Nervous beginner skier

A snowHead

Hi,
I’m a nervous skier (one ski holiday where I had my confidence completely knocked!)
Am doing to book a week in a ski school whilst my husband and friends do their own thing.
If I did want to meet them further up the mountain, can I use the ski lifts as a “foot passenger”??
Also any top tips for the others to get their ski / lift passes? Is there a way to get a discount?
Thank you so much for any help!

A snowHead

Check the lift company; some resorts you can get a limited/ restricted lift pass if you're only using the nursery slopes, some places are free, or have one free lift on the "bunny hill". Or ask the ski school what sort of pass to buy.

You can ride lifts like bubble lifts and cable cars without skis, although check with the lift operator if you're not sure. The only lifts you can never do that in ordinary circumstances are those which require you to be towed along (button lifts, T-bars..) or those where you have to slide off the lift (chairs). So find a restaurant at the top of a gondola type lift and you're set. Many of them will be located there precisely because the food and workers won't always want to ski to the restaurant either.

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

@ClaireCat, I would recommend going to Montgenevre as it has a really good ski school called Apeak and a green beginner run from the top of the mountain. My sister had private lessons with them as an adult beginner and found them very good. On the south facing Chalvet side you could take a gondola up to meet your husband at the mountain restaurant. On the other side (north facing) you could take the telemix lift up and ski an easy green to the mountain restaurant and ski back down on a green.

Montgenevre is a great resort for confidence building, has a good snow record and is cheaper than some of the better known resorts in France.

Some resorts have small discounts on lift passes if you buy 3 or more passes together but most of the discounts are for families with kids under 16.

If possible I would encourage another friend who is a beginner or less confident skier to join you on the hol as there is nothing worse for confidence than going with people who are all confident skiers boasting how many black runs they've skied each day. (although they won't have many to boast about in Montgenevre Toofy Grin

as it is mainly blue and red runs.)

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@phil_w, some chair lifts do take foot passengers where there is no gondola from the valley. we have 2 in Flachau. they just slow it down so you can get on and off

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I presume your holiday is already booked? In that you know which resort you're going to? You'll probably need a lift pass yourself anyway - I can't see you spending a week in ski school on a nursery slope. Instructors are usually keen to get you on the mountain, where they will have chosen specific slopes to teach on - working on all the basics, and giving you the confidence to be able to ski them on your own (or with the others in your party).

I was a terrified beginner. Petrified. I was mortified when on the second day we had to go up the mountain, and it took the whole 2 hr lesson to come down 1 blue run. On the 4th day, we went to a red slope (by necessity, we were in Sauze, where there's only about 2 blues!) and our lovely instructor made sure we could all side slip. And stop safely. And that was the best lesson ever.
We didn't do many different runs in that week - it was much easier to practise what we'd learnt on familiar terrain, rather than tackling something new - but we did get up and around the mountain.

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The "foot passenger" question's the easy one - it depends on the resort. A (very) rough rule of thumb though is that pedestrians can use gondolas but not chairs (because passengers are expected to walk out of gondolas but slide off of chairs).

"How to get your pass" is again an "it depends on the resort" question. You'll almost certainly be going to a resort that uses RFID lift passes that go in a pocket and just need to be waved near the gate to trigger. Many resorts let you order these online ahead of time and either have them posted or they will have machines you can collect them from. They can often be recharged too, so rather than buying a new piece of plastic each time you can just recharge you old one - though this tends to be resort specific. Discounts aren't that common and will generally have come and gone for this season, being either pre-season or Black Friday deals.

I would ask what it was knocked your confidence last time though. If it was 'just' your husband/friends dragging you too far out of your comfort zone or leaving you at the back, worrying you were holding them up so trying to rush (which only makes things worse) outside lessons then ski school will probably work. If, as one of my friends had, you were the slowest in your ski school group so always ending up at the back, farthest from the instructor and so only picking up half of what they said you might be better off with private lessons.

After all it is free

@ClaireCat, welcome to snowHead

Can you get to a snowdome here in the UK before your holiday? If so some lessons there will help a lot.

Beyond that a lot of the advice we could give will depend on how/why you lost confidence. Also telling us where you're going could be useful as someone may have a recommendation for a ski school/instructor.

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The gentlest most flattering runs to resort I’ve encountered in Europe were Courchevel 1850.

If you can take a private lesson every day with a good English speaking instructor, so much better than group lessons. Get ski fit before the holiday.

The Alpine experts here will advise on the money top tips.

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Group lessons can work v well. Company, support. But a recommendation for a ski school might be useful. Small groups best.

snow reports

1. Enjoy the group lessons. It is very hard not to.
2. Make your husband commit to skiing with you for at least an hour or two on the slopes you have been practicing on.
3. Enjoy.

