First Time Skiing

family ski holiday, snowbizz family holiday, first time skiing, learning to ski as an adult

Our holiday in France with Snowbizz was the bloke and I's first time on the slopes and I was amazed at how fast we progressed.  I won't be signing up for the Olympics quite yet, but to progress from struggling to put on my skis on day one to zooming down the blue runs by day six was exhilarating and our fantastic instructor Sam was friendly and helpful at every stage.

Our resort in Puy St Vincent was situated at 1600m and everything was so close that we only had to walk about 20 metres from our apartment building before we could put on our skis and head off, and only about 100 metres before we were on the slopes.  With this being our first trip, we knew no different, but speaking to other more experienced skiers, I have established that this convenience is fantastic.  (Lugging heavy skis twenty metres was challenging enough for me!) There was no walking around in heavy ski boots and at the end of the day our tired legs didn't have to go far before we could rest.  

We could ski down to 1400 metres on either a green or blue slope before taking a chairlift up, or there were two lifts going straight up from the resort to different slopes where we could either keep going up on other chair lifts or a drag lift, or ski down.  The nursery slopes where we spent our first lesson were right by the apartments and we watched the children learning every morning from our balcony as we enjoyed our croissants.

The great thing about our children still being so small, was that we were not restricted to school holidays and the week we chose was quiet enough that there was only two in our class - the bloke and I!  The slopes were empty which gave us free rein to fall over as much as we liked without harming anyone else and the uninterrupted views at the top of the mountains were simply stunning.  

There were plenty of slopes to try, with over 75km of runs from the lovely greens that we started on, to 3 challenging blacks for the braver and lots of off piste for the experienced skiers.  I loved Le Chemin, a gentle and long green run that gave me a chance to build up speed and practice my new skills.  The chair lifts can take you up to 2750, although the highest we went was 2500 and we were treated to snow falling as we twisted and turned down the route, laying fresh on our skis.

Again, I don't have any basis for comparison, but we definitely intend to revisit Puy with Snowbizz as we felt well looked after, brilliantly taught and there were so many more runs for us to learn and try.  If you want to find out more, then you can contact the incredibly helpful team here.  The other people we met varied from beginners to people who had been skiing for years and years and they all loved the facilities and slopes on offer.

We felt the part in our Helly Hansen jackets!

I was so proud of our first week skiing and we definitely intend to go back - after all the children can start learning at 3 years and Dylan will be plenty old enough by the time the snow starts falling!  If you want to read more about our trip, then you can check out all our photos, our pick of non-skiing activities and our family ski holiday packing list   You can also find out more about Snowbizz here.

Disclaimer:  We were invited along to Snowbizz and given some much needed lessons 

but all thought and opinions are completely my own.