Is there anywhere that has Green/Beginner Slopes with Cable car access?

Dave Mac wrote:The fear of heights can be overcome in many, but not all cases. Familiarisation is a key factor. A prospective member of my family had this problem, so I worked with her to overcome her fear, and also with her skiing, she is now competent, and quite fearless. Had to do this before I could let her marry my son! :shock:

How Dave? I try to face my fear head on but my stomach churns and my legs go like jelly :shock:

caron-a wrote:
How Dave? I try to face my fear head on but my stomach churns and my legs go like jelly :shock:

I missed this Caron. The OP is looking at fear of heights. When we skied together, I did not detect any fear of height in the gondola from you. Are you really looking at fear of steepness?

In both cases, I revert to familiarisation. The fear of height is more difficult, because we rely on the lift system that is there. My prospective D-i-L was frightened on a chairlift. I spoke to a local ski instructor, and identified a chairlift that was more comfortable, ie, closer to the ground. Then moved back to the "fear" chairlift, whereupon, she displayed no fear. We moved on from there, and now we can take gondolas over the biggest drops, and it does not carry any fears.

Fear of steepness is exactly the same, ie a gradual exposure to the gremlin. You, of all people should recognise this Caron, since when you discovered I had brought you down gradually steeper routes, you engaged me in a bit of errm "vernacular". (YOU B*****D!")

It's effectiveness that counts!

Many of the smaller resorts in Switzeland usually have a pull lift at the bottom of the mountain which allows beginners to get up without their skis/board ever leaving the ground. I'm not so sure about down in the French side, but certainly within a couple of hours of Zurich airport I can think of a lot of areas like this.

As someone who is terrified of heights too, I can sympathise with your boyfriend. The first time I set on a chair lift I nearly crapped myself. The good news is that you get used to it. The first few times are very scary if you don't have a head for heights, but after a couple of runs he will relax into it.

My best advice from personal experience is to find a resort where he can learn using pull/drag lifts. Once he can do it and has a little bit of a desire to get better then the fear of Seat lifts can be tackled. I had it the other way around, I was put on a quite high seat lift on my first day, with no instructions how to use it, I didn;t know there was a bar to rest my board on, and I felt like I was getting pulled off the lift by my board the whole way up. The experience did nothing to make me want to learn how to snowboard. That was nearly 10 years ago and now I spend at least three days a week in the mountains winter and summer.

Unfortunately, my fear stems from a bungee jump 10 years ago. I was fine before that :roll:

Dave Mac wrote: When we skied together, I did not detect any fear of height in the gondola from you.

I can guarantee that you wouldn't have seen me looking down! I usually look up the mountain when I'm on a lift. I find that if I talk about it while I'm skiing then the fear heightens (no pun intended). I try to ignore it, it works most of the time

Dave Mac wrote:Are you really looking at fear of steepness?

This I definitely suffer from and it's hindering my skiing. I'm desperate to overcome it, I think Tennladen helped and I'm determined to get to grips with it in Obergurgl.

Dave Mac wrote:You, of all people should recognise this Caron, since when you discovered I had brought you down gradually steeper routes, you engaged me in a bit of errm "vernacular". (YOU B*****D!")

Happy days :lol: :mrgreen:

Caron, have you considered hypnotism?

Hypnotism is all about you regaining control and slowing your breathing down. All of which you can do yourself. I overcame my fear of flying by telling myself to stop being such a big girls blouse, dealing with slowing the breathing down, and accepting that nothing is likely to actually kill me.

Tony_H wrote:Hypnotism is all about you regaining control and slowing your breathing down. All of which you can do yourself. I overcame my fear of flying by telling myself to stop being such a big girls blouse, dealing with slowing the breathing down, and accepting that nothing is likely to actually kill me.

Bang on, I once paid a hypnotist to help me get over a problem I was having with fear of something in a particular sport. It wasn't so much the hypnotism itself that helped, but more the ability to calm down while scared. A few years later I went back to Uni and one of our sports Psychology courses dealt with Hypnosis to control anxiety when trying to do a sport. In essence all Hypnotism is is creating a cue to calm you down when you are feeling anxious. Reasoning with yourself and thinking successful thoughts can go a long way to achieving this.

Also as someone has already said, only push yourself out of your comfort zone in small steps. This will allow you to progress and get used to steeper/higher sections over a period of time without ever freaking yourself out.

tino_11 wrote:Caron, have you considered hypnotism?

I've tried hypnotism twice, failing miserably both times. Once to give up smoking and another time on stage at the Dominion theatre in front of thousands of people by Paul McKenna. It was very embarrassing having to tell him I wasn't hypnotised, I can tell you :oops:. I think I'm too hyper.

ir12daveor wrote:but more the ability to calm down while scared.

Absolutely. Last year I had to come down the Solaise Express chair lift into Val D'Isere and couldn't use my usual look-up-the-mountain technique. It's an extremely long, steep drop into the village and it didn't help that I was alone. I calmed myself down and looked to the clouds, I was petrified but got through it. Mind over matter.