Balancing Acts

Yoga, rock climbing and ... fondu. Welcome to the Alpine health retreat where guests are told 'too much purity can be boring

Back water... yoga classes are held outdoors, taking advantage of the stunning location in the French Alps

I am half-way up a rock face and being told to position my bottom. "Lean back into it," a cheerful voice bellows. "It's just like sitting in an armchair." I peer gingerly beneath me. I see a vertical drop. A harness is digging into my crotch. I reflect that, if Ikea made armchairs like this, they'd have gone bust long ago.

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I try not to give into blind panic and remember what my instructors told me the night before. "Climbing is the lazy man's way to enlightenment," they said, smiling over cold meats and fondu. This sounded promising: I am unquestionably lazy and in dire need of enlightenment. "It's about flexibility, balance and focus."

There's the catch, I realise, as I hover in mid-air, hands scrabbling and feet clinging to the minutest of ledges. I possess none of those qualities. I have never felt less enlightened. But this is no time for quibbling as the harness is about to cut off my circulation and I think vertigo may set in at any moment. I close my eyes and jump.

If my pre-climb pep talk was noticeably lacking in sporting machismo, that's probably because my instructors are not your average gung-ho outdoor types. When not shooting up rock faces, Saskia Anley-McCallum runs an eco-chalet in the French Alps whose mission is to help you "tap into your source". John Falkiner, her pony-tailed Australian cousin, may be a legendary mountain man who was the stunt double for two Bond baddies, but when he talks of climbing his buzzwords are poise, mental clarity and psychological strength.

Together, and with the help of several other like-minded souls, they have created a unique hideaway in the heart of the Haute Savoie where guests can sign up not only for mountain climbing but for yoga as well. My session on a top-rope is preceded by a morning doing the downward dog in the middle of forest-clad mountains.

New arrivals at La Source, the converted Savoyard farmhouse near Samoens which Saskia and her husband Duncan have transformed into a beautiful and spacious retreat, will realise one thing straight away: this is no ordinary hotel or Alpine chalet. I have been alerted to this by Saskia, who in an email describes it as a "crazy 21st-century commune", and while avoiding the more terrifying implications of collective living, it does have an instantly welcoming feel unlike anywhere else I've ever stayed.

Guests tend to eat together every day in the airy, open-plan kitchen-cum-living room - healthy but hearty fare cooked by resident chef and naturopath, Leticia. Many people share rooms, and we are encouraged to take part in "karmic yoga" - a cunning device whereby everyone tries to do a daily chore or contribute in some way to the running of the chalet. I suspect this ancient spiritual guideline has been co-opted by Saskia as a means of getting more of the housework done. Well, why not? I do my karmic duty early one morning by fetching the fresh cows' milk from the farmhouse next door, a crucial ingredient in the bowls of steaming porridge that are served up to everyone upon their return from morning yoga.