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Skiing with a total beginner

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Next winter my girlfriend and I are going skiing with my girlfriend’s brother (28 years old) who has never skied before. He is desperate to try skiing and is going to go have some lessons at an indoor slope. The problem is if he goes in ski school the time we ski together will be limited, or if he doesn’t go in ski school surely he won’t get any better, and runs we would do will be limited. Does anyone have any advice, experience of skiing with a total beginner
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
ski school
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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?
ski school for him, meet for lunch apres etc and maybe the odd warm up run to see how he's going.

Or take up snowboarding or telemarking so you can put yourselves back to his level.
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jtobin03, definitely get him some lessons through the ski school each morning and meet up afterwards. He should pick up the basics quickly and he will be learning with people of his own ability.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
jtobin03, Ski School, or better , private 1-on-1 lessons in the morning, ski with you in the pm. Before you go, get him on the 'learn to ski in a day' course at Xscape, he won't, but it will be a start.
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What spyderjon said ! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
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Another vote for ski school in the morning and skiing together in the afternoon.
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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!
jtobin03, if your (and your girlfriend's) skiing is decent, it's not going to be much fun for you shepherding the beginner all week (and he'll probably feel guilty about holding you back - and being a gooseberry!).

Ski school's the way to go. snowHead
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Yes, agreed, ski school. No question. Some people learn much faster than others, and some get more tired than others. He may not want to do a lot in the afternoon. But the proposal that you both learn snowboarding and put yourself at his level is also well worth considering.
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even if he can get down a red with what he learns indoors he will suffer with fitness..... unless he is superfit anyhow
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
jtobin03, get your GF's bro to take a mate with him who has never skied before either.
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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.
jtobin03, Defintely recommend lessons here first, that way after his lessons there at least he can get down a mild slope, without he'll be unable to ski much at all after his lessons the first couple of days in resort. Having lessons in resort is a no-brainer.

I go every year with a mate for a long weekend, its his only skiing of the year and he remains a near beginner. We ski largely seperately but meet up for lunch and I also scout around for runs I can help him down in the afternoons. Last year I managed to get him down the easiest route from the glacier at Les Deux Alpes at 3400m to Les Cretes at 2100m. It took forever but he got a great sense of achievement from it.

However you do need to be careful. I skied with someone a couple of years ago who had done her first blue run that morning. I bought her down another blue which I thought was about the same. Turned out for her it wasn't and did none of us any good Crying or Very sad
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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
PJSki, That's a great idea. When my wife learned to ski a few years back we went on our first ski trip together with a mate of mine (a good skier) and his girlfriend (another complete beginner). The girls went into ski school together and I skied with my mate. We all met up for lunch, skied together a little at the end of the day and generally all had a good time.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
jtobin03, Do you see a pattern emerging here? Very Happy
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Definitely lessons. I'd say that it verges on the irresponsible not to have lessons (see the groomed runs produce bad skiers thread).
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Thanks
Ski school is what I thought but he was not keen on, just wanted a page I can show him to persuade him it’s the right thing to do. I had thought about snowboarding but I loved the 2 weeks I had this year on my Punishers so think I will stick to skiing.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
jtobin03, Ski school as a total beginner - potentially some of the most fun he'll have as a skier if he just goes to enjoy it.
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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?
rob@rar wrote:
Another vote for ski school in the morning and skiing together in the afternoon.

And another.
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My brother was a total beginner this year in Mayrhofen, he had 2 hour private lesson on the first day and was able to snowplough but his confidence was fragile when he was out with us and after lots of falls and struggling he took another one hour lesson on the third day which taught him to lift his trailing ski and stem turn. With that his confidence built very quickly and he was happy on all reds on the fourth (last) day and flying. So summarily he didn't like skiing for 2.5 days, liked it for 0.5 and got totally bitten, hooked and reeled in on the fourth.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
As someone who has been as a total beginner with experienced friends. My priorities were to learn to ski without injuring myself and for us all to have a good time, and that meant I didn't want them to give up too much of their time shepherding me around. So I would say:

A few lessons here first - essential!

Ski School - essential!

