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Where and why did you start to ski?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
We have organised our next ski holiday which got me thinking about my first ski trip with my secondary school to Foppolo in Italy. This would have been in about 1982 and although only a small resort it clearly got me hooked.

I was fortunate to go with the school a couple of years later this time to Les Carroz. I have been back to Les Carroz / Flaine a few time but not Foppolo. I wonder how many of those I went with still ski?

What prompted other people to first go skiing and where did you go and have you been back there?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Mt. Hood, Oregon. Just passing (in the summer) and seemed like a cool thing to try.
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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?
LDM, forced to by my parents aged 4 at Cairngorm. Never really got over it. The mental anguish has forced an inordinate amount of expensive therapy, mostly snow based and a relocation to a climate more sympathetic to my needs.
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Quote:

I wonder how many of those I went with still ski?

My first trip was a school trip too, to Norway in 1963 and I'm still skiing! That trip cost £40 - my entire National Savings account, which had been accruing since my birth. It was wonderful but I couldn't afford to go again till I was 40. According to one of the standard inflation sites £40 then is the current equivalent of £750. My friend's grand-daughter has just asked to go on a school ski trip costing £2K. Shocked Shocked Shocked Very poor value - there are several current threads on SHs about a week's holiday for an entire family for £2K. Are they feeding the spoilt brats on caviar and champagne?
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Like you LDM my first trip was with the school, over new year some time in the early 70`s. To Maurach Eben in Austria and I loved it.

Next trip, a few years later, was to Super-Molina in the Pyrenees and that nearly put me off forever. There was virtually no snow, lots of horrid ice, and indeed conditions were so bad they closed the resort and bused us into Andorra where there was a little more snow, but still poor conditions!

Took a lot of persuasion by a relative a couple of years later, who was an army ski instructor, to get me back to skiing. He and his colleagues were very patient and I loved the tiny, very pretty, Bavarian resorts we skied in and we returned for several years.

I would love to go back to Maurach Eben and see it as it is now, and from an adult perspective.
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I cant remember the full price of the first school trip but remember my mum giving me £11 every Friday to take to school to pay for it.

I guess you pay for the Teachers too as they are working!
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
February 2001 - Stoneham & Mont St Anne - School trip I was 12. I had my first lessons at Swadlincote Ski Centre and loved it right from the off Little Angel
It was for 8 or 9 days and was £650 all in rolling eyes . A bit expensive for a child back then really but I guess it's because there was 8 staff who got free holidays out of the 80 students who went!
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Spring 1988; dry slope, Sunderland; one hour midweek beginner lesson. Loved it - despite the humiliation of being completely unable to hold a snowplough and the instructor skiing backwards holding my ski tips together (yes, like you see with the four year olds Laughing)....

That was a warm up for an easter weekend trip to Cairngorm a couple of days later. Drove up on the morning of Good Friday and, with full snow cover, messed about on the lower slopes that afternoon, instructed by my expert (of about two ski hols wink) brother. I snowploughed - completely exhausted but triumphant - from top to bottom of the mountain at the end of day two - and called myself a skier! Very Happy. I'll never forget the sense of achievement - or the fact that the run just went on for ever!
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Les Gets 1997, with brothers, because somehow we got outvoted for a family holiday as kids... Disney or Skiing. Disney won with 2 votes vs Skiing with 3. Got the vacation we should have had in 1987.

Went back there 5 more times skiing, and again since mountainbiking.

I'll be the only one that still skis, although one brother may have defected to tethering his legs together to slide sideways.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I went because a friend at work had skied a few times and I thought I would enjoy it. He was going by himself to Tignes for two weeks late season as is skiing buddies couldn't go. He suggested I just go for one week as I might not like it but I was sure I would so went for two weeks. I was right!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
4ish on the Penken cause my parents had been skiing there for a few years.
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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.
I was a late starter to the whole skiing thing - first trip was to Andorra in 2012 aged 38 - I just never got round to it before (summer hols was always a priority). Now I love it, and have I've ditched the summer holiday for the past few years so that I can go skiing at least twice!
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Mine was totally accidental. Myself and a mate were on a two week climbing trip in the Rockies one Feb and due to heavy snowfall there was too much avi risk to get to teh ice falls for a few days. So he talked me into trying skiing for 4 days and I fell in love with it. The next year I did another 2 days while climbing in la Grave, then the following year it was a week in Alpe d'Huez with my new B2's. I loved it so much I looked round for another trip that season, saw this thing called the EOSB and joined sHs. My soul was then sold Laughing
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Harwood ski club (rip) in 1979 aged 4 and for the next 4 years every-time it was open until we moved to just outside glencoe. gutted it has closed as took my wife to all the Scottish resorts last winter and was going to try and get to harwood this winter to show her where the money problems started Smile
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
School ski trip to Andalo in 1979. As a working class boy from the Valleys there is no way I would have discovered skiing as I was growing up if it hadn't been for that school trip, and probably not much chance that I would have thought of trying it as an adult. So I have a lot to thank Mr Brown and Mr Bowen, the two teachers from my school who arranged the trips I went on, for introducing me to something which has become so important in my life.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I was hooked on skiing as a kid watching David Vine on Ski Sunday but could never afford to go. First time on snow was ADH in 1988 with a bunch of friends. I had a course of 6 lessons on a dry slope (Bebington Oval) just prior to going. The rest, as they say, is history. Still got to get the time, money and permission to go on a bash Toofy Grin
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Scarpa wrote:
My soul was then sold Laughing
Not 'sold' my boy: invested!
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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?
My 6th form college was doing a ski trip to Maurach, Austria which I would have just let pass as 'something other people did' but a girl in my form class, who I quite fancied, talked me into it by telling me the girl in the form next door, who I also quite fancied
OK, I was 17: she was playing on the inherent weakness of 17yr old boys!! Embarassed
, was going.

