 Poster: A snowHead
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Cervinia. Blues that go on and on and on. Very good confidence building and more time skiing rather than sitting on chairs.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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youspurs1,
I think Megeve is a great confidence building area but the women will like it as it is quite chic...or very, depending.........
I am not sure how you will make that budget work though as Megeve isn't the cheapest but the area is pretty, good cruisey runs through trees.
You can stay up at Mont Arbois..(IIRC) or the town. I don't think you'll get a place too near the slopes though but if you have a car, then you'll be ok.
Or...... or, take a look at sleepy little places in Switzerland. The £-eu rate does not help this year but you may get a break with the chf and therefore
Switzerland..which isn't as expensive as everyone makes out...comes into range. You may need to be a bit more independently organised as Tour Ops may not go there, but the Swiss do tourism very well and I doubt you'll have a problem.
Failing that, then Austria does it all very well and their hotels rates can be kept quite keen by UK TO's.. Try the trusted Ski Welt ( Soll and the like ) or Zell am Zee as 2 areas to start off with.
For me,
I say
1st Megeve, gentle skiing and very French ambience... it might help if you parlez...a little.
2nd. A little off the main beaten track Swiss village... open to suggestions here. I'd say Zinal is too quiet for an all round introduction. It has many qualities but may not excel here. Arosa, possibly.
3rd Soll, a great destination for people who want an all round experience.. Lively apre-ski and they know how to handle/process the Brits. Might be too rowdy...or not...??? Other resorts in the same manner are Westerndof and Zell am Zee, IMV
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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youspurs1, we're all waiting to find out how your day at Tamworth went.... have they gone off the whole idea??? Hope not. 
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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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snowbunny,
If I wanted to take a newbie and try and convert them, then I would start by looking at Megeve. St Gervais is ok and does have access, it wouldn't have the type of factor I'd be looking for, in this instance, though.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I suppose it depends on the nature of the newbie. For some, any amount of walking around in ski boots carrying skis is a real mission - and on that basis neither Megeve nor St Gervais is too good. Being able to potter out of your door, do a bit of skiing for an hour or so, without involving any cars, buses or walking would be a much more important factor for some. Evening activities are of zero importance to the most of the friends and relations who come and stay with us because they tend to want to ski their hearts out (which for some of the more cardiac-challenged might mean 6 easy runs...) then collapse and just have an evening in with plenty of wine and a home-cooked meal. Also, quite a few of our beginners want to ski the same few runs over and over again, and are most reluctant to be prised away to different ones (that's why I took up snowboarding...).
Megeve is elegant and chic but not everyone (not even every girlie) likes elegant and chic and unless you are fairly loaded there's little point having state of the art restaurants where a meal will cost you more than a week's lift pass, or lingerie shops where a bra costs hundreds of euros. If you want elegant and chic Kitzbuhel has better architecture.
The two things that have "converted" several of our friends are the simplest. That fantastic buzz from being able to feel in control turning down a slope, and getting up a lift without falling off and then sitting outside a restaurant with a vin chaud or a beer, looking at beautiful mountain scenery, and glorying in that feeling of having cracked it, preferably in the sun. They've also adored staying right beside the piste and being able to get up in the morning and look out at mountains and snow rather than at streets and buildings. It takes all sorts though, and we give friends a pretty thorough briefing - so anyone looking for quality shopping and fine dining goes somewhere else. 
I do agree though that you don't need French in Megeve or St Gervais. When we go down there, from a resort where you sometimes struggle even to buy a lift pass in English, it feels very cosmopolitan.
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youspurs1, From what I've noticed the adult beginners use the bottom corner of the main slope right next to the travelator from where you can get a good view . The slopes underneath seem to be mostly used by little kids, but I may be wrong.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thought about Sainte Foy? Some great terrain for people of your ability level (as well as the off-piste for the madheads), very quiet on the mountain, pretty village, cheap lift passes.... http://www.saintefoy.net
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Disaster!
They hated it. They were doing quite well in the morning but both felt that they were pushed too hard after lunch and had to withdraw - they both said that they were so tired they could barely stand! All of the confidence that they had built up in the morning was shattered. No more skiing for them.
