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2hr ski lesson

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 SonyaD 31 Dec 2012
Hi,

Have the chance to book my hubby and myself a private 2 hour skiing lesson (at the Lecht, Scotland, which is just up the road from us)but I'm wondering how much we can realistically do in 2 hours?

I know everyone will be different in their ability to pick it up but what are the chances of being able to get off on our own down green/blue slopes after one 2 hour lesson?

Neither of us have skied in our lives before although I have been snowboarding and could bimble down blue slopes on a board after a 2hr lesson.
 dale1968 31 Dec 2012
In reply to Sonya Mc: well without a lesson I egged it from the top at aveimore, and just survived, became a skiing instructor, Its down to your instructor and your abilities/lack of brains for some yes, others noooo
 doz 31 Dec 2012
In reply to Sonya Mc: Two hours is plenty to learn to stop and side-slip....after which you can get down anything! Good luck and have fun!
 andy 31 Dec 2012
In reply to Sonya Mc: you'll learn quite a lot in a 2 hr private lesson - certainly enough to go off on your own and practice.

My kids did 4x1 hour lessons in a fridge and were comfortable on blue runs straight away when we went away.
 GridNorth 31 Dec 2012
In reply to Sonya Mc: I think you will learn how to get on and off lifts, how to snow plough, how to turn and how to stop. I made the mistake though of thinking that, after that, I could ski and attempted a blue run in Chamonix. I felland pulled a muscle that put me out of action for a long time. I came down a narrow track at La Flegere that twisted and turned, it was too steep to make the snow plough affective and too narrow to turn easily. It was a nightmare to get down. and almost put me off skiing. I went back a couple of seasons later, did it again and wondered what all the fuss was about. Take your time and practice on the easier, wider slopes until you are confident. I don't think that you can really ski until you can stop on your edges and turn in a small space. Be prepared to spend a lot of time falling over.

Like climbing the grades can vary significantly and from resort to resort. What's black in Andorra might well be blue in Cham.
OP SonyaD 10 Jan 2013
Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

We're actually going on a 5 day trip to Borovets in Bulgaria instead (although research says that the snow can be quite Scottish!)
moffatross 10 Jan 2013
In reply to doz: "Two hours is plenty to learn to stop and side-slip....after which you can get down anything!"

Best of luck with the hospital treatment for anyone taking that advice seriously.
 Rob Exile Ward 10 Jan 2013
In reply to moffatross: To be fair, not many beginners get injured if they take it steady - getting pi$$ed and being gung-ho is a different matter, mind. Even a pisted black is still only 30 - 40 degrees.
 blurty 10 Jan 2013
In reply to Sonya Mc: you really need a full day of instruction to develop a secure snowplough I think.
 nik king 10 Jan 2013
In reply to Sonya Mc:
If you remember that falling can be fun you'll do fine. 2hrs is plenty to pick up the basics, especially if you have a high pain threshold.
 NottsRich 11 Jan 2013
In reply to Sonya Mc: From recent experience, 2 hours will be plenty. It will probably hurt a bit the next day too! My advice would be do the 2hr lesson and then go and practice what you learned on the slopes. Then come back a week later when you've stopped hurting so much and do it all again! Great fun.
moffatross 11 Jan 2013
>"Two hours is plenty to learn to stop and side-slip....after which you can get down anything"<

Honestly, you can't get down 'ANYTHING' after 2 hours lessons, no matter how much of a star learner you are.

>"Even a pisted black is still only 30 - 40 degrees."<

There aren't actually any 'pisted' blacks a lot steeper than 30 degrees but there are a lot of times and conditions when a skier whose mountain experience was from 2 hours instruction at the Lecht couldn't 'get down' those without quickly becoming an unguided missile. There are ski runs even here in Scotland on which a 2 hour experienced skier could easily break more than their arms or legs when they fell down them.

