Saint Gervais

At the foot of Mont-Blanc

Saint Gervais is a bustling ski resort in the Haute Savoie French Alps close to Chamonix and the foot of Mont Blanc. The famous “Voie Royale” departs from Saint-Gervais and is renowned to be the most direct access to the summit.

More than 400km of ski slopes

At the heart of the Evasion Mont- Blanc ski area Saint Gervais offers 400 kilometres of slopes towards Megève, Combloux, and Les Contamines with Le Bettex offering direct access to the Evasion Mont-Blanc ski area.

The resort also benefits from 30 kms of slopes on the opposite side of town in Les Houches/Saint-Gervais, accessible by the Mont-Blanc Tramway, one of the oldest rack and pinion railways in France.

Evasion Mont-Blanc is the third largest ski area in France with 219 ski runs, 107 ski lifts and 850 artificial snow making canons helping ensure the ski area is open from the end of December until the middle of April.

Hotel Val Joly

For my visit I stayed at the Hotel Val Joly, a small family run hotel 20 minutes walk from Saint Gervais. The rooms are comfortable and furnished in a simple yet beautiful way. You can book half board or room only and pay for any meals. I chose room only and sorted out my own breakfast. The restaurant at the hotel offers evening meals from the menu or a set three course option for 20 euros which is different every evening. Typically consisting of soup, main and dessert the owner of the hotel certainly knows how to cook. With the exception of two evenings, when I wanted to be in Saint Gervais, I ate at the hotel. All the family speak English but since I speak French most of our conversation was in French. Only on a handful of occasions did I speak in English. The hotel is on a bus route but don’t rely on the buses turning up ! I was late for my ski lesson one morning because the bus didn’t come and they only run every 35 minutes.

Why I come

Finding a ski instructor and coach who suits you is hugely important. An instructor who understands how you think, the way you learn and wants you to achieve the same goals as you do is massively important. Not only that, but training should be fun and enjoyable.

I have been fortunate enough to find two great coaches both of whom are BASI examiners: Alessandro Cambon (who lives close to Villars-sur-Ollon in Switzerland) and Will Roberts (who lives in Saint Gervais).

I come to see Will for one reason, and one reason only, coaching.

Those of you reading this blog in the hope that me and Will ski off into the snowy distance together are going to be very disappointed.

Coaching

Having done a day of coaching in January I returned for further coaching the second week of February booking 2 hours on Monday, 2 hours on Wednesday and 4 hours on Thursday with that last day aimed at a fun day of great skiing.

At my last coaching I had just recovered from a chest infection and skiing all day in heavy snow had made me really ill again. However, this time it was Will who would be ill.

Monday greeted us with heavy snowfall. Just like my last coaching. I texted to make sure we were still training. We were.

Not long into the two hour coaching session I took a real tumble on to the snow. Will not only called out to me ‘are you ok?’ but even skiied over to me and repeated the question. This told me I must have really smacked into the snow. As I picked myself up, dusted the snow from me and re-attached my ski that had come off we were both metaphorically scratching our heads; neither of us knew why I had fallen. At least I’d not disappeared into a snow covered hollow again.

When I fell I had landed heavily on my right side with one of my ski poles underneath me. Initially I thought I was alright but as the session progressed my side started to really hurt. At one point I was close to stopping and abandoning but because it was only a 2 hour session I kept going. I wasn’t enjoying it though. Will didn’t seem to be enjoying it much either.

The following evening I got a text message through. He was ill. Unable to do any further coaching with me he offered to move me to one of his instructor colleagues or refund my money. I was not happy. This gave a problem. Will is the only one of his team who is BASI and I still had a technical resit to do. It’s why I choose him and not any of the others. I opted to be placed with one of the other instructors on Wednesday (either Ollie or Giacomo) and asked for Thursday to be refunded. Since I didn’t know anything about the other instructors I let Will choose knowing he would opt for the one most suitable.