Skiing with friends in the afternoons - yes, but ONLY if they are happy to keep to the runs the beginner did in ski school, at least for the first few days. I got very tired and that is no time to try anything new. A little gentle practice is all I wanted, more for the fact that I was skiing with my friends than anything else. Ski School is FUN = new friends at the same ability level and lots of laughs.
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I think there's potentially big problems with beginners skiing with their more experienced friends. Two things often happen: (a) a more gung-ho beginner will attempt to keep up with their more experienced friends, developing really bad ski technique which, if perfected, will stay with them for a very long time; or (b) a more timid beginner will be frightened by the pace at which their experienced friends ski and not enjoy their skiing as much as they should do. To avoid these problems it is likely that the experienced skiers will have to choose a pace and terrain that the beginner is comfortable with. This is a bit of a sacrifice unless you enjoy spending time with your friend as they learn to ski while you just cruise around the bunny slopes.
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Quote:
Skiing with friends in the afternoons - yes, but ONLY if they are happy to keep to the runs the beginner did in ski school, at least for the first few days.


Yes, completely agree, in the case of nervous/unfit beginners. I failed to do that last week, with friends who had had 3 x 2 hour lessons in the mornings, and although my friend was actually doing her snowplough turns very well, she did not like being on a new slope and was convinced it was much steeper than the slope she had done with the instructor. I didn't think it was, but it wasn't what I thought that mattered! However, she was a 55 year old woman, and very unfit. I have also had a young, athletic, new skier who was very keen to go on to new slopes after his lesson (though we always stuck to blues, and he had done a number of blues with his instructor) and had a ball. I was practising turning on the outside leg, skiing behind him, and when he spotted me and asked what I was doing, proceeded to copy me and do it really well. He is a very high level (county in the past) cricketer and coach. My friend last week is the head of an infants school, and rather overweight. People are different!
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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!
pam w, agree but I don't think that the sporty or fit beginners always prove to be the best beginners! It's got to be an advantage but I have been surprised several times by people I've met (one was a county rugby player, another was a very fit county squash player and a couple of others are generally fit and play sport regularly) who really struggled with basic skiing and clearly were not enjoying themselves.
I thought perhaps that the physical advantage was undermined by the fact that this was something they were not so good at, and therefore frustrating, but actually despite sticking at it, neither of the county sportsmen ever seemed to progress and always looked stiff and ill at ease. Neither ski now, so I'm told. Sad
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Lou, I think you're right about some sporty people not liking being no good at something physical. We met a couple of complete beginners at Kapaonik, years ago. "He" was, by his own account, an expert water skier! At the end of their week of ski lessons we skied with them on the last afternoon. She had listened carefully to the instructor and was getting down the slopes nicely, in complete control. He had thought he knew it all, not listened, and shot across the piste into the crud at the edge, dug himself out, then did it again. She was loving it, he was muttering about never going on another ski holiday. I suspect it was the first time she had shone at something sporty that he couldn't manage.

However, my three experiences of skiing with top sports people (squash, cricket and polo) have all been of people who are not afraid of falling over, are strong and motivated and have excellent kinaesthetic feedback. The first is perhaps the key; my friend last week was petrified of falling and consequently found it impossible to pick up that little bit of speed which makes it so much easier to turn. I know the instructor they had for their private lessons; he is excellent. (Same instructor that the cricketer had, come to think of it).

But my key point is that people are so different; it's not possible to give general prescriptions for skiing with beginners (except that they absolutely must have professional tuition; we all agree on that).
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jtobin03, If he wants to join you on your holiday he will have to go to ski school. Let him invite another person that has not skied before, they can have lessons in the morning and practice what they learnt in the afternoon. Meet for lunch if you are close by and take them out on the last day and ski as a group.

Have been with groups containing beginners, and this is what we always do. They may feel that they can ski away with you all the time, but they wont be able!

Bon ski.
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Yes, having two beginners is a much better idea. I spent a lot of time with our friends last week, but then I've got 12 weeks on the slopes this season. I'd have resented doing that if it was my only holiday week.
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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.
jtobin03, Lessons here first - the sooner he starts, the better he'll be when you get away. Ski school in resort.
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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
pam w, yes, certainly in one of my scenarios above, I did think that having an other half who took to skiing 'like a duck to water' did have something to do with it wink

I organise a girls weekend once a year with four friends from work. Two of them are still beginners as this is the only time they ski. Both are fit, fun loving, laugh if they fall (a positive in my book, some people cannot do this and I'm talking about simple falls without injury)and above all they have lessons. The rest of us meet them for lunch/drink and spend a little time catching up, ski a couple of runs with them and then do our own thing again until the end of the day. This works really well, the beginners get to show us how they have progressed, we have some fun as a group, and the intermediates are happy too.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Have taken two beginner mates away for a week for the last two years. A third mate who is an ex-military instructor came along as well. We organised private tuition for two hours each morning for the beginners, and all skied together (on easy slopes) in the afternoon. A great time was had by all and all are keen to repeat it next year. Key points were:

Two beginners learning together have more fun than one on their own
Private lessons help you progress faster than in big groups
Having someone to ski with while your mates are having lessons is a good idea
If they instructor is friendly and helpful (he was) the non learners can 'tag along' with the lessons and maybe practice a few basics.
Skiing is Fun!
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
The more fit, sporty, coordinated and fearless you are, the more you will gain from private instruction as beginner.

Wether Private or class lessons are best depends on the balance of Explanation vs Practice, which depends on the above...


Definetly throw him at some instructors, or you will not have much fun on your holidays!!
(For me its different, cus I like instructing)
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
What I did when I was an absolute beginner going skiing with freinds was that I did a couple of evenings on a dry ski slope and then went skiing for a week at Les Arc 2000. We were a big group with some good skiers some weaker skiers and 3 absolute beginners including me. I spent my first day on my own on the free chair lift practising on my own and then next day bought a full area pass and went skiing with the rest of the team, we would often split up where there was more than one run going to the same place so i'd go with some people down a blue or ocasionally a red while the better skiers would take a red or black and we'd all meet at the bottom. Worked for me and one other beginner, we enjoyed ourselves emensley and had no real problems. The other beginner, took private lessons from the off but she didn't enjoy it at all and doesn't ski. Before anyone asks I could ski in control, either doing snowplough turns or short traverses joined by stem turns. I fell occasionally but not too many times.

However I'm not sure the above would work well with a very small group, and like eveyone else would agree that lessons in the morning followed by skiing together in the afternoon would probably work best. I've continued skiing with my friends emntioned above, who now have kids, and generally thats what we've done with the kids. They've skied with ski school in the mornings and then with us in the afternoons. We've then been able to do harder skiing in the mornings and easier skiing in the afternoons, though it didn't take long for the kids to be able to ski anywhere we can.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Drop him off at ski school on the Sun.

Meet him back at the transfer bus the following Fri.

Riding with a complete newbie will ruin your vacation.

Tbh, the dude is getting too old to take up skiing. You should encourage him to board. It is much easier.

If he boards, he can be sliding down blacks within a coupla weeks and everyone will feel much more comfortable.
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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?
Whitegold wrote:


Tbh, the dude is getting too old to take up skiing. You should encourage him to board. It is much easier.



at 28????!!!! If you're not joking or trolling you're barking Laughing
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Axsman wrote:
If you're not joking or trolling you're barking Laughing


This was Whitegold you wree responding to.

Can you find any posts by him that don't fit those categories?
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Axsman wrote:
Whitegold wrote:


Tbh, the dude is getting too old to take up skiing. You should encourage him to board. It is much easier.



at 28????!!!! If you're not joking or trolling you're barking Laughing



I was 27 When i took up skiing... look where i'm now....

Very definetly a troll and if not he's talking big hairy nonsense
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alex_heney wrote:
Axsman wrote:
If you're not joking or trolling you're barking Laughing


This was Whitegold you wree responding to.

Can you find any posts by him that don't fit those categories?


Good point, well made wink
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Ronald wrote:
Axsman wrote:
Whitegold wrote:


Tbh, the dude is getting too old to take up skiing. You should encourage him to board. It is much easier.



at 28????!!!! If you're not joking or trolling you're barking Laughing



I was 27 When i took up skiing... look where i'm now....

Very definetly a troll and if not he's talking big hairy nonsense


.... out of his bum!
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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!
Axsman wrote:
Whitegold wrote:


Tbh, the dude is getting too old to take up skiing. You should encourage him to board. It is much easier.



at 28????!!!! If you're not joking or trolling you're barking Laughing



The body is well into biological middle-age at 28.

Strength and balance have peaked and are starting to decline.

28 is right at the very upper limit of when someone should take up a new sport.

Time is no longer on your side.

You need to pick the easiest sport available. That is snowboarding.
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Whitegold, sod off, there's a good chap.
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Whitegold, Who says it should be easy? might as well take up tiddlywinks Laughing

EDIT: PS I started skiing at 40+

PPS although if you've seen me ski it could actually support your point Embarassed Laughing
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