Should I take a lesson?

Now I'm pretty sure what the response will be here but lets see...

I am going to LDA on Saturday with my girlfriend. I've been skiing once before for a week with school 6 years ago and spent every day having group tuition. I found skiing quite easy and was top of the group by far along with one other person. My ski instructor said I should go up to the intermediate group after 2 days but unfortunately my school teacher wouldn't allow me to. By the end of the week I was carving down red runs without a problem. All pretty much standard really.

My girlfriend has been skiing for three weeks in total and is a competent imtermediate skier. Although I feel quite confident that I will pick it up I was wondering whether to take a refresher lesson. My girlfriend doesn't think its necessary and would rather not bother. So my question is; Should I force the issue and take a lesson (presuming the local ski school runs these kind of lessons)?

It really depends on the individual.

First of all I'll say there is no substitute for lessons, they will teach you the correct form for skiing. They will also show you how to behave safely on the mountain.

I would say that a week of skiing is not lead me to believe that you are a compitent skiing, I am not saying it is impossible just unlikely and 3 weeks for your girlfriend again unlikely.

I also think that maybe your understanding of what carving is is probably a bit blurred, I am not saying this to have a dig at you just to put things into perspective. I would expect that after a week of skiing that at best you would be doing parrallel turns and maybe that is what you understand as carving....it is not.

I feel that once you can turn and stop compitently you can get down anything it is just fear that will stop you. Also if you are not used to skiing these more advanced runs you can become extreemely tired very quickly and find yoursel stuck halfway down a demanding run that you are really struggling to get down. This is where injuries can occur to you and to others. SO whilst I say that if you can turn and stop you can get down anything that doesn't mean that you should attempt to.

My advice to you is that if you are short of cash,, but you feel confident enough to improve your technique by yourself I would say do the following.
1) keep to the the less challenging runs
2) whatch how other people ski and try to mimick what they do
3) Don't do too much too quickly being too ambitious could cause you and others injury.

As I say though there is no substitute for lessons and I would reccomend that if you can afford to you should take some. Your instructor will place you in the correct group asses you and help to improve. We always believe that we are better skiers that we are and getting into a bad situation on the mountain will be no joke. I have seen many people leave the slopes in a helicopter and you really don't want to spend your holiday in a foreign hospital do you?

Hope this helps

Cheers

Max

I would also say that you don't have to join a group lesson. It may beneficial to have private lessons for you and you girlfriend. you will both get a great deal more out of it and it may not be that much more expensive.

cheers

Max

Thanks Max, thats really good advice. I agree with you, I've waited for so long to go skiing again and don't want it ruined by causing myself an injury. I am quite a confident person so over confidence might just mean I get myself in trouble.

I've shown my girlfreind this reponse and she has agreed we should look into lessons.

Is it usually possible to turn up at the ski school on the first morning and book myself on to a lesson, or do you usually need to pre-arrange?

It is generally possible to turn up and book your lessons but typically you are arriving on a transfer day so you will have loads of other people starting at the same time as you which means queues for boking lessons, queues for hiring gear and queues for lift passes.

What I always try to do (I have young kids who take lessons) is if I manage to arrive in time I drop my suitcases off and rush in to town and book my kids lessons, get their kit and passes sorted out. This will take much less time this way as there should be no queues.

However this is not always possible (however preferable), in which case it means an early start typically the lessons (unless private) will start at 9:00-9:30 so you will need to be getting down for about 8ish to hire stuff book lessons etc. sometimes they are not a ridgid on the first day about the start time, but you don't typically know that until you get down there.

I am a bit of a ski Nazi I want to ski every minute of every day that I am out there this is why I try and get things sorted before hand or a quickly as possible lol. Other people maybe a bit more laid back I don't know how you are but if you only have a week then evey minute counts I think (i generally go for 2 weeks and every minute still counts lol).

Anyway I hope this helps

cheers

Max

Definately agree with Max.

Lessons are vital especially as you have only skied once 6 years ago, and chances are you will be rather rusty now!

More learning towards safety of you and others to be honest, you will more then likely suddenly find yourself in a situation where you need to react extremely quickly, which only experience will teach you. A big crash or an injury would dent your confidence loads, and potentially injure someone else - worst case scenario!!

Also lessons are pretty much the only way of developing the correct technique, and developing a technique that will progress with the weeks you ski in the future.

Echo all the above advice, but I'll put in a vote for private lessons rather than group - your instructor can then tailor your lesson exactly for you (and your partner). You'll progress much faster, be safer and have a lot more fun as a result.

If you don't take lessons, you will improve to a certain standard and enjoy it - but you will reach a plateau before long. Taking a lesson, ideally one in a small group from a high standard instructor, will teach how to ski properly. In time, this will allow you to tackle more technical terrain, deep snow and all the stuff that is really fun. You will not regret it.