On the brighter side, mrs Spurs and I both had a fantastic time on the 'learn to parallel' day, by the end of it we were both whizzing down the slope in perfect(ish) parallels, just rolling the skis across from edge to edge to make the turns - such a buzz!
stevomcd, Welcome to I have clicked on the link and it looks very nice - another one to go on the shortlist.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Your budget is the same as mine for the same week.
For the same money I have been to:
Alpe D'Huez
Livigno
Passo Tonale
La Rosiere
Crest Voland
The key is too shop around. Good deals can be found to decent resorts.
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You know it makes sense.
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youspurs1, shame they didn't get on better. I did a "snowboard in a day" course and it was certainly very tiring. But I am an experienced skier and was ready for a tough day. I could scarcely move for days afterwards, partly from severe whiplash from catching edges and crashing like a fallen tree. We have found that beginner friends who have come to stay with us (all of a certain age, like us...) have varied in their response to skiing very much depending on their overall stamina. We tell them till we are blue in the face that they need to get some exercise, both cardio-vascular and leg strengthening, if they are going to be able to enjoy the skiing and make the most of it. The friends who regularly walk, swim, cycle etc have done spectacularly better than the ones whose good intentions come to naught. The older you are, the less everyday life prepares you for learning to ski.
Have your friends given up the idea altogether???????? They must have been a bit miffed to see you dashing around in such style. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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What are your plans now, ? You either need to go before early Feb or not till mid March, at least in French resorts. The end of Jan/first week of Feb is ideal round here but the following four weeks are best avoided throughout the French alps. Les Saisies is part of the wider ski area which includes Crest Voland, which johnboy mentions above. It's higher and more snowsure than Crest Voland, which can be reached by two different routes, one a long (5km) winding green run through the trees the other a moderate sort of red run. It's a fantastic area for early intermediates, not many Brits, though more each year.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I think they've given up altogether. It might have been better - in hindsight - to have taken them away for their first lesson. I know that both mrs Spurs and me would have given up after the first day if we'd not been committed to a two week stay in a resort that had little else to offer.
No matter, you can take a horse to water...etc etc.
I think we are going to leave it to last minute for a mid Jan departure and hope for a decent deal.
We are now both quite confident in our low/mid intermediate abilities - both of us having had our 'I see the light!' moment yesterday. We now cannot wait to get somewhere for a week to practice, practice, practice 
Our friends were very gracious. Thankful for having had the opportunity to try it, they don't regret having gone and were both delighted with the progress that we made (wife and me) They kept saying how effortless we made it look - and the great thing was...it WAS effortless. I've always been totally bushed after a few hours skiing up to now...but this was so easy!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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JT, I think you're right. I think we did oversell the whole thing.
They had been seduced by what they'd seen on the videos that we took over the last two years and what we'd said, they finally took the plunge and said yes...and we subjected them to their idea of Snowdome hell....
It was great for them in the morning..no control at all, and plenty of falls and they both loved it..but they didn't realise how much it had taken out of them. We stopped for lunch while the slope was turned over to sledding, and in that 2 hrsI think it caught up with them. They only lasted about an hour into the afternoon session - if that.
Of the 16 that started the 'ski in a day' course (split between two instructors) I think about 9 or 10 finished it, all of them to the bottom of the age range.
I'm sure if we'd just gone away for a week and they booked a private lesson - something that they were more than happy to do - they would have been fine.
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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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youspurs1, don't feel bad - frankly, the lack of stamina/motivation would have caught up with them anyway, at some point, maybe because of poor visibility and discouraging weather in resort, or busy lifts, or scary boarders, or something. If skiing is not really their thing, it's cheaper to find out at the beginnig! I did actually drop out of the "last run down" on my "board in a day" course, but that was because I was totally bushed and thought the chance of a real injury (as opposed to all the others I'd acquired during the day) was a bit too high. I was at least twice as old as the next youngest participant, but we all got tired, and we all enjoyed it. Now you and Mrs YS can go and tear around just about any resort, looking after yourselves and making rapid progress, without having to look after your friends - which is actually quite difficult and demanding to do. I look after beginners a lot, but we're here for weeks and weeks; I'd hate to have to give up a week's holiday looking after people who aren't enjoying themselves. I don't have any problem with people being beginners, or having phobias about heights and edges and things, and I think I'm pretty patient, but I do get fed up when people are just wimps. You'll have no problem with a deal in mid January, you'll be spoilt for choice. If you go to a catered chalet, a reasonable sized one, you'll find some people to ski with, too.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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youspurs1, I have always believed that a full day on the slopes for a beginner who is maybe not at a good level of ski fitness is too much. It certainyl was for me, and although I always enjoyed the morning session, I often used to dread going back after lunch, and it never gave you time to practise what you had learnt.
