Learning to ski in the army late 70s

A snowHead

I'm not sure if this is how everybody in the army in 78 learnt but this was how it was for me.
The first day in a resort somewhere in Bavaria we struggled by way of a drag lift to the top of what at the I thought was a monster slope. We'd only had skis on for a half an hour before. Most of us fell off several times but when we all eventually got to the top the instructor said to us "see you at the bottom" and promptly skied off down the slope. When he came to a stop we could just about make out he was gesticulating for us to join him down by the beginning of the drag lift again. Of course none of us actually managed to ski down we just fell and slid down on our jeans and anoraks.(yes, that was our kit). When we arrived at the bottom he asked us if anybody was hurt. We all replied that we were fine. He then said that's good, now, your lessons will begin.
It's probably a style of teaching that can only work in the forces but I have to say that by the end of the first week we could do a parallel stop on the balcony of a bar halfway up the slope. The civilians who had come out at the same time were still snowploughing backwards and forwards across the easy slopes. We virtually completely missed the snowplough and were taught to skid turn from the off.

How did others on here learn?

A snowHead

Learnt the Stem Christie on ridicilously long, thin skis back in the early 70s.

Was in the days before piste bashers, so no smooth / corduroy pistes, just frozen rutted slopes in the mornings, that melted gradually back to slush by the next afternoon.

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

School trip, group lesson in morning - side stepping up hill and how to snowplough - then I, + 2 friends, followed some teachers up the cable car to the top of the mountain and proceeded to make our way down the black run, in-between the trees and through the very long, very big mogul field.
So pretty much like the OP's approach, really rolling eyes

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Possibly as much to do with being young males as being in the Army, an instructor told us that men always learn to ski quicker than women on average because men have less fear / more confidence. Judging by my utter uselessness at school sports, I shouldn't be any good at skiing but although I'm not outstanding at skiing, I'm far better at skiing than any other sport because it's never scared me. True that I have had a few "Oh sheet!!" Moments (OSM's) but simply being scared stood at the top of a steep slope has never ocurred.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

My first skiing experience makes a bit more sense now...

Allenheads Youth Hostel, when mull of kintyre was still #1. Our instructor was Army. He showed us how to get onto bindings and slide straight down a gentle slope. I asked him how to stop - "put your poles into the snow and lean on the handles". Shocked

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@FrequentFaller, I too learnt in the Forces early 70's -- but in Cyprus .....

Accommodation was in the Rest and Recreation centre at Troodos -- First morning there was a knock on the door, and there stood a waiter with a tea trolley - Tea in bed !!!! Smile

First few days we had to herringbone up the slope after skiing down, then progressed to a 'rope' tow and after a week saw my first T-bar.

All for the grand cost of 10 Cypriot pounds (ski and boot hire - everything else was free... snowHead

)

After all it is free

@FrequentFaller,
First experience of skiing was in the forces in the mid 70’s. 1 week cross country skiing in Scotland. Accommodation was at the army barracks in Ballater near Glenshee. Very salubrious. Then did two - 2 week long cross country skiing courses in the joint services outward bound centre in Norway. My mate who is coming with me to the Birthday Bash in February spent 24 years in the Royal Marines, and like me learnt in Norway in the 70’s and 80’s. But unlike me he was trekking 35km a day with a full pack whilst carrying a rifle, on what he calls. “Pusser’s planks” really heavy wooden skis. But as the well known saying goes - “if you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have joined up.”

I too learnt to ski in the Army, Exercise Snow Queen in Bavaria. Most regiments had a "ski hut", in fact a large house that was rented for the year and slept about 30 bodies. Transport to the slopes was in an army Bedford truck. The first half hour was spent learning side to step and herringbone up a slope and snowploughing down. We were then introduced to the T Bar which most of us fell off. After a couple of hours we were told to practice what we'd learnt, therefore we found the longest, steepest piste we could find and launched ourselves off the top. As @tangowaggon says, young males! snowHead

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@NeddySkiGoon, Top hole, people ... bit like these jolly chaps:

http://youtube.com/v/YE4x8sxT758

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@NeddySkiGoon, ...and these super fellows....

http://youtube.com/v/FcOK87ev8jU

snow reports

School trip in Winter 72/73 to Saas Fee. Last lesson, on the last day, we started to learn the Stem Christie. 10 Swiss Francs to the Pound wasn't bad. Stayed in Hotel Allalin. Instructor was called Peter Lomatter...and IIRC the whole thing came to 80 Quid. Been hooked since.

@Old Fartbag, stem christie is still a good get out of jail turn for me.

You know it makes sense.

@Old Fartbag, Yes, I remember 10 Swiss Francs to the Pound and 20 French Francs to the Pound. Those were the days...

Still have my old passports, too, that you had to get stamped to take foreign currency out of the country.

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

A snowHead

Whilst I actually learnt to ski in my teens on a school trip in the 1970`s I spent several very happy holidays skiing with family based in Germany, in Bavaria in the early 80`s. All the german based males in the group were army ski instructors. Whilst they were super kind and gentle with me they told me the way to teach squaddies to ski was to take them up a mountain and chuck them off the top. Apparently squaddies are uniquely equipped to bounce rather than break! rolling eyes

They also taught me a lot about mountain survival, and how to drink copious amounts of beer! Laughing

A snowHead

We get a lot of various British army regiments / championships going on in the valley throughout January though I hear that this season is cut back.

Both cross country / xc biathlon as there is a range in the valley, and Alpine.

More info here for Army Medical Corps http://www.awsa.org.uk/ams-exercises/ex-proton-serpent/ - though see that this year it's much later and extends into Feb half terms, maybe it's been put back and not cut back????

Officers tend to stay together in hotels, squad dies in the apartments below us and there are bars assigned as to where the various ranks go, though we have seen them integrating in others.

Anyway to the point of the post, few years back me and the OH were going up in a lift with some squaddies and an NCO at the top were around ten or so others.

They had all been out here competing in the XC racing and this was for most their first taste of Alpine and you guessed it no instructor and they just hurtled themselves down a red run, it was total carnage and snow was quite deep and piste had not been bashed, we also told them not to follow where we'd be going, and pointed them to the nursery slopes.

All credit and chapeau to them, mind you if they're racing on XC on some of the more difficult tracks then that's pretty daunting anyway!

And then there's the Alpine Championships and many a skier with all the gear and ................

But I suppose it's the taking part that counts but to many a non Brit they find it all a bit of a joke seeing some of the skiers in full on downhill lycra etc

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

I learned to ski in the TA, in about 2008. I think everything had changed by the time I went and the army had quit it's obsession with doing everything in-house. We literally just got sent to France, put up in regular apartments (and as @Weathercam said the officers went in a hotel... I know where the better parties were anyway, the officers were vying to get into the apartments!) and put us on lessons depending on our ability with just normal ski instructors. I think that's just how things are done nowadays.

Although the instructors were still made aware that we were all fit, robust soldiers - not average civvies. The days were absolutely full and breaks were short. The instructors were pretty merciless and there was no sympathy for people struggling! The civvy instructors still seemed to follow the army's traditional belief that the way to get non-swimmers to swim is to throw them into a pool and that therefore the way to get non skiers skiing is to take them down some iced-out black run and just force them to deal with it.

I think there's value in that way of learning but to be fair it probably works better for people who are contractually (and legally - since military law still applies) obliged to comply with such a regime, than people who are at the end of the day still customers!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

1971 stationed in Germany was given a choice of attending a 3 month German interpreter course or going skiing (no guesses as to which choice), been hooked ever since

Started on cross country loipes, graduated to 25km biathlon and then ski touring, had a fabulous time and ended up as an Army instructor teaching basic winter warfare skills to rotating troops which entailed going for 3 months each year to European or Scandinavian resorts (I know, but someone had to do it)

Great memories of the characters and adventures, never forget introduction to downhill skiing lesson 1

Get kitted up, try to get up draglift to top of steep red run. Poles in front to shuffle into downhill position, ignore questions about how to stop and just follow instructor to the bottom, then fall over (or hit solid object) to stop. Any that made it in one piece showed "potential" and were incorporated into regimental ski team

Happy Days

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

In the army for me, Ex Snow Fox in Verbier 98. Drove out in white fleet to stay in a rather nice little chalet owned by some retired Colonel. First morning on the nursery slope then up the lift onto a red, the rather bored local ski instructor didn't think much of blue runs! The end of the week was taken up by race day with a timed GS run. A hard week with a steep learning curve but did the job as everybody comleted the race day and all made it back in one piece all be it poorer, in pain and with a massive hangover! Happy days!

