Where to go end-March

Tony,
I'm sure I wrote quite a bit in another thread about a very bad Bulgarian ski instructor my daughter had during her first ski holiday.

We have had good and bad French instructors, and I think myself it just depends on the person, never mind whether they are French, Austrian, Bulgarian or whatever.

The instructor for my daughter's teenage class in Val Torens last month managed to ski backwards down a black run so that he could watch his class following behind him (and I would say the teenagers were probably going pretty fast), which I reckon is an amazing feat. She thought he was an excellent instructor.

Another factor to consider is that some instructors suit one person better than another (as in teaching generally). I totally agree that we all have different ways of learning, and some of us like more theory and some of us like to follow and copy the instructor. I do best with imagery - like 'imagine you're holding a steering wheel' or 'pedalling a bicycle' or whatever.

P.S. How did this subject get into where to go - end March? Am I wandering off topic again?

Ally

I know we are talking generalities here which is always dangerous. I think we all know that in all walks of life there are people who are good at their jobs and some who are not and this must also apply to ski instructors, whether they are French or Austrian. However, my generalisation was based in several years in both France and Austria. I have had some fairly decent French instructors but not as a rule. As far as BASI is concerned I know quite a few very good BASI instructors and one or two exceptionsl ones. However, we have a different system and it cannot be as advanced as those countries in Europe which actually have large industries based around skiing unlike Britain where we have 5ish small areas which are limited by the amount of time they have decent snow on which to ski, teach, instruct or whatever. So no offence meant to any good French, British or Moldovian ski instructors who enjoy their job and do it well.

It is now officially the end of March, you should now have gone

thought that was on tuesday night at 00:00.01 hours?

god help us there will probably be a new thread

april fools day i am staying in bed

Amanda,
That's a very good point. I don't think I'll risk reading anything written on April Fool's day, in case it's a joke, and I go taking it seriously and telling everyone that, for example, all flights to Geneva will be half-price if booked by the end of today (1st April).

Ally

Take things seriously.................could never be accused of that!

johnski96 wrote: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!

Hi Johnski, we are still considering going back to Austria for Easter. Can you tell me which hotel you stayed in and location to the lifts etc? What did you mean by not much skiing ab ove 2500m?? thanks

aharwood wrote:As far as BASI is concerned I know quite a few very good BASI instructors and one or two exceptionsl ones. However, we have a different system and it cannot be as advanced as those countries in Europe which actually have large industries based around skiing unlike Britain where we have 5ish small areas which are limited by the amount of time they have decent snow on which to ski, teach, instruct or whatever.

We have the same system, just like other ISIA member countries, so instructors have to meet the same standard. It's a bit like doing degrees at different universities, you're still a doctor whether you qualify in London or Edinburgh. Traditionally, some UK organisations have set their bar higher than continental ones to avoid that sort of ill informed criticism and you can be quite certain if you held what was supposed to be an internationally recognised qualification where you'd not met the standard your host country would complain pretty quick.

It's irrelevant as to how many ski areas we have, most of the French population live as far from skiing as the UK population do and it's just the same in Italy. Only in Switzerland and Austria do the entire population live within short distances of ski slopes.