Should I take a lesson?

Now I'm pretty sure what the response will be here but lets see...

I am going to LDA on Saturday with my girlfriend. I've been skiing once before for a week with school 6 years ago and spent every day having group tuition. I found skiing quite easy and was top of the group by far along with one other person. My ski instructor said I should go up to the intermediate group after 2 days but unfortunately my school teacher wouldn't allow me to. By the end of the week I was carving down red runs without a problem. All pretty much standard really.

My girlfriend has been skiing for three weeks in total and is a competent imtermediate skier. Although I feel quite confident that I will pick it up I was wondering whether to take a refresher lesson. My girlfriend doesn't think its necessary and would rather not bother. So my question is; Should I force the issue and take a lesson (presuming the local ski school runs these kind of lessons)?

It really depends on the individual.

First of all I'll say there is no substitute for lessons, they will teach you the correct form for skiing. They will also show you how to behave safely on the mountain.

I would say that a week of skiing is not lead me to believe that you are a compitent skiing, I am not saying it is impossible just unlikely and 3 weeks for your girlfriend again unlikely.

I also think that maybe your understanding of what carving is is probably a bit blurred, I am not saying this to have a dig at you just to put things into perspective. I would expect that after a week of skiing that at best you would be doing parrallel turns and maybe that is what you understand as carving....it is not.

I feel that once you can turn and stop compitently you can get down anything it is just fear that will stop you. Also if you are not used to skiing these more advanced runs you can become extreemely tired very quickly and find yoursel stuck halfway down a demanding run that you are really struggling to get down. This is where injuries can occur to you and to others. SO whilst I say that if you can turn and stop you can get down anything that doesn't mean that you should attempt to.

My advice to you is that if you are short of cash,, but you feel confident enough to improve your technique by yourself I would say do the following.
1) keep to the the less challenging runs
2) whatch how other people ski and try to mimick what they do
3) Don't do too much too quickly being too ambitious could cause you and others injury.

As I say though there is no substitute for lessons and I would reccomend that if you can afford to you should take some. Your instructor will place you in the correct group asses you and help to improve. We always believe that we are better skiers that we are and getting into a bad situation on the mountain will be no joke. I have seen many people leave the slopes in a helicopter and you really don't want to spend your holiday in a foreign hospital do you?

Hope this helps

Cheers

Max

I would also say that you don't have to join a group lesson. It may beneficial to have private lessons for you and you girlfriend. you will both get a great deal more out of it and it may not be that much more expensive.

cheers

Max

Thanks Max, thats really good advice. I agree with you, I've waited for so long to go skiing again and don't want it ruined by causing myself an injury. I am quite a confident person so over confidence might just mean I get myself in trouble.

I've shown my girlfreind this reponse and she has agreed we should look into lessons.

Is it usually possible to turn up at the ski school on the first morning and book myself on to a lesson, or do you usually need to pre-arrange?

It is generally possible to turn up and book your lessons but typically you are arriving on a transfer day so you will have loads of other people starting at the same time as you which means queues for boking lessons, queues for hiring gear and queues for lift passes.

What I always try to do (I have young kids who take lessons) is if I manage to arrive in time I drop my suitcases off and rush in to town and book my kids lessons, get their kit and passes sorted out. This will take much less time this way as there should be no queues.

However this is not always possible (however preferable), in which case it means an early start typically the lessons (unless private) will start at 9:00-9:30 so you will need to be getting down for about 8ish to hire stuff book lessons etc. sometimes they are not a ridgid on the first day about the start time, but you don't typically know that until you get down there.

I am a bit of a ski Nazi I want to ski every minute of every day that I am out there this is why I try and get things sorted before hand or a quickly as possible lol. Other people maybe a bit more laid back I don't know how you are but if you only have a week then evey minute counts I think (i generally go for 2 weeks and every minute still counts lol).

Anyway I hope this helps

cheers

Max

Definately agree with Max.

Lessons are vital especially as you have only skied once 6 years ago, and chances are you will be rather rusty now!

More learning towards safety of you and others to be honest, you will more then likely suddenly find yourself in a situation where you need to react extremely quickly, which only experience will teach you. A big crash or an injury would dent your confidence loads, and potentially injure someone else - worst case scenario!!

Also lessons are pretty much the only way of developing the correct technique, and developing a technique that will progress with the weeks you ski in the future.

Echo all the above advice, but I'll put in a vote for private lessons rather than group - your instructor can then tailor your lesson exactly for you (and your partner). You'll progress much faster, be safer and have a lot more fun as a result.