You'll need to Register first of course.

Join the Army: Dig In. Join the RAF: Check In!! Very Happy

One day at Aviemore toothbrush and then a nice apartment in Les Arcs. Followed by 3 trips to Breckenridge. But the officers and the non commissioned stayed in exactly the same standard of accommodation, as were were far more egalitarian.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I also learnt on the notorious 'Snow Queen' exercise in the area of Sontofen and Oberstdorf in the early 80's. Fond memories of minus -12 on the back on a Bedford 4 ton lorry heading off for ski lessons......its was bloody freezing travelling in the back with only the tarpauline covers!
My most outstanding memory was the issue of ski gear for those who had never been on the exercise before. This included a Navy blue Jacket with a beige strip across the front along with Navy Blue salopettes. It was a sight to be seen......30 odd blokes in all the same gear trying to ski down a hill on the first day!!
But it was classed as an exercise, and for all those old squaddies, you at least got your food and accomadation costs back, so it literally cost you nothing.

After all it is free

I had my first skiing experience at 15 up the Troodos mountains. I remember skiing backwards into a ditch, getting cold and knackered and then having a burger that tasted of paraffin.

A bit different from ESF and Tarteflette Cool

I learned to ski in my 40's, 43 to be precise. I only learned as my new missus loved skiing and had been skiing since she was a teenager. so it was like a test for me, and I loved it, felt like I'd missed out knowing others had been skiing since they were young.

In March 2007 me and the new Mrs Sacko visited friends in Norway, they picked us up in Oslo airport and we drove up to Lillehammer for a weekend of skiing.

On the first day my wife bought me a 90 minute private lesson with the most gorgeous Norwegian woman I've ever met. She was stunning so I was determined not to make any mistakes in front of her.

We started off on the nursery slope going up and down a button run doing snow ploughs. The week before we left I had called my brother (who skis) to ask him for advice and he told me that when I'm going down a hill, my instinct will be to lean back away from the slope in front of me, but this will make me lose control as you need your weight on the front of the skis to keep control. So my nose was almost touching the tips of my skis as I was snow ploughing down the nursery slopes Laughing

After half an hour of that she was happy that I'd got the hang of stopping and starting and turning so we went on the lower slopes to an empty green run and we basically spent the next hour going up and down that, with her skiing in front of me showing me how to stand, etc. So basically I got an hour following her bum down the slopes, but by the end of that hour I was doing parallel turns.

After the lesson I went straight to the bar because I was knackered.

The next day I went back to that green run with the missus and raced her down it (she won, skiing past me backwards whilst telling me how good I was doing rolling eyes

)

So then she took me up two chairlifts right to the top of the mountain and we skied all the way down. Took me ages and we almost got divorced, but I was hooked. snowHead

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@dp, this was in the OP:

snow reports

@Sack the Juggler that's a fascinating story but what does it have to do with learning to ski in the army?[/quote]

Maybe that after staring at her bum for an hour he realized that she was commando!

You know it makes sense.

We were taught by an ex Russian soldier in boverets back in the early 90s! If you weren't dead you continued with the lesson! Start time 1 st lift , class ended last lift! 30 min lunch break, it was hell! But we booked him again the next year and third ski trip I could ski an icy black without a second thought! We learned on ice! With long straight skis

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

@dp, Off to stores for a new set of sides, mine have just split laughing wink

A snowHead

@Hurtle, oh sorry I didn't see that. I wasn't having a go I was just curious.

A snowHead

My brother in law was in the army and was taught (?) to ski in Norway wearing jeans, wooley jumpers and wool mittens.

He describes it as pretty much the same method.

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

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Early 90's did all my basics in the Ski School in Kilternan in advance of maiden voyage to Arinsal - Andorra.
Day 1 found my ski school, went up with instructor, tried to keep up with the class, lost control and snapped my ACL....she left me there!.
Got my knee reconstructed and went to Livigno two years later, went to speak to the Ski School and they brought me to meet two instructors who specialise in nervous skiers and skiers returning from injury and the rest is history....skied pretty much twice a year ever since.

But if it wasn't for two guys in Livigno (Simone & Antonello) I'd have never step foot on snow ever again.

Help!!

Learning to ski in the army late 70s

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste