 Poster: A snowHead
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Mid 30's and only started Skiing in Feb this year! Missed out on Glastonbury tickets for the first time in 8 festivals so I had a budget to blow!
Always fancied "having a go" but never took the plunge until my mates we talking about it over Xmas time. Nipped to Chill Factore for a "taster" session and 8 Weeks later I was in Passo Tonale on my first trip.
Booked beginners lessons all week which really helped but one of the lads who was an experienced skier stayed with me for a morning on the nursery slopes before the first lesson and it proved invaluable. I probably learnt more with him in 3 hours as I did in the first 2 days of lessons.
Was a total "white out" (I thought it was the norm  ) for 6 out of 7 days and on the 1 day the sun was out and I could "see" where I was skiing I thought, this is the "dogs danglies" this!
Sere Chevalier already booked for Feb 2015!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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To be honest, it was a spur of the moment decision!
I went on a School Ski trip in the 90's to Aviemore which was a start but it wasn't until 2002 that I went Soll in Austria, I twisted both knees but still had a great time! 
I have been on at least one trip a year since.
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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?
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It was Feb/Mar 2010, aged 37, La Tania in 3 Vallees. Such a lovely resort and huuuuuge.
Convinced to go skiing by friends. I was in a "like it or never go back again" state of mind.
Had a very unpleasant start in a mixed rain/snow morning and lots of kids learning around myself and 3 other total beginner friends . I was wearing some very cheap gears and was soaking wet inside out by noon!
After lunch, got changed into some better clothing borrowed from my partner and went back skiing with my friends.
After 2 shaky runs down the nursery slope, my friends (13 of us) got bored (those who know la Tania would understand why) with the beginners and convinced us to do the home run from the top of the la Tania bubble lift.
The pists were a mixture of blues and greens to go back to the village. I was surprised that I only fell a few times and manged to get back to the chalet in one piece. All my muscles were so stiff that I had to craw up the stairs in the chalet which has 4 floors!
2 more half day lessons with our super competent ski instructor Patsy Duncan (and each time we go back to 3 V) and I now go back skiing twice a year, every year. 
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British Army in Verbier 1998, the good old Ex Snow Fox. Tried a pair of skis on on the sunday for the first time and we were expected to take part in the GS race between all the RAC rgts on the thursday and Friday. I acctually survived! One of the funniest, most expensive (farm!) and painful weeks of my life!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Le Grand Bornand, 2009. I was on a work placement in Annecy to improve my French and a few local buddies suggested I go along with them for the pre-season ski test. It's free, I thought, so why not?
It didn't seem like such a great idea when I was perched on top of what seemed then like a near-vertical wall of ice with my feet tied to two planks... But my friend, with miraculous patience, attempted to teach me to snowplough and I set off mostly falling, partly sliding out of control, down the only open piste.
A couple of hours later, after one whole 500m (vertical) descent down the hill, I cupped a well deserved glass of vin chaud and realised my life would never be the same
I joined the works ski club the next day and signed up for some proper lessons, and the rest is history 
Although I haven't been back there for a couple of years I have a particular affection for the Aravis stations. The skiers are mostly French and the villages seem to have a really friendly feel to them that I don't get at the mega-resorts. Big jealousy for my cousin who is now a semi-permanent resident at La Clusaz.
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School trip to Val d'Isere in the early 90's (must have been 13 or 14). My parents never skied, but some older friends had been on the school trip the year before and sold me. I managed to convince a couple of friend to sign up too. I recall a long coach ride, the hotel smelling of cheese (which I now realise was more likely sweaty teenagers!) and a particularly rough ferry crossing on the way home that had nearly everyone else from my school with their head down toilets while I ate a burger wondering what all the fuss was about 
Unfortunately as I wasn't much of a footballer the PE teachers running the trip assumed I'd be crap at skiing too, and put me in the 'rubbish beginners' group (which, without meaning to sound sexist, was mainly girls more interested in chatting up the instructor than doing any skiing) - I still remember how frustrated I was wasting half my last day, when we finally got to go right up the mountain, waiting for a girl in the group, who clearly didn't get the bug to be picked up by mountain rescue after she freaked out and refused to go any further. Snow was poor, and by the end of the week there was an unhealthy percentage of mud and grass lower down. Never-the-less, I loved it, I had the bug.
The following year I failed to find a friend who both wanted to go and whose parents could afford it (and I wasn't up for being billy nomates). Then it was exam years so a long break ensued. But, 10 or so years later, when I could afford to pay myself, I managed to convince my my now wife (who had skied one day before with friends who just took her to the top of a red with no lessons, thus making for an unpleasant experience) that we should go. So Jan 2003 I relearned in Neiderau, Austria, on carvers rather than straight skis. I was amazed how much still seemed to have stuck with me from 10 years ago and was chuffed to win the end of week ski school slalom and get down a few reds on my own.
Unfortunately my wife still wasn't quite as hooked, and while she can ski now, she's still happier to sit in the spa!
I've managed 2-4 weeks a year ever since (1 family, others with friends, SHs, or even on my own). I'm joining my 3rd bash this coming season.
Both our children were introduced at 4 - my son now 12 took a few years to really get into it, but now the pressure is on me to keep up. My daughter will do her second week this Xmas so then we might learn if she follows Mummy or Daddy's feelings for sliding down the white stuff (hoping her general motivation to do anything big brother can do will help my cause)!
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