Learning to Ski For the First Time in Chamonix

So what to do? A few friends (very experienced skiers) suggested I come out with them to get to grips with the basics, but since a) I didn't even know how to do up a pair of ski boots and b) I wasn't about to hurl myself down the mountain and make a fool of myself in front of these friends, I opted for the more sensible approach and booked myself in for a beginner lesson with the ESF ski school.

I had boots, I had ski poles, I even had a pair of skis that a friend gave me after he left to go back to the UK, but (not knowing the first thing about skis) I didn't realise that they were race skis and so not appropriate at all to learn on. When I took them into the ski shop to get them set up, I was met with quizzical looks from the ski man. "You've never skied before?" No... "OK well these ski are the same brand that the pro slalom skiers use in competition.." Oops. I've turned into one of those 'all the gear and no idea' people. How embarrassing.

After a quick chat with Alain (the friendly ski shop guy) he explained that beginner skis have less weight, more flexibility and are generally quite a bit shorter than the pair I had come in with. He produced a pair of skis much more suited to my 'never skied before' status and proceeded to set these up for my boots. The other skis went back into the car boot..

My lesson was booked for Sunday, at a very convenient meeting time of 12:15. I felt like I needed a lie in after a day of snowboarding in Courmayeur the day before, so the middle of the day suited me just fine. I'd never worn ski boots before so I opted to arrive in my winter boots, ski boots slung over one shoulder with my skis (at least I figured out how to carry them without looking like a complete idiot! See video below..)

(Thankfully there's a boot room where you can leave your boots or bags underneath the main ESF office, just ask for the key from one of the receptionists and you can leave stuff there for the duration of your lesson.)

I was feeling pretty nervous as we all started to gather at the meeting point. I knew we were headed for the Savoy beginners area near the centre of town, which was great as I had some trepidation about where we'd end up. Whilst we were waiting for the bus to arrive I got chatting to two girls, Karen & Rosemary, who were in the same beginners group and clearly not as nervous as me. Chatting helped alleviate some of the jitters.

Our group of around 10 people was made up of a mixture of ages and nationalities, mostly English speaking with a couple of French people and an Italian. The two instructors we had, Laurent (Lolo) & Nathalie, both speak 4 languages (all of the above plus Russian) so there was never any issue with communication!

The lesson started with a good warm up involving lots of arm swinging, neck and leg stretches and lots of laughter. Nathalie & Lolo both had great banter and set us all at ease from the off. I don't know how they do it, but within about an hour of starting they'd already remembered all of our names - I was most impressed since my memory is more akin to a goldfish.

I was really glad they showed us how to do up our boots properly. I know this might sound stupid to some people, but aside for trying the boots on for size & comfort I had no idea what to do with the strap at the side.. like I said all the gear and no idea! We quickly got onto one ski for a slide around, and before I knew it both of them were strapped to my feet. Yikes. Fear set in again, but as Natahlie & Lolo kept saying throughout the lesson "Remember to smile!" and that really did help settle my nerves.

We learnt how to turn around next and how to walk up hill on the skis, and then came our first descent. It was only a small slope (not even a hill) but for some reason I was terrified that I was going to pick up too much speed and not be able to stop, or crash, or both. Good job then that snowploughs were the next thing we learnt. Push off, plough, hike back up, repeat. There was such good camaraderie in the group, everyone was willing each other on and having fun while we did each new part of the lesson.

By the time we (sort of) mastered the snow ploughs we started to add turns in, first to the right, then to the left and before we knew it we were headed to the magic carpet and a slightly steeper gradient of slope. I can't tell you how much fun we were having by this point. Rosemary, Karen & I were like little kids up and down that hill, with beaming grins (yes, don't forget to smile!) but by this point we didn't need the instructors to remind us, we were having such a great time.

4 hours went by really quickly, and by the end of the lesson we were all linking parallel turns over and over again, jostling for a place at the bottom of the magic carpet to go back up again. I couldn't believe I was doing linked turns on the first lesson, for some reason I thought it would be much harder and that I would have fallen over a lot more.

A lot of the group (Karen & Rose included) were coming back for subsequent lessons over the next two days, but sadly for me I had to go back to work. Don't tell my snowboarding friends but I really enjoyed myself skiing, and I'll definitely be going back for more lessons - the next daunting step for me will be chairlifts and drag lifts, but I can only imagine it'll be much easier on skis than a snowboard!

A huge thanks to ESF, Lolo and Nathalie were amazing, and to Rosemary & Karen for making the experience a bit less terrifying! Good luck with the rest of your lessons ladies :-)

And thanks to Alain & Clément from Desailloud Skis for not only teaching me a few things but doing a quick service on my snowboard too.