
CHALET ALPINA'S SKI GUIDING SERVICE
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
WHEN CHOOSING A SKI INSTRUCTOR
OR MOUNTAIN GUIDE
You've
booked your holiday to come skiing in La Thuile this winter so now is
the time to book yourself a Guru to take you skiing. Getting a good
mountain guide or ski instructor to ski with can make the difference
between a fantastic mind blowing ski holiday or just the usual once a
year “see how much suffering my body can take”
experience.
It’s a really important part of a ski holiday that skiers
really don’t take seriously. Most skiers tend to think that
their holiday is to short or they are too old to improve their skiing
technique. You battle on your own during the week with the techniques
you learnt on your first ski holiday and by the end of the week are
just starting to pick it up again.
Good skiing is easy..........
A good instructor can show you how to make it easy and a good mountain guide can give
you that mind blowing experience. Good mountain guides are particularly
useful when snow is thin and the weather is bad. He will know where to
find that ray of sunshine or the slopes that hold the best snow and
save you from many otherwise boring days stuck inside your chalet.
Find a professional that does both well and you
have got yourself a guru
So what makes a guru ?
A good ski instructor has a passion for teaching skiing. It’s
fairly easy to teach the basics. Any instructor can give you those and
a lot do just that and not much else. You can even get the basics from
books, videos and even from friends (not always advisable) Most skiers
stop at this point. Getting you past those basics and off the plateau
is the challenge for any passionate instructor. Not many SKI PROFFESIONALS have the
patience as it’s incredibly difficult and frustrating for ski
instructors to get their pupils to put the same passion into their
learning. Skiers are on holiday anyway so why should they. A good
instructor persists though until he finds that slight variation of
technique that makes his pupil click. He teaches you to teach yourself.
It usually only clicks long after he has finished his lessons but the
satisfaction comes for a passionate instructor a few years later when
he observes his ex pupil racing, teaching or just showing proof that
good skiing is easy.
A good mountain guide has a passion for discovering the perfect skiing
conditions which will hopefully
also bring out that passion in his group to want to learn more that the
good ski instructor is looking for in his pupils. He does not just say
follow me and take you to the bottom of the mountain. He reads the
mountains – he knows the slopes that face the sun and the
shade. He plans his runs on how the sun moves during the day. He feels
if the snow is dry, wet, icy, crusty and all the other 50 types of snow
under his skis that the Eskimos have
classified, . He knows what type of slope and snow you can handle and
pushes you only every now and again into what you cannot handle just to
bring that spirit of challenge in you. You are not just been lead down
the mountain you are been immersed into it feeling every slight
variation in snow texture, every change in temperature, every change in
colour as you move from the open slopes into the forests and from the
sun to the shade, every movement of your skis as you float in the snow
and flow over every mound and dip, every change in emotion running
through your body as you go from steep to gentle. He teaches
you to feel what he feels and what it feels like to ski like he
does.
Now
you see why I say find someone who does both guiding and teaching well,
and you have got yourself a GURU. Doing both does not necessarily mean
that person has to be officially qualified to do both. At least one
official qualification in guiding or ski instruction is necessary for
safety, professionalism and not having your legs broken by the local
lads.
Obviously someone as good as this is extremely difficult to find when you are already in resort.
TO GET YOURSELF A GURU YOU NEED TO BOOK HIM WELL IN ADVANCE
You can read about some of the guides we use on our all
you need to know
web page and feel free ot contact them for more details. They are worth spending your hard earned bucks on.
See our PRICES webpage for costs and details.
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