It was that good, I went in the upper 6th too snowHead
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School trip when I was 7, so 1984. La Plagne. I still remember it vividly, and got my ESF "deuxieme etoile". I still remember the Atomic straight skis (in mini size) that I was on.

My parents never skiied, so I did not go again until the ripe old age of 25! Friends' trip to Soll. I skied sporadically afterwards, and liked, but did not love it. Break for 4 years whilst with someone who didn't ski at all - we did beaches instead. Progressed to blue run cruiser with dreadful technique, going everywhere too fast, crouched forwards, sitting back, and having a great time.

5 years ago I met Lady Flash, who is a fanatic and has skied every season since she was 3 i.e. 30 years of several weeks a year (her parents have a lodge in the US - she's American, and grew up on the mountain). Had to very much up my game. Suddenly started doing 20-30 days per season, lessons, proper training and saw extraordinary progress, culminating in a full, non-working season 2013-14 which has really sorted my skiing out and sealed the addiction.

I now can't imagine life without the white stuff and planks.

So, technically, I've been skiing for nearly 30 years. I should be a lot better than I am!


Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Wed 17-09-14 12:37; edited 1 time in total
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Early 60s for me when I was sent to Switzerland to improve my French. Sadly my Dad failed to check the language spoken. I was in the German speaking bit. The family I was with spoke good English, so they taught me to ski instead. Toofy Grin Laughing
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Never been back to La Plagne. Would like to!
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
1999, first lessons at Tamworth dome. I SUCKED soooo badly. First trip was in 2000, to Mammoth in California which, in retrospect, was a long way to go to try something for the first time - but it was the turn of the century and snowboarding tuition in Europe was all ESF in tight pants and eurocarving. It was there I had the 'click' moment and it all started to come together.
I left with boots, bindings, a 160 Burton Charger and a second-degree sunburn after forgetting sunscreen on the first day.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Aged 4 while growing up in Austria. This would have been in 1964 so we still had leather laced up boots and skis made of solid planks of wood rolling eyes
Was my main motivation for moving from Dundee to Munich back in 1985. Never looked back!
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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.
admin, would that be the same area as Maurach Eben? I wonder if it was an area particularly popular as a school trip destination?
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Our first experience of skiing on snow was in the early '90s in Petroșani, Romania while we were visiting friends. There's no resort but they do have a chairlift. It's meant for foot pasengers so you have to carry your skis and run off at the top! We've since been back to Romania but not for skiing.


Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads on Wed 17-09-14 13:04; edited 1 time in total
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
A course of 6 lessons at Carlton Forum dry ski slope in Nottingham in Summer 1984, followed by a beginner's week in Alpbach Austria. From then on I was hooked! Very Happy
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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.
I always fancied skiing after seeing Ski Sunday on the telly - talked my first girlfriend( now wife) into going the first winter after we met and have been going ever since (apart from when the kids were born) - That's thirty years this winter Very Happy Very Happy
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Started late, this year Wink

Why, we wanted to try something different instead of hot sunny holidays, and my brother in law + friends ski every year. I went from, "I don't know what to expect", to "I'm now f*cking excited" after getting there on our first day and seeing people come down the piste, and now I'm obsessed.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I had forgot about the first lesson at Woolwich dry slope - two very short runs with a rope loop to pull you up! (early 80's)
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
A few winters ago I accepted a company transfer to Geneva. I had no interest in skiing before that, but figured I should give it a go.

Had a horrific private lesson (in Chamonix) with an ESF instructor that left me convinced skiing was the worst idea in the world, and swore I would never do it again.

The next winter a friend invited me to join in on a chalet holiday, which I really wanted to do for the social side/laughs and drinking, so I decided I would force myself to learn to ski at a basic level, no matter how much I hated it, to be a bit more sociable on the holiday. I got really lucky and had a private lesson with a fantastic instructor at the start of the winter who had me absolutely loving skiing within the first 15 minutes! Skied a fair bit that winter and by the end I was addicted.

