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Banff/Lake Louise Ski School or Club Ski...?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi Everyone,

My hubby and I are lucky enough to be jetting to Banff for a week from 18th March for our first experience of skiing in Canada (Yippeeeee!)

We're both confident red/tentative black run skiers, and looking to progress, but unsure which type of lessons to go with while we're out there. They seem to offer either private lessons - by the day or half day, or their Club Ski program - which says it is a mixture of guiding and instruction, and spends a day in each of the 3 resorts with the same instructor (so 3 consecutive days in total). The downside to this is that the groups can have up to 9 people which sounds quite large.

Has anybody tried out the Club Ski option, and able to give any recommendations one way or the other?

The Club Ski works out much better value for money, and we enjoy the social side of skiing in a group, but we do want to progress our skiing and not just be on a 'guided tour' for the duration.

Any other helpful information or recommendations for skiing the area gratefully appreciated as well!

Thanks all in advance...! snowHead snowHead snowHead
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I went three times (10 years ago Sad ) and booked their "group"lessons, which sounds like Club Ski. They have 8 levels of competence, and if no-one else turned up for your level... You got 1 on 1 for group price! Happened to me several times, probably more likely if going outside school holiday periods when resorts are less busy. And I found they really did teach, not just take you on a tour.

Hope my experience is still valid for these days.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Weve only used ClubSki for our son so I don't know about the adult classes, but everything about the kids' lessons was pretty good, and I would expect the adult ones to be similar.

As an alternative, each individual hill has its own ski school which you can book in advance or in the day - our last trip, the boy went to Sunshine and got the "one-to-one for the price of group lesson" experience mentioned by Orange200.

And bear in mind that the whole group is likely to be Anglophone (as well as the instructor) so, even if it's 9 people, there's not going to be multi-lingual translation time.
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Me and my partner used Club Ski 2 years ago- we're about the same level as you.

Initially they took everyone at the meeting point for a ski together (down relatively easy runs) and from there split us up in groups of a similar level. We ended up with just two other people so lots of individual feedback- the instructor watched us one at a time after explaining what specific thing we were working on. Definitely felt like I progressed.

We really enjoyed it and learned loads. We also ended up doing runs that we wouldn't have ventured onto ourselves (one bowl accessed on a narrow ridge!). So for us it was just as much instruction as being showed about the places.

After the 3 days were over we met with the others to ski with for a few days too which was good.

Quite fancied some lessons this year in Europe but have decided to hold off until we hopefully return to Banff next year Very Happy (have seen the huge groups trailing after French instructors and can't afford private!)
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Would recommend First Tracks at Louise. You need to be up early especially if you're staying in Banff. The lesson isn't cheap, but it is limited to 2 people (one fee) and it's great to be first on the hill at 8.30a.m. particularly when there has been overnight snow.
We already have 3 lessons booked for this Sunday Monday and Tuesday.
Club Ski can be good if you have a small group, but equally you can find an issue if people have asked for too high a level for their skill set.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
I haven't been to Banff for about 10 years, but joined the Club Ski programme in the 6 years prior to 2005 that I did go there. I found it excellent from both an instructional and a social standpoint. At least 2 of the instructors I had were CSIA Level 4 (top level), one of whom (Mike De Brisay)was the former Sunshine Village Ski School director, and the other (Don "KJ" Kjorven) one of the CSIA L4 examiners (and described by his colleagues as "the best skier in the valley").

The guiding aspect is excellent for getting a feel of each of the 3 ski areas so that you can decide where to go once the programme's over.

I was never in a group as large as 9. I don't recall ever being in a group of more than 7, and usually smaller. - The higher end groups are often quite small.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@DebbieD, what option did you end up going for? And how was your trip?
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