Giacomo

On my last visit one of the Freedom Snowsports instructors had walked past me at the bus-stop whilst I was waiting for the bus back to Geneva Airport. Tall and very good looking … ‘who was that’ !!?? When I got back to England I jokingly said to Will I needed to book a lesson with them. Using https://www.book.ski/team/ I identified the mystery instructor as Giacomo, one of the Italians. When I had skied on the Monday I had half jokingly again said I might book a lesson with them.

Having opted to be placed with one of the other instructors for Wednesday (either Ollie or Giacomo), and leaving Will to choose which one, he placed me with Giacomo; the instructor who had walked past me at the bus-stop.

Was this based on what I had said ? Will showing his sense of humour ? Possibly. Or chosen for being the most suitable instructor ? Almost certainly.

Giacomo teaches in a very simple, easy to understand way. There was no mentioning of the BASI manual or Alpine Level 1 criteria. My 2 hours were spent as someone having instruction because they wanted to improve their skiing and not because they had an exam to pass. It made a refreshing change. At the end of the lesson I booked another for the following afternoon.

Guided by Will as to the contents of my lesson we worked on my long turns and carving using easy green and blue runs the first morning before moving onto black runs the following afternoon. My long turns had somewhat been forgotten about in recent months as the focus had been on short turns. There is so much to remember. I’ve had to write it down !

It was quite funny when Giacomo realised who I was. ‘Do you post a lot on the website? … now I understand’. This is true. I do comment a lot (and I mean a lot) on the Freedom Snowsports Facebook page. It’s a sort of you help me and I’ll help you type of thing.

I had a fantastic week with Freedom Snowsports, Will and Giacomo. Thank you to you both and get well soon Will !

Gallery: https://nhsnursetoskiinstructor.home.blog/gallery/

Back to Will

Freedom Snowsports ski school was set up by ski instructor and current director Will Roberts enabling him to realise a long-held ambition to deliver his own vision for ski coaching. An accredited ski school  covering Chamonix, Megeve, St Gervais and Les Contamines Freedom Snowsports offers private lessons, group lessons, off-piste skiing lessons, alpine touring and guiding. The instructors, hand picked and led by Will, are a group of top snowsports professionals, equally delighted to help you with your first steps in skiing as they are training  future ski instructors like myself. Teaching is tailored to each individual, with focused learning based around you and what is actually happening.

Will qualified as an instructor in 2005 and quickly progressed to the highest BASI (British Association of Snowsport Instructors) level within just 3 years. His passion for, and dedication to his sport  saw him start coaching and grading ski instructors in 2014 when he became a BASI trainer.

Private lessons with Freedom Snowsports offer the most flexibility. When you book you customise your lesson entirely around you, choosing the duration, instructor and meeting point. I chose Will because he was my BASI trainer and examiner. He would therefore know exactly what was required in terms of my skiing to pass my exam in March. Since I was staying in Saint Gervais I chose to meet him at the mid station of the Bettex ski gondola which comes up from Saint Gervais.

This was not my first attempt at trying to get training with Will. Lack of snow had resulted in me not being able to go out to for training in December as planned and I had rescheduled my visit for January. I would be back with New Generation and going onto Will from there made perfect sense. However, this rescheduled training nearly didn’t happen either. In the run up to my visit I was to be very ill.

I’d not felt well New Year’s Eve, had gone skiing anyway and then out to New Year’s Eve celebrations. When I went to work on New Year’s Day I felt really ill. By January 3rd I had developed a really bad chest infection. I was too ill to go to work or have my chemotherapy for an auto-immune disease that I have and most definitely couldn’t ski. I desperately needed to train as my technical resit was on March 2nd; I  had a real problem.

With a three hour afternoon lesson with Will already booked, a technical resit also booked and a chest infection which would be made worse if I went I had no choice but to keep quiet (literally as I had no voice!) and go anyway. Since skiing with Will was going to make me more ill I decided it might as well make me super extra ill and I booked a 2 hour morning slot with him too. Whilst he went to the lesson in between mine I would practice. That should do it. 7 hours in cold, freezing, sub-zero mountain air … super extra ill guaranteed … just as I was starting to get better. Hopefully Will would never know how ill I’d been and would only ever find out by reading this blog.