>"If you remember that falling can be fun you'll do fine. 2hrs is plenty to pick up the basics, especially if you have a high pain threshold."<

I don't remember falling being a lot of fun and I particularly remember that powerlessly rag doll cartwheeling is completely terrifying and something I was lucky to survive without a serious injury.

Not trying to frighten Sonya Mc OP but I'm just cautioning against actually believing that you 'can get down anything' after 2 hours of instruction. Arguing with that is pointless.
In reply to Sonya Mc: My wife and I did a 2hr private lesson at Glencoe mountain on New Years Day. It was absolutely brilliant, we went from being reasonably confident snowploughers on blues to being able to link parallel turns of sorts on a red run. We leant far more in those two hours instruction that we did on a day course at the snowdome, highly recommended!
 LastBoyScout 11 Jan 2013
In reply to Sonya Mc:

Depends, as you say, on natural ability, but I think you'll be fine, if you've got boarding experience. I could board before I put skis on - I've only ever had about an hour of ski lessons and I'd say I can ski pretty well, certainly well enough for what I want to achieve at the moment.

My wife had a 2 hour lesson before we went and 3 mornings of ski school and managed to get down a women's Olympic downhill ski slope by the end of the week - but she's way more nervous about hurting herself than I am.

My sisters have had about an hours lesson on a dry slope and several days of my Uncle shouting at them and they can get down pretty much anything, including heli-skiing.
 CathS 11 Jan 2013
In reply to Sonya Mc:

If you are a complete beginner, I'd suggest ideally 2 or 3 x 2 hours lessons on an indoor slope to start with to get to the grips with the basics, then morning ski school for the first week's resort skiing, with time in the afternoon to practice on your own.

IMO it's a false economy skimping on ski lessons, particularly when you're first learning, as you'll just ingrain bad habits and it will slow your technical progress.

And I'm with moffatross that you're unlikely to be able to really get down anything with real control or confidence after just 2 hours, and struggling to do so without any further tuition could just knock your confidence, as well as risk injury.

Also, I don't know what the Lecht is like, but at the other Scottish resorts I've been to the blue runs can be pretty gnarly compared with their equivalent in the Alps as they tend not to be so heavily groomed (if at all), not to mention the rocks, heather, holes, lack of piste markers etc.

Once you've progressed to early intermediate stage (after a week or two's skiing) you can get quite a lot out of a couple of hours 1-2-1 private lesson in a week's skiing holiday.

There seem to be plenty of British skiers though who seem to think that ski lessons are unnecessary. You can spot them a mile off from the chairlift.
 The Norris 11 Jan 2013
In reply to Sonya Mc:

I would say if you understand what the guide tells you when describing how to do the snow plough, you should be able to practice it on greens and blues. you'll fall over, but you'll get down. Just take it slowly, do nice long traverses across the slope, the hard bit is the turn at the end of the traverse! you'll eventually 'get' how to shift your weight whilst turning, but you'll fall over in a panic a lot too! But as others said, just as long as you find falling over fun, you'll be fine.
OP SonyaD 17 Jan 2013
Well we are actually in borovets now and had our first of 3x 4hr lessons and I can safely say that there's no way in hell I'd be going down anything after 2hrs. We've learnt the basics and can turn and stop on the baby slopes but the steeper slopes look terrifying! Snowboarding is loads easier than skiing!
michaelc 18 Jan 2013
In reply to Rob Exile Ward:
> (In reply to moffatross) To be fair, not many beginners get injured if they take it steady - getting pi$$ed and being gung-ho is a different matter, mind. Even a pisted black is still only 30 - 40 degrees.

regarding 30-40 degrees limit on blacks, Really? you can have very steep inclines over short distances... but I've never measured with plumb line.

In any case, 40 degrees is pretty steep when you don't know what you're doing, if the snow has been scraped away to the ice in places, and when other people are coming down the slope behind you at great speed.

Nevertheless, you're right that beginners don't get injured much if they take a rational approach to the sport and get a bit of supervision/guidance.

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