End to ski hosting in France

AllyG wrote:I have cancelled my holiday Ian. I am going to stay home for the week instead and write letters to all the politicians and newspapers about it :wink:

I am really VERY annoyed about it. I mean, I have had loads of group lessons with the ESF. I am NOT one of those skiers who uses the group hosting as a cheap way of getting a lesson. I LIKE the ESF and their group lessons. BUT I also like the ski hosting. They are totally different things. I would also be very annoyed if they said no-one was allowed to have any more ski lessons with the ESF.

What I am angry about is having an option taken away from me for a reason which does not make any sense to me (my safety) :evil:

Take a deep breath, it is not really gonna spoil your holiday is it, if you really don't like the way the french have acted in this matter then you have Italy, Switzerland or if your really desperate Austria :wink:

I have to say that VSB makes some good points. I've been offered hosting and always declined it. Mainly because half of the fun for me is exploring and finding our own way round rather than being shown around, and probably taken to places where the host gets some kind of benefit in taking you anyway, you know how it all works.....

And anyway, hosting only takes you on fairly tame stuff, reds at best, and they won't take you off piste. So crystal say anyway.

Whilst in adh last January, the rep kept coming round to our table every day begging us to join the hosting group because there were only 2 couples who had taken it up, and she told us they were such miserable stuffed shirts that she could do with some life injecting into it. I thought about it and then politely declined for 2 reasons; firstly the couples doing it already were exactly that and I didn't want my holiday ruined by a few stuck up moaning miseries, and secondly because they were only going to ski places we had already skied. We bumped into them up the mountain one day, and one of the women was skiing with the most miserable faces you've ever seen so I'm glad I didn't decode to join her group. Therein lies a problem with social skiing that you may get lumbered with someone you just can't get on with.....hey, someone could even end up skiing with me for heavens sake !!!!

I think for someone like Snapzz who skies alone a lot of the time it offered a good service and some company though, as I'd rather not ski alone to be honest.

However VSB makes the valid point of what ability you can ski to. As has been said, some people join hosting for what they think will be free lessons, and are often out of their depth when they get going which must cause a problem or two.

Maybe people join a hosting group so they can ski with better skiers and learn from them? I don't know but I can see how that might work. But if you need to improve your own skiing, practising as much as possible is the way to do it and asking for advice from better skiers, so a hosting group then must become a kind of free lesson to those people no?

Tony_H wrote:

Maybe people join a hosting group so they can ski with better skiers and learn from them? I don't know but I can see how that might work. But if you need to improve your own skiing, practising as much as possible is the way to do it and asking for advice from better skiers, so a hosting group then must become a kind of free lesson to those people no?

I have done the skiing with better skiers 'mullarkey' and it did not make me a better skier. It made me a faster skier and it made me think I was a better skier. Anyone joining a hosting group purely in the hope of improving their technique is wasting their time. Asking for advice from better skiers is all well and good but the way to really make rapid progress is lessons, lessons and more lessons....

Gaz C wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

Maybe people join a hosting group so they can ski with better skiers and learn from them? I don't know but I can see how that might work. But if you need to improve your own skiing, practising as much as possible is the way to do it and asking for advice from better skiers, so a hosting group then must become a kind of free lesson to those people no?

I have done the skiing with better skiers 'mullarkey' and it did not make me a better skier. It made me a faster skier and it made me think I was a better skier. Anyone joining a hosting group purely in the hope of improving their technique is wasting their time. Asking for advice from better skiers is all well and good but the way to really make rapid progress is lessons, lessons and more lessons....

Couldn't agree more; hosting and lessons are entirely different - and I think you're spot on with your assessment of skiing with better skiers. That tends to make you ski a bit faster and in places where you might not otherwise have ventured. I've been skiing for 40 years plus now, but I still have a lesson or two on each trip if I can - still learning, still improving, I hope. :D

Blatant 'steal' from Snowheads forum.

http://www.alpineaction.co.uk/blog/2013/02/21/5-more-things-the-french-want-to-ban/

Made me smile. :)

Gaz C wrote:Blatant 'steal' from Snowheads forum.

http://www.alpineaction.co.uk/blog/2013/02/21/5-more-things-the-french-want-to-ban/

Made me smile. :)

Yep, like it :D

what's to stop the chalet companies having a "social organiser" who happens to ski most days and invites the rest of the chalet to ski with him for company...

I have been in both types of holidays and have found that I like to ski with 1 or 2 people of similar ability and who like to stop and enjoy the scenery ..not ski from place to lace at warp speed..but it is nice to have the availability...

I have found that skiing with a host tends to stop you thinking about where you are at ..you tend to blindly follow your leader and not consult the map or even plan a route ..so the question " where did you get to today" can't be answered..and you tend not to plan anything before you set off

daved wrote:
I have found that skiing with a host tends to stop you thinking about where you are at ..you tend to blindly follow your leader and not consult the map or even plan a route ..so the question " where did you get to today" can't be answered..and you tend not to plan anything before you set off

But that is what I tend and like to do, keep a piste map in my pocket and off we jolly well go, I do not like to over plan where we go, i like the mystery :thumbup: