 Poster: A snowHead
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We're looking for somewhere to head next Easter. If only it was as easy as it sounds at this point.....
Top requirement - somewhere to provide suitable instruction for junior #1, who'll be 7.5 by then. However he's been skiing since ever since he could stand, race trains a couple of times a week with a local club, is now competing in national dry slope races, and by the end of next season will probably be outskiing mum and dad who are both BASI (old III/new II) qualified. So obviously he isn't typical of your average 7 year old British holiday skier which makes standard ski school classes a big gamble - it can work fine if they just look at the standard of skiing and sort them appropriately, but can also be a total waste of time and money if they just look at his age and classify by that.
Having said that we don't want to give up on the idea of him receiving on-snow instruction yet. Ideally we'd be looking for some sort of race training/competition class - but mostly these have minimum age limits he's not going to hit for a while yet, or qualification requirements from the French system which he can't prove as he's done most of his skiing in Canada. He is learning French, but obviously at 7 that's going to be limited, so instruction in English would be another requirement.
And then to make it even more complicated there's junior #2 - who'll be (just) 2 so we'd need childcare, preferably at snow level rather than in a low level resort as he's already started to have a few little slides and would be ready for a little play on an easy nursery slope/magic carpet area by next winter. We could do this ourselves so no requirement for instruction for this age group.
Everything else is secondary really - but somewhere within reasonable driving distance from the UK, and probably self catering accomodation (given the average table manners of 2 year olds!) or somewhere with a family rooms would fit the bill as this would have to be a lower budget option after a couple of weeks in Canada earlier in the season.
Can the combined wisdom of the SnowHeads offer us any suggestions?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Okanagan, What about holidaying in Les Houches and enrolling junior #1 in a race camp with the British Ski Academy?
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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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It may be worth trying Austria, they usually have great ski school instructors that speak good English and there are often advanced groups and you can also have private lessons which may be worth considering. However, there aren't many higher resorts with the good nursery slope facilities. Lech and Obertauern I guess are the most suitable but Lech can be quite expensive and i doubt even the self catering is of a lower budget. Saas-Fee in Switzerland might be another good option. High, lots of intermediate skiing and from what i can remember the ski instruction and the nursery slopes were great! (long transfer though). Hope this helps. 
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rob@rar, that's an option for 2010. But BSA's minimum age is 8, so it doesn't help us for next year.
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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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Okanagan, didn't know there was a lower age limit. Perhaps you could get in touch with snowcrazy by PM to ask if he is running a week's race training in Les Arcs for British kids. He did this last season, using ESF race instructors and doing some training with the Les Arcs Ski Club. It seemed to be a successful week (fortnight?) over Easter. Also try My Snow Sports which gets involved with the junior race scene for British skiers.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Okanagan, The BSA coaches would probably be in Meribel over Easter anyway, the same goes for most other UK clubs.
Have you thought of joining Telford or Stoke ?
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Only solution seems to be to ski with Junior#1 yourselves, unless the live-out age for BSA is less than the live-in (probably not, as I suspect it's an insurance issue). Off-piste and a few black runs will keep him down to your speed.
The kindergarten in St Gervais is on the slopes next to the nursery slopes and it is only 20 mins from Les Houches. Not that two-year-olds are happy with being left for an afternoon, but it beats skiing with a child between your legs all day.
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One other idea. Go to where they are holding the National Champs (probably Meribel again) and you will have your own club coaches, those of a few other teams and a few other minis of the same age /standard there.
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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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The Leeds ski club which skis out of Castleford has regular race nights aimed at young racers and also yearly a ski holiday..
http://www.lions-skiclub.co.uk/
Maybe something similiar is based out of Tamworth?
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kitenski, You can't set gates very easily at Tamworth, there isn't a race club there that trains in the alps.
The Midlands clubs that train on snow at Easter are Telford and Stoke.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| beequin wrote: |
| Only solution seems to be to ski with Junior#1 yourselves <snip> Off-piste and a few black runs will keep him down to your speed. |
Skiing with him at his speed isn't an issue (yet!) - giving him the opportunity to progress further is. Hopefully we can manage to achieve a bit of both.
| beequin wrote: |
| One other idea. Go to where they are holding the National Champs (probably Meribel again) and you will have your own club coaches, those of a few other teams and a few other minis of the same age /standard there. |
Unfortunately our club doesn't have coaches who would be there - so how to hookup with any others would be an issue. Being there, and junior #1 being aware of other kids being involved in the races - especially kids he's starting to know from the race scene - when he's excluded would be worse than just going elsewhere and us just skiing with him on our own.
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Perhaps you could get in touch with snowcrazy by PM to ask if he is running a week's race training in Les Arcs for British kids. He did this last season, using ESF race instructors and doing some training with the Les Arcs Ski Club. It seemed to be a successful week (fortnight?) over Easter. |
That sounds promising - will look into that one.
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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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Okanagan, Are the age limits for minis lower on plastic than snow ?
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rjs, the previous summers youngest minis are the snow seasons youngest ones. So by definition they'd have to be a little bit older. They can race on plastic in the summer of the year they turn 7, on snow they'd already be 7. But as far as I understand it to get involved with the snow races you really need to be with a race team. We'll probably end up going down that route eventually - but for this year just a good training setup would be an equally good, perhaps even better, option.
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You know it makes sense.
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Okanagan, The minis races on snow are not that serious, they are only allowed to do easy GS style courses anyway. If you look at the Meribel or BARSC results from this season you will see that there are a fair number who are not registered and several not members of clubs.
There isn't all that much training that you can do with kids that age anyway, you drag them around the mountain and let them do a few easy courses.
I don't think you will find a British group that would take a mini going elsewhere at Easter.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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Oz en Oisans, next door to Alpe d'Huez. 9 mins in a queue free gondola which takes you to around 2300m. Very cheap in resort for food and a lovelly friiendly atmosphere as very few Brits in resort. No one skiis down to Oz as they believe it is too low at 1350m but it gets less skied out than Alpe d'Huez and less crowded and the snow holds better here. I love it. For instruction then try the lovelly monitors Monica and Barbara they are independent instructors and superb.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nickster, If you are going to Astroturf every thread it will take you quite a long time.
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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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| danielaclark wrote: |
| It may be worth trying Austria, they usually have great ski school instructors that speak good English and there are often advanced groups and you can also have private lessons which may be worth considering. However, there aren't many higher resorts with the good nursery slope facilities. |
Galtur has great nursery slope facilities at village level and fits just about all the criteria. It's extremely popular with families and I'd be absolutely amazed if they couldn't do something for junior #1. I took my 2 year old daughter there this year and she had a great time. I've got some videos here which might give a flavour of the nursery slope facilities. The only thing I'm not sure about is the availability of self catering apartments. The other thing to note is that the slopes are actually above a small hamlet called Wirl which is a short bus ride away. However if you have a car in resort this won't really be an issue.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I skied last year with an English guide called Chris Harrop who lives in St Foy and is part of a private Val d'Isere ski school/ guiding and spends most of his time building luxury Chalet developements (he just keeps guiding because he enjoys it).
His daughter is currently No2 in her age group in the Tarrentaise. Although she probably gets her training through her school I reckon he should know about that kind of thing. I'll PM you his email. If you want to mention my name I am David Johnson.
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