Where to go end-March

Just throw in my thoughts here.

Firstly, there's more to the Zilly Valley than Mayrhofen - look at a piste map and 'google' one of the villages that doesn't appear in an English ski brochure - its quite easy to find a nice hotel that will probably have no other Brits in it at all! We stayed in a great little hotel in Hochkrimml at about 1500m, almost ski in / ski out and linked to the Zillertal Arena. On the downside there is not much skiing above 2500m, but this year that shouldn't be a problem given the depth of snow.

Austria compared to France? No comparison! Better accomodation, BETTER FOOD (!), less crowds, miles better mountain restaurants, overall ambience, on-piste and lift manners etc. etc.

All just my opinion of course!

johnski96 wrote:

Austria compared to France? No comparison! Better accomodation, BETTER FOOD (!), less crowds, miles better mountain restaurants, overall ambience, on-piste and lift manners etc. etc.

All just my opinion of course!

Youre absolutely right.

If I could add my 10p worth.....

In 36 years of ski holidays, the worst ski school experience was St Anton, closely followed by Kitzbuhel.

Best ski class experience: Heavenly.

Worst private lesson experience: Val D'Isere

Best private lesson experience: Fernie (but the bloke in Arosa the other week was not bad!)

My only conclusion is that you can't make any generalisations along nationalistic lines; bad instructors are bad and good 'uns are good no matter where they comes from!

I think Johnski was talking generally in terms of comparison, and not about instruction.

Yes, Tony, he was.....but earlier in the thread, aharwood made the bold assertion along the lines of Austrian instructors are better than French teachers. I was commenting on that, really. Perhaps I should have done one of those quote things!

I'm afraid you are not correct here. There is an international agreement between European Countries regarding intstructors instructing in another country, however, our system based around BASI is nowhere near as advanced in terms of levels and requirements as some European countries. The Austria system is different and unique to Austria as is the French etc etc. Having skied more in France than Austria, my experience of the French instructors is not based on one or two trips. I have had in excess of 20 large groups in France and with the exception of one or two instructors my experience was fairly uniform. My assessment of the Aurstrians is based on many conversations with one of the Chief trainers for the top level instructors in Upper Austria. Admittedly I have not had similar converstations with the French. However, 10 years of experence in Austria and I have not had one poor instructor for any of my groups.

aharwood wrote: however, our system based around BASI is nowhere near as advanced in terms of levels and requirements as some European countries.

I know several BASI ISTD's who would take exception to that bit of your post. Some of them have worked as ski teachers for foreign ski schools for many years. Some have experienced the gross protectionist behaviour exhibited by the French Syndicat ESF and now have criminal records after being arrested in France simply for teaching skiing, as is their right under EU legislation.

Regarding ski lessons, of all the people I have spoken to or know who have had lessons across different countries in Europe, the only ones who encountered problems were those who learned in France. The problems were of instructors who were not particularly interested and adopted a "follow" me approach.
I often wondered how, when an instructor is skiing in front of a group and looking in front of him/her, they areable to assess or correct any of the group skiing behind them.
I have to say when I learnedin France, my instructor (ESF) always skied down to a certain point and watched us come towards him, or stopped as we skied down to a certain point from the top.