You know it makes sense.

I’m so stupid! I forgot to say that I have already booked the resort -St Johann in Tirol. And yes, confidence knocked by husband taking me down a difficult run! Took my skies off and had to walk down and struggled to get in them again (that was 3 years ago)
And thank you for all your lovely replies - I feel very welcomed!

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

A snowHead

A snowHead

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

I've seen so many times ladies, often of 'a certain age' who've been browbeaten over the years by their husbands such that they've lost all confidence and believe that they're not able to ski well. In most cases it's an unconscious action by the men who effectively make sure their wives cannot, or will not, ski better. It's very sad, and as I say it's not usually a deliberate thing, but the male desire to be seen as better can do strange things.

The best solution is often to have a private lesson with an experienced instructor and explain what your husband says you're doing wrong, 99% he's talking nonsense and the instructor will be able to give you tools to counter this, by which I mean the ability to say no, I'm not listening to you, instructor says... or variations on that.

Saw this so many times over the years as a Ski Club leader, where we'd always be able to recommend a local instructor who would be good for this, notably Lynn Stainbrook in Flaine, who 'fixed' this problem many times, at least three or four that I personally sent to him. The transformation can be heart-warming, especially when the wife is now enabled and will turn round and say "Lynn says I mustn't listen to anything you tell me". wink

Best of all is when the husband eventually realises that she's better than him and goes off for a private lesson himself. Toofy Grin

Apologies if that's not the case here, but taking someone down a run that's too difficult is a classic example.

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Marginal thread drift here but a friend of mine got a new girlfriend who wanted to learn to ski with him. He could ski (ish) but never had a lesson. His technique for teaching her was to ski close behind her and yell 'parallel' at her in a very hectoring tone.
Luckily his mates put a stop to this after a while by banning him from 'teaching' her and subsequently everyone had a happy time Very Happy

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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We have been to St Johann the last 3 years, and it’s great. The main gondola on the main hill will take foot passengers no problem, and it will take you to middle station (where last year the restaurant was closed - may have been as it was still quiet due to covid) but the one at the top is open, and is lovely. Really cosy with great food, or a terrace if it’s sunny.

If you’re doing st Johann ski school, they’ll take you to the middle and down mainly.

If you’re staying on the eichenhoff side, then there’s a short gondola to the top of a very shallow easy blue run, with another great restaurant at the top of it - the Grander Schupf. I had to take my very nervous husband up and down that one run 14 times to get his confidence after he almost gave up. Most of the other restaurants you’ll need to ski to, or walk to. Or wait in Max’s pub at the bottom for the end of the day!

It's a lovely resort, we’re trying somewhere else this year but will miss St Johann!

After all it is free

Why do husbands and boyfriends do this? It’s not only horribly arrogant but counter-productive, as a rule it ends up just putting their wife/girlfriend off skiing entirely or condemning them to a lifetime of fear and lack of confidence when it comes to skiing.

Like some of the other instructors here I have seen this too many times to count. The good news for me is that is generally a joy to instruct these women. They are often much better skiers than they (and their man) thinks, are excellent students (actually assume that the instructor knows what he/she is doing), and as a result make very gratifying progress. Take and enjoy some lessons, and definitely tell your partner that it’s best if you are not offered any advice from him on your skiing as you want to focus on what you are being taught by the professional. Group lessons are fine but private ones can be better for quickly building confidence. It is better to do those lessons on your own. That said I have had some good joint sessions where the “lady” was presented by the man as needing some help with her skiing and he was there to learn how to help her, only for it to turn out that said lady was actually better able to adjust her skiing and execute the exercises because she was actually the better skier. Being able to turn it round to the male partner accepting he should probably listen to her than the other way around is gratifying!

As an aside we have an interesting dynamic where I am an instructor and my wife is an ex-racer who is much better than me technically (and I mean much!). But she had a few years off and has no acl to speak of, so there was a period where she was not at her previous level and not happy about it. Now I certainly have the analytical and teaching skills to coach someone of her level, but there is no way I would ever have even considered it even when I could see her frustration and knew exactly what would fix the problem (even if she had asked). The answer was a few sessions with a good coach, on her own. And now if she wants to train she does so with my eldest son as they are similar in character and technical skill, and there is no additional physiological dynamic. I often train with eldest daughter where I benefit from her greater technical skill on piste (she is also a racer) and she benefits from my analysis and experience off-piste. At least she is kind enough to say so, and let me believe it!

Would it not be easier and less stressful for them to come and meet you, rather than vice versa?

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