Ski Holiday for a beginner, worth it or not?

[gman88667733]

A couple of months ago my partner and I agreed to go skiing in the Alps with some relatives. Now we are actually booking the flights and bits it has ended up about £400 more expensive then we expected. Works out at about £1k each for a week skiing. I have never been skiing before, and am unsure if it is worth it for me to spend £1k on it... My partner is very keen as she loves skiing, so I don't want to let her down by now saying I don't think it's worth going. I can comfortably afford it, but it is a lot of money for her, but she is happy to pay it (I am more bothered about how much I have in my bank account than she is). Do I just suck it up and go? It would be over new year's.

I was reasonably keen when we thought the price would be about £500 + food, but now it just seems a little bit excessive...

For context, we are both 21, living alone on a reasonably low income as she is a part time student.

Just want to see if anyone else has a difference perspective of this

[gman88667733]

The £1k price includes everything.
The apartment we stay in is a family owned one, so I don't know what it is like.
I doubt i'd ever hear the end of it if I said I don't want to go....

[gman88667733]

The place is Sainte Foy Tarentaise

A lot of the kit I can borrow from family members, so hopefully won't need to spend a fortune on gear. My partner is a qualified ski instructor, so she is going to take me for a few lessons beforehand.

I just don't want to be frustrated the whole time that I can't do it!

[gman88667733]

She is in fact a qualified ski instructor and semi-regularly teaches as the local dry slope.

I just hope that I can get to a standard that would mean I can at least do the easier routes, somewhat quickly.

[gman88667733]

Yes, it is a very much an on the side thing! No where near enough work to make it a full job for her.

I have been told learning on dry slopes is tricky as skiing on the snow is a lot easier, is this true?

[gman88667733]

Update on this.

I agreed to go and we are going on Dec 28th for a week. I have been having lessons at the local dry slope for the past 2 months and have been really enjoying it actually.

Price worked out at £750ish each for everything but food.
We plan on trying to be sensible with the food budget as it'll be sky high if we eat out all the time.

Thanks for all the encouragement to do it, I am really looking forward to going now. Our ski membership at the dry slope lasts a whole year, so we may even keep it up as a regular thing afterwards if it all goes well, so it is something nice for us to do.

Cheers all!

[gman88667733]

gregs656 said:

Perfect. Where are you going?

Those lessons will pay off.

Sainte-Foy Tarentaise. Fairly small place, but seems nice.

[gman88667733]

Fear not, helmet, goggles and everything else is all sorted!

[gman88667733]

designforlife said:

Excellent, you are going at a good time too, just after xmas is usually fairly quiet on the slopes compared to the week before... I did Flaine on that week a few years ago and it was dead!

I really hope so, I have enjoyed my dry slope lessons more than I had anticipated! Obviously I'm still not at a fantastic level, but I can comfortably turn and ski down the slope and be under control (mostly...) So hopefully a solid week on the snow will fine tune that a bit.

[gman88667733]

AstonZagato said:

A word of warning. I learnt the way you did - dry slope then off to the real snow.

Real snow is A LOT more slippery than bristles. A proper lot. I found that, for the first day or two, I couldn't readjust. I struggled relative to the other beginners. Then it clicked. All that dry slope stuff meant I then leapfrogged the others in my class.

Understood!
I have been warned by many others that it will be a lot more slippery. I do think it'll be a shock when I first go out on the snow. Starting off on the baby slopes for an hour or so to find my feet again.

I'll just take it easy and progress as far as I am comfortable with.

I just hope I don't spend the whole week slipping all over the place unintentionally!

[gman88667733]

The only problem I have, is when I go faster, my turns become more skids than neat turns, I try hard to focus on more pressure on my turning foot, but I don’t seem to do enough and it skids and my non turning foot drags, when going a tad slower it is fine. Hopefully some time on the snow will improve that!
That’s it for my dry slope lessons now until we leave a week on Saturday

[gman88667733]

//j17 said:

Sounds like you aren't fully committing your weight to the downhill ski - a phase 99% of people go through while learning to ski as while your thinking brain is saying "Follow the instructions, weight on the front, inside edge of the downhill ski" your neandertal brain's going "That makes no sense, we're going to die!!!" in the background. Just keep going and it will come, just needs practice, practice, practice. Speed makes skiing easier¹ but also increases the "I'm going to die!" response until you build confidence.

¹ Speed doesn't actually make skiing easier - it does help cover up the faults in my your skiing technique though...

There's been talk of snow being slippier/lower friction than dry slopes. It's also generally a hell of a lot softer to fall on and in many ways more forgiving and fun too!

Hopefully it is easier to turn too!

[gman88667733]

Mothersruin said:

Don't fret. Have your lessons when you get there and all will be fine.

The plan is not to have lessons when we get there. I've had 10 or so lessons on the dry slope. My partner will give me some tips when we get on the snow if I need it!

[gman88667733]

Hi all, mid trip report!
It started off on a bit of a bad note as my car had big issues on the way to meet our relatives the day before we flew out, needing about £600 of work and meant we had to get a train instead of driving.
However, looking past that...
First day of skiing was good, getting a better feel for parallel turns, lovely views, very warm though! It was roasting in the sun, I think it’ll be much the same all week.
Second day started off worse, it took me a good 30 minutes or so to get the hang of it again, which made me a bit frustrated, but it got better.
Towards the end of the day it got a bit trickier due to the sun making everything a lot softer.
So far so good though

[gman88667733]

Had a cracking few runs today. Didn’t spend too long out as we are all a bit tired and want to spend the next few days out all day, so decided to take it easy today. It seems to feel easier as the days go on.
Can’t get over how warm it is in the sun though, I take my jacket off at any opportunity!

[gman88667733]

Back home now.
Final update on this - we had a great time overall! I really did enjoy skiing, I improved a lot during the second half of the week and ended up doing most of the red runs and even one of the black runs!
Plan now is to do the same next year, assuming the budget it still there!
I liked it more than I could have imagined. If the food had been cheaper, it’d have been ideal!

Cheers for all the advice and tips

[gman88667733]

Just to add to this, we had such a good time that (hopefully...) we will be going again, same time this year! Obviously depends on the current situation, but we may look to make it an annual thing it seems!