J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Tropicana,
It sounds a great idea, and very cheap too. I'd really like another ski holiday but I'm not sure if I will have any holidaymakers to look after by then here at home. I'll think about it and then maybe send you a pm?

Ally

Hi Catriona,
I've never been to Cervinia, so I was waiting for someone else to come up with some useful information to help you. But everyone else seems to be busy/lost this thread or whatever.

However, I have booked ski school several times in other resorts, and I have a pretty good idea of what to look for.

1. It's a lot easier if you can all book into the same ski school with the same start and finish times, so have a look at the lesson times.

2. Following on from this - we usually try and book early morning lessons so that we can ski as a family together the rest of the time. Plus, it does make us all get up early every morning :D

3. Have a look to see where the meeting place for each school is in relation to your accommodation - I don't know about you but I hate walking anywhere in ski boots carrying my skis!

4. Check what each school offers in the way of lessons. Pro-neige in Val Thorens in France did brilliant teenage lessons and my daughter says they were the best and most exciting ski lessons she ever had. Some schools say all kids over 13 have to go into adult classes and your son may not like ski-ing with adults, so check how they divide the age groups. Or of course, you may prefer it if you can all ski in the same class as a family.

5. The length of the lessons - personally I can't stick more than about 2 1/2 hours of lessons because after this time I'm totally knackered!

6. How many lessons there are during the week. Schools can do e.g. 4, 5, or 6 days of lessons, with a day or so off during the week. We've just been in a class where they have 5 lessons during the week and you can take either the first day or the last day of the holiday off to ski on your own. I decided it would be best to practise on our own the first day, since I hadn't skied for a year, and then begin lessons on the second day.

7. The price. We generally ski with ESF in France as we've found them to be the cheapest ski school and the standard of lessons to be acceptable.

8. Reputation etc. This one is very difficult, as people will have varying opinions of the ski school, and in my experience it just depends on the individual instructor you get, rather than the ski school. Some instructors are excellent, with near perfect English, and others are less good. We've tried English, Bulgarian, Austrian and French instructors and I don't find the English speaking ones to be any easier to understand when they're spouting ski techno-babble than the other nationalities.

9. Class size. Some ski schools will guarantee to ski with at least 4 in the group and not more than 8, whereas others will require at least 5 and may have a maximum group size of 12 people.

Finally - if you're not happy with the group/instructor etc. you end up with then you can complain about it in the office and hopefully get shifted to another group/instructor/cash in the group lessons for private ones or whatever.

Best of luck with finding a good ski school and I hope you have a great holiday :D

Ally

Well I know why I fall over so much - it's because I'm not very good at ski-ing! :D :D

But, having said that, our ESF instructor fell over last week for no apparent reason, and he's obviously an excellent skier :lol:

It was really funny. We had 2 instructors temporarily whilst they sorted out who was going in groups 2 or 3 according to our ability. And the 2 instructors were talking to each, facing each other with one of them standing with his back to the (gentle) slope, and when he'd finished talking he went to swivel himself back the right way round and fell down smash losing both his skis in the process. He got up and put his skis back on pretty fast though, and seemed to be okay, so I said 'group 2' trying to be witty and the other instructor went a step further and said 'no group 1' (which was lower intermediate) :lol:

Anyway, I've noticed that instructors never seem bothered at all by their pupils falling over, as long as they're okay, and they manage to keep up with the rest of the group. And our instructor didn't seem particularly bothered about the fact that he'd just made a total prat of himself.

When I'm not in a lesson I ski much more slowly and carefully and remember how old and vulnerable I am and generally I don't fall over, but when I'm in a lesson I'm more afraid of being left behind and getting lost on top of a mountain somewhere in a whiteout than I am of falling over so I push myself to keep up which means that sometimes I do indeed fall over.

Ally

Thanks Iceman - that makes me feel a lot better. I'm glad I'm not the only one around here who falls over :D

I think if we all went on a J2Ski holiday together, and did a competition for the most spectacular fall during the week, I'd have a very good chance of winning it - judging by some of my falls in the past - and Bandit you're very welcome to come and judge me and my falls :lol:

Last week, for example:

1. Smash right in front of the instructor and the whole class when I was doing my individual attempt at short turns.

2. Smash on a totally flat bit of a blue run but with a small bump in it, followed by getting up and then falling down smash again for no apparent reason (luckily the instructor and the rest of the class were well out of sight on that occasion).

3. Three falls in the powder on an unpisted untracked black slope whilst a 5 year old was happily ski-ing past me (those ones made my daughter laugh so much she nearly lost control and fell over herself, and then she totally ruined my ski-ing reputation by telling everyone about it on Facebook).

4. Fell over outside a mountain cafe because I got one ski on and then decided it was too steep and crowded to get the other one on and very stupidly decided to hop to a flatter place - result - whooeee !!! CRASH.

Ally

I totally agree with you Snapzzz, that's not at all nice Tony, and I reckon you should have to sit on the naughty step for at least a month !!!

Whilst I would have loved to have gone on the planned J2Ski trip and meet people on here, I said I couldn't go because I didn't have the time.

But if you plan another trip, this time I might just manage to go, and treat everyone to the spectacular site of me falling over on a ski slope :twisted:

:D :D :D

Ally

Hi Rose, Dids, Kate etc. it's very nice to know you're still around, but I'm sorry to hear that Dids and Rose haven't been able to ski lately - I hope things improve in the future :D

Ally

Have a great time everyone that's due to go out soon, and whilst your climbing walls etc. with excitement be careful not to injure yourself. Every year there seems to be a very sad thread from some poor person who's injured themselves before their holiday and can't ski.

I walked into a trolley in the dark in Lidl's car park myself recently, 10 days before I was due to go ski-ing and really whacked my knee but luckily it was okay by the time I went :D

Ally

Thanks SwingBeep for the picture and the details on the length of ribbon required :D

To tell you the truth I was thinking about the dangers of me accidentally wrecking a gondola with my powder ribbon tied to my ski (I know there have been lots of serious accidents caused by anorak tie strings in agricultural PTO shafts) and I've decided to take them off the skis and put them in my pocket before putting the skis in a gondola. I was thinking about using a dog clip or something to make it easier to get them on and off.

Ally