End to ski hosting in France

You've fallen into that trap again of comparing hosting with lessons

Tony - I was comparing the relative dangers of ski-ing in your own group of friends, with a ski host, or in an ESF lesson.

I would say I'm most likely to injure myself in an ESF lesson, followed by ski-ing in a group of friends, and least likely to injure myself in a group with a ski host.

However, I would say my ski-ing is most likely to improve the greatest when/after I'm in an ESF lesson!

The dangers are exactly the same. It's a risk wherever you are whoever you are with. You cannot seriously suggest there's a lesser chance of hurting yourself in a lesson compared to with a host of up the mountain on your own??

Tony - I think there is a much greater chance of injuring myself when I'm ski-ing in a lesson, because, as I said before, ski instructors tend to push you into trying new things.

When I'm ski-ing on my own I ski very carefully and much more slowly than I do in a lesson, and I don't go off-piste. All my ski injuries have happened in lessons. I broke my shoulder in a lesson on the dry slope, I broke my toe in a mogul lesson in Courchevel, and a few weeks ago I hurt my arm in our off-piste initiation lesson.

Well that's just you.
The risk of injury is surely the same around the mountain. In fact I'd guess that there's some statistic that shows that there are fewer injuries in lessons than in unsupervised skiers. But the risk of that accident or injury remains unchanged no matter who you're with as someone can crash in to you anywhere.

smartski wrote:Here's an idea. Ex-Hosts should where bright yellow jackets with "I WORK FOR xyz DO NOT FOLLOW ME" written clearly on the back.


I think the TO would be making very "reasonable" efforts not to be hosting, but what can you do when a group of people simply keep following you?

It's a nice idea Smartski, but I don't suppose it would really work in practice :(

I do feel very sorry for all the ski hosts. I suppose they will have been sacked now, or put on part time work :(

tin pot wrote: So ski hosting was always illegal. what is ski hosting then, exactly?

Ski host is a meaningless term that the TOs dreamt up to replace ski guide, which they had previously used to describe the people who they employ to show people round a ski resort.

AllyG, the training for the Swiss equivalent of a medical receptionist lasts 3 years.

It's quite expensive to get even a level 1 qualification (about £4000 plus expenses) and some training providers offer a job guarantee http://www.ski-instructor-academy.com/programmes/item/ski-instructor-anwarter-course/ so why would anybody with even the most basic qualification want to work as a ski host for a TO, the job pays next to nothing. Le Ski were also fined 7500 Euros for paying their ski hosts less than the minimum wage, strangely this wasn't as widely reported as the fine for illegal accompaniment.

If you're not prepared to try anything new how are you going to progress?

AllyG wrote:When I'm ski-ing on my own I ski very carefully and much more slowly than I do in a lesson, and I don't go off-piste. All my ski injuries have happened in lessons. I broke my shoulder in a lesson on the dry slope, I broke my toe in a mogul lesson in Courchevel, and a few weeks ago I hurt my arm in our off-piste initiation lesson.

Perhaps if you did your boots up properly and sorted out your fore / aft balance you wouldn't fall over as much. How an earth did you manage to break your toe?

SwingBeep wrote:

It's quite expensive to get even a level 1 qualification (about £4000 plus expenses) and some training providers offer a job guarantee http://www.ski-instructor-academy.com/programmes/item/ski-instructor-anwarter-course/ so why would anybody with even the most basic qualification want to work as a ski host for a TO, the job pays next to nothing.

Thanks SwingBeep - I must have got confused somewhere :oops:

I thought the BASI level 1 training course was what they're offering on here, for only £520:

http://www.basi.org.uk/content/alpine-level-1-course.aspx