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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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youspurs1, imho it sounds like the instructors need to review their approach if they had such a high drop out rate - 6 or 7 out of 16 is a lot.
Can you describe in a bit more detail what the course you and the Mrs were on was like and what you were able to do/not do before and after? It's the level I am at myself, just making that transition on from snowploughed turns to parallel and am really interested to hear about different experiences/approaches. Also who instructed on it & how many students were there?
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Butterfly, from my experience on the snowboarding course I suspect they need to review the pre-course literature and make it clear that this many hours of skiing is physically very demanding for a beginner and that anyone who would not be able to - say - spend 6 hours or so fairly strenuous walking in a day is probably best advised to do a series of shorter lessons. The stamina range is probably too wide - but if some people really want to be able to ride a lift and do dependable snowplough turns down the main slope (so they could go on to do recreational sessions to practice on their own) then the instructors would need to crack on. It's not impossible; my sister in law did it, at over 50, and enjoyed it, but although she was not super fit she is very tenacious - you need to be one or the other.
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Butterfly,
Our instructor was Chris, very good! There were 5 of us on the course.
Previous to sunday, I had been able to do parallels on very gentle slopes and at slow speeds - everything else was plough into the turn and try to drag the inside ski into line (as often as not by lifting the ski out of the snow).
Neither group was issued with sticks, which suprised us, but we've skied without them before and Chris said that they were an unneccesary complication at this stage.
We started off on the rope-lift, going up in stages and demonstrating our control of the plough when descending - keeping in mind, eyes on the horizon!, toes ralaxed! feel your shins on your boots!
We progressed to the main slope after a while and paired up, taking it in turns to go down in front while whoever is behind is looking to see how well you perform one single part of the lesson - eyes up/long leg. short leg, un-weighting and turning inside ski etc.
After lunch came the biggie! roll the skis from edge to edge, allowing the outside edge to dictate the turn.
Chris went first - making it look ridiculously easy, of course, and we tried to follow. He stayed at the bottom and watched us come down for several runs - giving tips and advice after each run.
After a few runs it suddenly clicked and I made a few decent turns. Chris said "Great, try to get more speed - it'll feel easier" So I did, and it was! After a couple more runs he told me that he didn't need to tell me anything else, just practice what I was doing now.
Of the 5 of us in the group, 3 got it completely, 1 is almost there, and 1 has a way to go although he was delighted at the amount of progress he made.
I've probably not explained this as well as it deserves, some of you exerienced skiiers might read this and scream "He told you to do WHAT!!??" but it is my description that is at fault, NOT his instruction.
It really feels to Mrs Spurs and me that we have taken a HUGE leap forward. I have always thought of myself as a nervous skier - no more. This course has boosted my confidence no end - cannot wait to go try it out on a proper mountain now.
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youspurs1, that sounds great - it's amazing how much difference a few hours make, sometimes, whereas at other times you labour for ages getting nowhere.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| youspurs1 wrote: |
| After a few runs it suddenly clicked and I made a few decent turns. |
That's the magic moment when all it suddenly changes Well done.
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youspurs1, thanks for that - it sounds good, and the "look up not down" and "roll the skis" bits are what I have been most recently trying to achieve with varying degrees of success. Interesting that he said about speeed being helpful - that's something that personally I have found singularly UNhelpful, because fear of being out of control is such a big issue with me. What has helped me fantastically is being reassured that, if you're doing it right, it's possible to carve turns at very little speed and gradient so my lack of speed is not that completely impassable barrier I thought it was - suddenly the way forward has opened up again for me!
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