Ski Club of GB to reinstate leading in France next year

A snowHead

Well, not exactly........
SCGB have teamed up with Evolution2 ski school to offer 3 days guiding, on and off-piste in the French resorts, either 1/2 or full days at a small cost to cover the cost of the instructor.
I think this is a far better solution in the interim than the ambassador service, and am sure many members will take the service on board.
Although there will no doubt be a few that grumble that they have to pay extra for a service that was included in membership before..........

A snowHead

KenX. Strange SCGB have not teamed up with ESF!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I think this is priceless

ESF wanted to get rid of SCGB because they felt it was competition for them (it really was not, it appealed to people like me who could already ski, but were in a resort on their own or with less able skiers and did not want to have to ski on their tod)

Now becuase of that the club have changed their business model to actually provide ski instruction and have massively undercut the ESF prices. Well done, well done. I shall sit back and reach for my popcorn as ESF totally blow a gasket.

I hope to god that all the Evolution instructors have the right qualifications, and that they have a lot of instructors, becuase I would imagine that company will find it almost impossible to get any new instructors through the exams after this, and there existing ones will probably now be arrested every other day.

G

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@gordonrussell76, evo2 are a proper ski school. All quals in place. Well established. No worries on their side.

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Yes I agree, and please don't take my slightly facetious comment as impuning them in anyway, that was not my intention.

Sorry the thrust of my humour was that I would imagine that ESF will now do everything in their power to discredit Evo2 for having the temerity to assist the the club and provide cheaper tuition and competition to them.

That does raise an interseting question, SCGB must be subsidising this tuition in some way? I wander if this is a long term solution or merely a very clever negotiation stance to encourage sense to prevail on the french side.

G

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Whatever 'sense' may mean.

After all it is free

I wonder what will happen in those resorts that historically had reasonable SCGB repping but don't currently have Evo2 schools (e.g. Flaine). Will this be the basis for an Evo2 expansion drive?

btw, the grumbling has already started...........

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Yes but from the usual suspects, some positive comments too

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@under a new name, some I've met have instructor qualifications like BASI L2 and I even found one with L3. I agree, those who have only done a 2 week course have zip but then newbie Stagieres also have zip. Can't imagine Evo 2 will put their top end instructors on the job for leading around the piste.

Madly enough, many of the SC leaders ARE actually better trained at "leading" than most instructors, just not legally entitled to do so.......
That's not to say they're better instructors because that was never part of their brief!

You know it makes sense.

similar to what Crystal did last season?

"..Last winter, Crystal introduced its Sundays-only ski-hosting service in 11 of the most popular French ski resorts. In collaboration with the Evolution 2 ski school, ski hosting services are offered by qualified instructors. In each of these resorts Crystal has chosen Evolution 2 as its main ski school partner, rather than the ESF...."

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Pruman, I'm sure. Many I have met and I have met quite a few have nothing but the SCGB course and maybe experience. At least to become a stagiaire at Evo2 you would have at least to be rather a good skier (I have met some SCGB reps who weren't particularly impressive in that department either). Nothing against them but needs to be viewed in its reality.

I would be surprised, given the ESF system (I don't know how Evo2 allocate work) to see stagiaire's getting paid work if there are more senior instructors available and underemployed. I'm also not sure how many stagiaires Evo2 actually take on. It's not at all clear that the Chamonix branch have any at all (not something I monitor however, could easily be wrong although I think (!) when perusing their walls last year all the instructors listed as working there were qualified or awaiting the paperwork).

I note also that the SCGB announcement letter specifically says "As fully qualified instructors".

I'm guessing that as Evo2 have centres in 11 "Alpine" resorts then those will be the ones offering the service...

A snowHead

Several of the Evo2 instructors in L2A are Italian Maestro de sci so fully istd. They have also been working with Mark Warner. However there hasn't been a Ski Club of Great Britain presence for some while so I doubt they'll offer the service.

A snowHead

So if I have this straight you pay SCGB membership in order to access an Evo2 group "lesson" at a discounted rate. Guess that's OK as a value proposition ( just to annoy Nadenoodle) but surely no need for that membership fee to be funding reps/scambassadors in those resorts now?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I had a piste tour with a local instructor with Crystal last year in Serre Chevalier. Excellent and much better than the old rep tour.

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@Claude B, but, SCGB have said 11 resorts, Evo2 have 11 "outposts" - seems like a reasonable match to me, non? Twisted Evil

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Super Chap Great Bloke = David Goldsmith?

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No SCGB leaders in France
No SCGB ambassadors in France

After all it is free

Given that Crystal did this last season, and I suggested exactly this on the other thread at least 12 months ago, why has the SCGB not had this in place over last season? Strikes me that despite being a commercial organisation with employees paid to fix issues like this they are still offering customers the kind of service they might expect from a club run by volunteers.