The next winter I skied every day I wasn't working, joined snowheads, went on a bash, and several other ski holidays with friends. Last winter I quit my job and got an apartment in Chamonix to be a ski bum Smile (and still went to 3 bashes!) Same apartment booked for this winter, woohoo! Though I'll have to actually work too, boo Razz
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Les Deux Alpes in about 1988, with a group of friends - 6 of us in an sc apartment for 6, never again! I was working for a now defunct outdoor retailer and was expected to sell skis etc to people. I remember the manager trying to explain to us how the gear worked and finding it really hard to see how a long straight plank could be made to go round corners, and how something that held your boot onto the ski could also let you off it. So I thought I'd better take myself off skiing and find out!
I've now been every year since except for 2, often two weeks and occasionally three, and I've been working at a dry slope for the last 13 years.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
When I was about 22 I spend a couple of years on a week long ski holiday in Lenzerheide-Valbella with Swiss friends on straight planks taller than me. No lessons, never got it at all, scared stiff, gave it up as a bad job. When I was about 37 I went back to a small ski resort in Switzerland with my kids with the same friends so all our kids could learn to ski together. The kids took to it like ducks to water. My ex. refused to ski and I knew that the kids would want supervision on a larger mountain area at some point, so I was forced to try it again. Three years, three weeks holidays and three weeks lessons and still I was scared (terrified!) to come down the baby slope on skis. Then when I was 40 I went on the EoSB - the rest is history - it's taken time and plenty of lessons, but I now think I've joined the heady heights of being an intermediate snowHead Cool
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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?
Stoke Ski Slope - mmmm the smell of beeswax, burning bases and melting flesh after a fall takes me back Happy
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School ski trip to Serre Chevalier in 1980. 24hrs in a school minibus each way, sleeping in a hostel down the valley and bussing up each morning. Absolutely loved it, I have never been back there though. Still remember the four clip boots BEFORE the 80s hideous rear entry things and plate bindings. There is nothing better for a complete beginner than skis fastened to your feet by a short length of wire which smack you on the head every time they come off in a crash Shocked
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
First skiing experience was doing my scouts ski badge at a dry slope in Belfast when I was about 15, enjoyed it but never made it out to the mountains. Fast forward about 6 years and I am sitting on beach near Biarritz with some surfing pals and someone suggests trying this snowboarding thing so of we go the next winter to the alps on the snow train where we all fell in love with it, oh and I met my wife in the bar/disco carriage of the snow train on that trip. Last year after 18 years of snowboarding I decided that as my kids were learning to ski I would have a go too and have fallen in love all over again, now after about 14 days of skiing under my belt I can cope with pretty much any piste and am left with the difficult choice most days of board or skis. It is a hard life sometimes Very Happy Very Happy
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School ski trip 1971 to Leutasch in Austria which is a tiny ski area near Seefeld, one t-bar and one chairlift - we thought it was the DB's. Cost £43 all in which was a lot of money back then - much more than my Dad earned in a week. Wooden skis, cable bindings, lace up boots and plenty of blisters. Went back there the next year but never since - probably shouldn't either as it brings back great memories and wouldn't want to spoil them. Been hooked ever since. Very Happy Very Happy
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Took a taster snowboard lesson with my Dad on the dreaded dendex at Sunderland. I was hooked so we booked a beginners snowboard course. That winter my old man took me to Zell Am See and i loved it.
Went back to try on the dendex again after returning home - maybe a bit too confident and managed to cut my left knee and jeans open, second attempt right knee so decided dendex wasn't for me.

6 - 7 Years later i decided to go work in Switzerland. By the end of Jan after Snowboarding for a few months 6 days a week i decided that i should really learn to ski while i was there. Probably only done around 10 days on a board since but i am tempted to get one this year.

Been in the alps for 4 winters now - heading into my 5th Very Happy
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
RUGBY PETER, yes, my trip was certainly more than my father earned in a week, too.

It's interesting how many of us started with a school trip. My son in law does school trips - or did before he had his own kids and was no longer willing to give up a week's holiday for it. Their school prioritises kids who wouldn't otherwise have a chance to go skiing, which seems right. In 1963 we were all total beginners - I doubt whether there were many girls in the whole school (the top girls grammar school in Cardiff, quite a priveleged cross-section of state school kids really) who had ever been skiing.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
2002 in Serre Chevalier. One week, self-catering in a chalet overlooking the Luc Alphand piste. 'Conquered' the following year Smile

Tempted by (now ex) brother-in-law and had, at various times, fancied having a go, but never really had the opportunity.

27 or so skiing weeks later.... Toofy Grin snowHead
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Went along for a mate's 40th Birthday in 2008, Claviere, Via Lattea. Was more interested in going for the après ski if I'm honest and had to borrow ski wear from friends, but was surprised and delighted how much I enjoyed the daytime experience just as much as the evenings wink Will be going back to via Lattea (Milky Way) for the first time since, in March next year - Sauze d'Oulx.
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