 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm writing an article on good and bad experiences with ski schools re teaching children 2-16. All experiences, negative and positive, scary and hilarious, welcome - many thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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A ski school is Les Meniures ( Not ESF) managed to lose our 8 year old son for about 30 minutes which was a horrible experience. We had picked the ski school as it had no more than 8 children in a group. We arrived to collect him at lunchtime and when we couldn't see him we were told that the group was not back yet. We waited 10 mins and then found out that the group had got back but not with our son and the ski instructor had gone back to look for him. I naturally threw a paddy and insisted the rest of the instructors stopped eating their lunch and went out looking and called the lady that ran the ski school. He had only got lost on the last run down where the piste splits into two - one way leading to Reberty where the ski school was and the other down to the centre of Les Menuires. My husband went off to search too.
He was thankfully found safe and sound in Les Menuires but very upset. He had asked someone to call me ( my mobile number was on the back of his ski helmet but it didn't have the +44 on for the UK so of course the number didn't work). He had also gone into the ESF office at Les Menuires to say he was lost but as he wasn't in ESF ski school they weren't interested.
As he had waitied at the lift a long time for his class he decided to go back up the chairlift on his own and ski down the piste again - which he shouldn't have done as he makes it harder for the ski instructor to find him.
All our children now carry mobiles when we ski, my stickers have +44 in front of the mobile number and our kids have been reminded to stay at the bottom of the piste and wait for the instructor to find them.
I pick up resort on the ski schools available - and prefer to use British run ski schools when possible. Very good experience with New Generation in La Tania.
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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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He had also gone into the ESF office at Les Menuires to say he was lost but as he wasn't in ESF ski school they weren't interested.
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That's a bit much! He would have had a vest thing on saying which ski school he was with, I imagine - they could have telephoned. Poor kid. Horrible experience. The only time one of mine was "lost" he had been asked to take a little chap back into the ski school (presumably his instructor was in a hurry to get his lunch  ) on his way back to our apartment - we all finished lessons and got back to the apartment for lunch, as Nick had done the previous two mornings). He took the little lad in but then they wouldn't let him leave, insisting that all children had to wait for their parents. He didn't speak German (he does now - fluently) and the ski school spoke very little English, so he was kept prisoner. Eventually when his instructor breezed in, to find Nick in floods of frustrated tears, they let him go (his instructor knew he had orders to come back to the apartment). He said to us, after eating a huge lunch "I'm sorry Mum, I kept telling them you'd be worried about me".
So, on that occasion, the ski school was over-zealous!!
I interviewed a girl once, at the Civil Service Selection Board, who had worked as an instructor in NZ and "lost" a child, one day. Interesting to hear about it from the other point of view.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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IwishICouldThinkOfAFabNam, well done to your 8 yr old for heading into an ESF office, even if they couldn't be bothered  What is it with people.
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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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Our then four year old son got himself thrown out of a ski school in Chatel - for being able to ski! We'd chosen to go with them because they advertised themselves as catering for all abilities/levels - but when we went back to pick him up after the first morning they just said "He's very good, but we're not keeping him"  It turned out that they expected all four year olds to just walk up a piece of carpet (not a magic carpet, just a piece of carpet) and slide down a few feet as they had a policy of not taking four year olds beyond the carpet-served nursery slope they were using. They'd already been told when booking him in that he could already ski to beyond this level, and knew how to use a poma, etc - but they hadn't bothered to tell us that they couldn't/wouldn't do anything suitable for him. As it turned out he wasn't any more impressed with it in practice than we were on finding out about it in retrospect - and on spotting that there was a drag lift serving the full extent of the nursery slope skied off down to it and got himself on, up, and off. They were clearly so impressed with this that they decided that they didn't want him back again!
In contast the ski schools in Big White and Silver Star in Canada (both under the same ownership) were fantastic with him. The have a policy of running any group lesson at a level which has people booked onto it, rather than trying to combine groups to make a larger class. As he was usually the only under 7 booked onto the "Junior Hot Shots" (under 7s on Black runs) group he mostly got 1 to 1 "group" lessons.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We have only had good experiences with ski schools for my two little ones (now 6 and 4). We have used Neige Adventure twice in Nendaz and they were fantastic. We hired equipment from the same place so it was all in one package.
They have a large room at the top of the telecabine with toys and games to play. There is a small slope with a magic carpet just around the corner. Drop kids off, then they play for a bit, go and ski for a bit, then go back to play for a bit more to warm up with drinks and snacks. I felt very confident that my children were being well cared for. They can have lunch there as well.
An unexpected bonus was that both of my kids speak Flemish (we used to live overseas) and when an instructor heard them talking to each other she did their lessons in Dutch...so they got some language tuition as well!
All in all a great experience and one that the kids can't wait to repeat.
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My kids have had good experiences with Swiss Ski School in Torgon and Crans Montana (lovely instructors, gave the children brioche and cinamon tea, made great progress too), with Schnee Schule Gastein - twice (didn't want to leave, they were the only English group members, lovely instructors again) and Scuola Italiana Sci in Aprica (great fun, going back for more at Easter).
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