Ski Instructors Report 24 March 2012

What a week for contrasts in weather! We had little flurries of snow at the start of the week, then a pleasant day. On Thursday we had continuous snow, the visibility was poor and it was cold and damp. The snow continued through the night and very few people ventured out, most staying in their hotels. But Friday morning was glorious, bright blue skies and snow everywhere. There was a short delay while the lift workers dug out the top of the chair lift. I took my class of intermediates down the Marrades run, to the Crest Hotel and the high speed chair lift back to the resort. The conditions were perfect, with very few other skiers on this run. All my group of ladies thoroughly enjoyed the run. When arrived back at the resort we joined the others on the Les Fonts chair lift (the higher lifts were still being dug out). The snow was perfect on the piste and we found some very deep untracked snow to play in. We had a few fallers and they discovered how tiring it is to get up in deep snow. I had to demonstrate how to look for a lost ski in deep snow. Some of my ladies put their new skill to good use and found their lost skis. For those who do not know the correct way, the recognised method is to remove your remaining ski and go slightly above the point of your fall and use the tail of your ski in a scything action moving slowly down the hill until you hit the lost ski. It can be very tiring doing this in deep snow. One sometimes sees skiers prodding the snow with their poles. This method rarely works as you can only cover a very small area. A long sweeping scything motion will cover a much wider field of search. I had a very good week of Apres Ski. My class consisted of ten very charming ladies, plus two young lads, who I promoted to faster classes. We met each evening and had a great time watching the ski videos. We had a good laugh and some found the video very helpful in correcting bad posture. The class mixed well and I thoroughly enjoyed my week. Thank you ladies. I have only one more week of work before returning to England. So my next report may be my last of the season.