Need some newbie skiing advice

Im off snowboarding with the missues on Feb 2nd. We have never done it before. Going to Tignes and staying in a crystal owned hotel (hotel curling). Have pre booked ski school lessons and really cant wait.

Shame the gear costs so much. Have been told by a lot of people of your new to the sport your salopettes and jacket needs to be a mimimum of 10,000MM since you spend a lot more time on your back when you fall.

Just ordered a burton ALS jacket half price and a new pair of 07 Oakley Wisdoms. Oakleys are off ebay for £60 delivered from States. cost £120 here. Its been 4 days so far and the DHL tracking number states they have arrived in the UK and cleared customs so save some money and get an import
 
jdderbys, if you haven't already I'd start looking in your local snowboard shops for last years equipment as they usually have good deals. Boardwise has a shop in Cannock which is probably their closest to you and they often have a selection of last years kit for sale. Assuming you don't just want to hire it when you get there of course which might work out cheaper in case you don't like snowboarding (odd but it might happen) plus you don't have to worry so much about the kit possibly. :)
 
I'm going at the end of Feb, for 5 days to St Gervais. Can't wait! I've been skiing before on a dry slope but that was 15 years ago, so I'll be going to the snow dome in MK to get a few hours under my belt :)
 
All booked for next week - can't wait!! :D

Going with Snowcoach for 8 days to Val Cenis, full board - all lessons, hire, and passes included.

Anyone been to Val Cenis? I hear it's quiet, but nice and old style villages.
 
On that note, I found when i went skiing that i couldn't keep control of my legs and would mean i fell over, or when i turned on the steeper slopes i would be a lot of strain on my legs, is that because i have weak legs?
 
You are using muscles that you don't normally exercise, or at least, not to the extent you will when skiing/snowboarding. If I haven't been snowboarding for ages I find that my calves remain "pumped up" for most of the day after I finish but if I go regularly I don't have the same problem. There may be exercises you can do to combat this but the best practice for skiing is skiing surprisingly enough. :)
 
Just thought I would post a quick update after getting back from my first ski trip.

We went to Val Cenis with Snowcoach, and I loved every minute! It was really tiring, but I really loved skiing and after 5 days of 2 hour lessons was doing parallels on the steeper blue runs which I was pleased with.

Met a load of great people on the coach and in the hotel, and will definetly be going again as soon as possible.

The coach was good fun, and the only people complaining about the travel at the hotel were those who flew! We got both Saturdays in the resort which the flyers didn't and it was great as the slopes and lifts were empty.

We got a big dump of fresh snow early in the week and a few more days snow which lasted us well.

I'd highly recommend Snowcoach and the resort of Val Cenis (for beginners/intermediate) - their blacks probablt aren't challenging enough for experienced skiiers, but they ran ski safaris to other resorts like Val Thorens.

Thanks for everyone who took the time to post advice before our trip. :D
 
Sounds great, I'm glad you had a good time although I'm disappointed in you for skiing. :p I don't know that I'd want to do the coach thing myself though, it'll take the better part of a day? I'd be bored long before then plus coaches are pretty uncomfortable if you are tall I find. :)
 
Glad you enjoyed it miracleboy. I was away at the same time as you and had very similar experience. Good thing we got the mass of snow early in the week, as, even with that, the runs were getting very thin by the end of the week.
 
I was thinking about going boarding, but decided on skiing as my wife wanted to do that - I'm glad I did as I saw the learner boarders really struggling - it looked painful!

The coach wasn't too bad - basically pick up at Dover at around 6pm then get a meal and a couple of beers on the ferry, then watch a movie on the coach for a couple hours and then sleep through the night (we were lucky enough to be able to spread out due to some spare seats), wake up a couple of hours from the resort and enjoy the drive through the Swiss/French Alps, got there around 10am in time for a days skiing on fresh empty pistes. :D
 
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