If you don't take lessons, you will improve to a certain standard and enjoy it - but you will reach a plateau before long. Taking a lesson, ideally one in a small group from a high standard instructor, will teach how to ski properly. In time, this will allow you to tackle more technical terrain, deep snow and all the stuff that is really fun. You will not regret it.

I would recommend joining a ski school.
I went sking last year having only skied once before, 15 years ago. Decided to have a lesson at the snowdome before going on holiday and within 30 mins i was parrallel sking with out any problems. I had already booked a learn to ski package but on arrival i was put into an intermediate ski school group. The first few days were a gentle reintroduction with the rest of the week mainly on red runs.
Had a brilliant time, many laughs and learnt more than i would ever have done by myself as the rest of the family were begineers. Also the whole group hit the apres ski bars for a couple of drinks at the end of most days. If you find yourself better or not as good as your fellow group, then the instructor will move you up or down a group. Also if your girlfriend joins ski school they will let you stay together ,in the same group as the least able skier.
Joined ski school again this January in Soll, Austria and will do the same next year.

Hope you have a great time what ever you decided to do.

Hiya SamIrvs - sorry to be a bit blunt here but I'm going to have to say what most people are probably thinking. I'm afraid I'll be amazed if you were "carving" down red runs after one week skiing (unless you are a natural ski genius and if so I apologise) . I have been skiing for the last 4 years now Obergurgl/Flaine/La Plagne etc and also regularly use my local dry slope as well as the Tamowrth Snow Dome on occasions. I reckon that whilst I'm now a "parallel skier" I am only just about starting to get my edges to grip/transfer my weight properly and allow a proper carved turn and that is on an even gradient. (Big difference betwen a parallel turn and a true carved turn but I'll let the experts explain that one for you) Even on a red run I can still spot myself (from video taken by my wife this year) using a slight wedge to initiate the turn on steeper terrain and my outside leg still skids out at the end of the turn on a steep so I just can't see how you were carving reds after one week skiing.
Blunt but honest answer to the question - you DEFINATELY need lessons after only one week's experience and a 6 year lay off. Sorry if this is a bit blunt mate but I'm sure most in the know on here will agree with me here.
After having a year off lessons this year in La Plagne I will be going back into them again next year because you simply never stop learning. As soon as you think you have something cracked there is something else to learn. This year I thought I was carving well on some nice steady gradients but one day skiing down to the vanoise express through the trees above Montchavin (beautiful by the way) I hit some really icy snow and my technique went out the window. My point is even when you are just about getting a technique right and you are happy, you can hit some different snow conditions which change the game again so not only do you have to learn the various techniques such as carving and dealing with steeps but you have to learn to apply them in different conditions.
There is a balance here though becasue I did get fed up of lessons one year in Flaine and pulled out and just spent the time on my own skiing the blues all week and enjoying myself. I think it is fine to do this when you are competant enough and sensibly stay within your limits but to move to the next level you simply must take lessons. My friends used to tell me about the intermediate plateau and I believe I have hit that now and felt frustrated in La Plagne this year because I took on some moguls on a red run down under the inversens chair. The better skiers will know what I mean here but I felt as if I just "got down" the slope rather than skied the slope if that makes sense. That said to me that I need more lessons.
Never stop learning I say!

Yeah I think Max already covered that, in his first reply, you're both right I wasn't carving, I was parellel turning. I got my terminology a bit mixed up!

To be honest I knew that the answer would be a resounding 'yes' as to whether I should take lessons, and I agree. I just needed a second opinion to put to my other half as she is the more experienced skier and believed that lessons were unneccessary. Thankfully I have convinced her that lessons are a good idea thanks to this thread, and we are signing up for one lesson at least, and budget dictating, maybe even a course of lessons.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

just a quickie - my Oh and I both had 3 hrs of private lessons this yr and boy were they worth their weight in gold - our instructor tailored our training/instruction particularly to each of us each indibidual has different learning strategies and strengths/weaknesses etc by having a lesson just the two if us with one instructor we really came on - I even learned the basics of carving - look for your tracks in the snow they will t ell you how you ski and what youve been doing /where your weight is etc...... Anyway - look up on the net where you are going and then find ski schools and then look at the different schools/costs etc... We were lucky in Les Gets and booked a lesson with Joe of alpine learning curves and he was really good - what he said made a lot of sense . Anyway enjoy the hols and dont get injured !