I'd be very interested in finding out how much the half and full day costs actually are - given that the ambassadors in resorts were being funded by the club, I'd assume the same money was spent on funding guiding to make sure members don't lose out. I'd wager it might actually be cheaper to use local guides as and when required than to pay all the expenses the ambassadors were racking up, though I'm sure the gravy train will still put some people in resort just to make sure that the train continues to roll along for the small number of members getting a very good deal out of the club.

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@under a new name, It does, no reason why not I suppose. I think there was a historic falling out.

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@limegreen1, the ones in resort who don't even need to crawl out of bed early to meet the groups and guide them around any more. They are getting an awful lot of benefits while being subsidised by every other member of the club. There certainly seems to be a queue of people desperate to join the ambassador program.

There are no ambassadors in France this coming season ...

You know it makes sense.

Strange that when I spoke to SCGB to cancel my membership a couple of weeks ago they made no mention of this - my specific reason for cancelling was the absence of reps in france. Will be really interesting to see how they handle a) pricing, and b) people who over grade themselves (rejecting people who've paid might be harder than nudging people to return on a different day when it's all 'free' anyway).

@under a new name, dunno about Cham, but argentiere esf has stagieres ( some very good). They also instigated a progressive system a few decades ago - the oldest/most senior instructors effectively lose their seniority in non holiday weeks in January and March to ensure that there is enough work for the junior ones. The head of the ski school at that time was concerned that they weren't doing enough to encourage younger instructors and they'd end up with a demographic problem unless they could ensure there was enough work for the younger ones to make a start on their careers.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@snowdave, that's interesting and progressive - although you would very much expect ESF to employ stagiaires, that's very much the point of the system, n'est-ce pas?. As far as I could see though, Evo2 Chamonix don't appear to employ any - although I wasn't paying huge attention.

A snowHead

It's apparently going to cost £20 for a full day, or £10 for a half day. Imagine that price is subsidised by the Club.

A snowHead

@stephen buck, what I have seen says this; "The new programme will be funded by the Ski Club. Members can secure their place by paying a nominal booking fee of £10 for the half day session’s and £20 for a full day. This will contribute towards the additional administration costs in providing this service to members."

To me that means the members are funding it. Say 10 members x £20 = £200 = around 280 Euro, a typical day rate for an instructor. The saving for the club is considerable I would say. Not having to pay transport, expenses, accommodation is a huge saving.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Pruman, Yes, I agree. What happens, though, if fewer than clients turn up (I sometimes had only 2 or 3 while I was repping,esp in low season weeks)? That scenario could occur more often, I imagine, as Members may be reluctant to pay for a service that was previously free. I imagine the Club would then be subsidising it quite heavily.

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@stephen buck, Yes I accept there will be low days and low weeks. Evo2 will have been sold the upsell opportunity and a season long contract. I would imagine your average club member travels outside school holiday times and is good for filling in low weeks. So I'll stick with my suspicion that club members are being asked to pay while at the same time the club are saving.

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Wonder what happens if Evo decide to include members of the general public at £20 a day to make the numbers stack up? Or include club members in guiding days which are already happening for TO guests?

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After all it is free

I joined the SCGB this last year as I was going to Zella Am See with a couple of learners and my non-skiing wife. After I could find no advanced/off-piste orientated lessons (and was prepared to pay up £300) I joined the Club so at least I would be Jonny no Mates on the hill. I had a good weeks skiing and it suited me that I could do half days and join the wife for 'alpine adventures' together!

Admittedly the Rep was not a great skier and did not know the mountains that well but it was convivial. And yes he did bring people on the advanced days who were not up to it as slow and unfit (so we did an extra run waiting). Would not have been impressed if I had been paying 80 quid a day as I tend to on a group off-piste day.

Then I booked a few days in Tignes in April by myself when friends could not come. Booked up on a Snoworks course effectively for the company with the benefit of some tuition which was great and worked out nicely. However I would have used this new service and saved myself a couple of hundred quid if it had been available. I noted that a fair number of Snoworks clientele were SCGB members too, and travelling alone, so will this have some impact on such courses?

Not related to this thread but I have booked to go to Mayrhofen specifically next year with the wife for my 'alpine' holiday as it has SCGB rep.

I have saved about four hundred pounds with discounts from Neilson holidays (ski and sail) and on-line shopping too with the membership, so I am a satisfied member.

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Well given that I know most of the Evo 2 instructors in a certain resort if I can find out who is doing what day I am in.

Evo2 are scrupulous with the paperwork as some of the 'pulls rouges' have discovered when swapping sides.

Help!!

Ski Club of GB to reinstate leading in France next year

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