Advice for a first time skier

[TelexStar]

I'm heading to Arosa - Switzerland for my first skiing trip ever in April and was wondering if anyone has any tips I should know about?

My brother has ordered me on a strict regime of leg exercises and generally putting the fear of god into me if I don’t. Any particular leg muscles I should be looking to build up? Is he talking crap? Any advice while I’m actually out there?

Ta muchly appreciated in advance :)

[R08L1K3]

Number 1 April is seriously heading towards the end of the season so watch out for any non snowy patches. However there has been a lot of snow in europe at the moment so you should be ok.

Number 2 God damn it buy a snowboard :-P

[TelexStar]

For my first trip I will be skiing.

[R08L1K3]

That is your choice, but do remember you will have to live with it for the rest of your life.

[*Tsunami*]

Pizza's / French Fries...

Pizza goes slower or Stop. French Fries go quicker.

Heck, its been years since I've done any skiing and even that wasnt on real snow ... Good luck :D

[her0n]

General cardio exercise to increase your fitness will do you wonders. Learning can be quite hard work on your own, are you getting lessons out there? If not i seriously recommend you have another think!

[t!mo]

Dude, I went for the first time ever a couple of weeks ok and I haven't done any serious sporting exercise in a few years. Trust me I was told yeah yeah you will discover muscles you never knew you had etc. Make sure you do exercises blah blah blah. I didn't. I was knackered at the end of the first 2days (8hrs skiing each) but that was it. Other peeps were bitching about their shins but I was just generally tired. After 4th day I was still a bit tired but no real bones hurt or muscles ached so my advice is do nothing! Book some n00bs lesson so you get to learn the basics, don't do stuff you don't want to do especially when the l00n mates you are with start egging you on. I was under the impression you would get quite cold but I didn't really find that was the case, must have bought the right gear.

[TelexStar]

Originally posted by her0n
General cardio exercise to increase your fitness will do you wonders. Learning can be quite hard work on your own, are you getting lessons out there? If not i seriously recommend you have another think!

I plan on visiting a dry ski slope in Ipswich before the trip, just to pick up the basics. I have a good sense of balance and I'm *fairly* confident I'll pick it after a couple of days of introducing my arse to the ground.

The people I'm going with have been skiing before so I'll get pointers from them. I'm not paying for lessons out there though.

[her0n]

You may find that the dry ski slope will not let you on as an absolute beginner. We certainly don't at Southampton, they need to reach a minimum standard through lessons first. (I work part time at the dry slope there). You'd probably benefit from getting a few hours private tuition with an instructor, most people find they progress faster in a 1 to 1 environment as opposed to groups of 12 or so with 1 instructor.
I'd just be aware that when you actually get out there on holiday, your friends (I assume they are more advanced) may not be so keen to wait around for you all the time, or stay down on the lower slopes teaching you when they could be further up the mountain. If you don't mind learning on your own then that's cool but it could get rather boring :o

[TelexStar]

Well I wasn't planning on just showing up at a dry slope and throwing myself down the hill. ;) I was planning on having a couple of lessons at a dry slope to get the basics (how to slow down/stop and how to turn), I'm just not having any lessons out there (although that might change once I'm there - It depends on cost). I'll leave the rest to the bodies ability of learning by falling. :)

There's four of us going. Two of them are boarding so we probably wont see much of them except in the evening and the other guy is skiing, along with me. The other guy happens to be my brother so I'd like to think he isn't going to piss off and leave me. :D Besides, he's only been skiing a couple of times before so he isn't going to be quite as high up the mountain as you might think.

[her0n]

Ahh cool, that all sounds like a good plan. It's definitely worth getting lessons at dry slope and then practising recreationally to get your confidence up. Dry slope isn't as good as snow by a long way, but as they say 'once you can ski on dry you can ski on snow', and from my experience that's very true :)