and got indigestion.

For amazing Norway deals, click here now!

However, with age comes ingenuity and they finally managed to find a way down by taking an off-piste route.

We celebrated by splashing out £30 on a bottle of house red over supper: the extortionate price of alcohol in Norway is alive and well.

All too quickly the week was over. My mother raved about it, my father, who had been highly sceptical, even admitted he might come back. Parents, eh? It makes it all worthwhile when you see the smiles on their faces.

THE KNOWLEDGE

Neilson (0844 879 8155/www.neilson.co.uk) offers seven nights at the four-star Radisson Blu Resort, Beitostolen (00800 3333 3333/www.radissonblu.com/resort-beitostolen) from £825pp (two sharing), half board.

Price includes return flights from Gatwick to Oslo and transfers. Norwegian (0208 099 7254/ www.norwegian.com/uk) offers return flights from Gatwick to Oslo from £72.

Norwegian Tourist Board: www.visitnorway.com