The feelings that you’ll experience when you decide you want to go on a skiing holiday will be a mixture of fear, excitement and nervousness. The fear of being laughed out of the ski resort can often overwhelm the anticipation of learning a new skill and having fun on the slope. Here’s how to prepare so you can at least look like you know what you’re doing until you get the hang of it.
The Clothes
This is half the battle of feeling confident on the ski slope. Being warm, comfortable and raring to go can work wonders. Lots of layers will contribute to your warmth, so wearing outdoor look base layers underneath thermal and waterproof layers can make the difference between being happy and feeling utterly miserable. Don’t wear cotton under any circumstances. It holds on to sweat like no other, and can make you cold.
The Accommodation
For your first ski holiday, you want to make it as easy as possible for yourself. It might be cheaper to book yourself into self catering, but ski resorts can be confusing, so a chalet hotel or catered chalets run by a British, or English-speaking, company is the best bet. This way you’ll get unlimited food, have access to advice, on the way to the ski-hire for instance, and you could even get your flights sorted out too. Be mindful of the time of the year that you’re booking your holiday for, as the price can vary during school holidays.
Book Lessons
If you’re a first time skier, then you’ll no doubt be bombarded with offers from family and friends who are willing to show you the ropes a little. However, this you don’t want to do. Unless they are qualified ski instructor, they are likely to get bored or frustrated with you. Instead, book lessons with a professional. You’re less likely to pick up bad habits this way too. Check your resort and book your ski lessons with someone who knows what they are doing.
Get into Shape
Skiing is really hard work. The reason that it looks easy when it’s done by the pros is that they are fit, and they have put years worth of practice in to it. You probably haven’t. You should therefore get into a reasonable shape before you go on holiday, lest you end up in agony on the third day. To get used to skiing, you could have a practice at an indoor ski slope.
Photo Credit: Archbob