Lesson Day

Heavy overnight snow made conditions in Saint Gervais village interesting to say the least. It was very amusing standing at the bus stop waiting for the free ski bus watching vehicles trying to negotiate the roundabout. Some decided flooring the accelerator was the best option; this just made the wheels spin. Others decided slowly, slowly was the better approach only to come to a stop on the roundabout and not be able to get moving again. A lengthy, crawling traffic jam from the village over the bridge round to the ski gondola station quickly built up. I then had to buy a ski lift pass and was only just going to be in time for my lesson starting at 09:00.

I arrived at the mid station of the Bettex ski gondola three minutes late expecting to find Will already there. He wasn’t. Nor had he been on my bus (the first bus of the day and which run every 10 – 20 minutes). This meant he had driven to the gondola station and would have been in the same queue as me. Upon checking my phone I found a message from him. He was in amongst the carnage on the roads. Eventually, half an hour late, he arrived full of apology. Finding himself stuck in the queue he had made the decision to drive up the mountain instead of getting the ski gondola lift. He had also had to dig himself out of his apartment block.

I felt like saying ‘did you not know it was going to snow ? Did you not look out of the window this morning ? You know there’s a free bus … you could have got that and saved yourself the hassle of digging your car out … all you had to do is walk a couple of hundred metres to the stop ?’. Instead I kept quiet. I was educated at private boarding school from the age of 10, predominantly an armed forces boarding school, the only reason you were late for anything was poor planning and bad time management.  Will had only got away with being so late because it was me he was coming to meet. In fact, he had been close to cancelling my lesson.

Conditions on the mountain weren’t much better. Even on the pisted runs the snow was up to my knees. Neither of us could see what my feet or skis were doing. Will is exceptionally talented at what he does and can quite literally see through snow. Although he couldn’t see my skis or feet he knew exactly what they were doing by what the rest of my body was doing. He was correct 100% of the time, clever !

I found the deep snow a real challenge. When I fall over I let out a little squeak, a bit like one of those dog toys that makes a noise when it hits the ground; I do the same thing. Will didn’t need to see that I had fallen over, he just listened for the squeak.

On one occasion I’d not had time to even squeak. Standing at a ski lift chatting I stepped aside to let someone pass. Instantly I vanished. Unbeknown to me I had stepped into a snow covered hollow. I completely disappeared. One minute I was stood chatting with Will, the next … gone … vanished into thin air. Well thin snow actually. I was like a tortoise stuck on its back unable to right itself. From my snow hazed hollow I could just make out Will unclipping me from my skis. There then appeared a white gloved hand which had me briefly confused as Will was wearing black gloves. In fact the hand belonged to the ski lift attendant who had left her usual position to come and help. Once hauled out I expected to find Will doubled over laughing but his brain was still trying to work out, process, understand and make sense of what had just happened. If it had been Will I would have quite literally pissed myself laughing.

One thing that did impress Will was how much better my skiing was. When he turned around and shouted back at me ‘it’s great to see you skiing properly’ I knew I’d finally got it right. He was convinced that the change was through my practice. I disagreed. Yes, I had been practicing back in the UK but not that often. I had been to the indoor slope at Manchester twice in October and Castleford twice in October. I’d then been back to Castleford twice in November and once in December. That’s only seven times over four months. What I had been doing was getting coaching from another BASI trainer and it was whilst skiing with them earlier in the week that I had my lightbulb moment and everything clicked together.

The three things I won’t do

There are three things I won’t do that are skiing related; off-piste, bumps and ski touring. Why ski off-piste when there is a perfectly groomed run you can use which will take you to the same place ? I just don’t understand what the point of it is. Bumps are much easier and safer to negotiate if you take your skis off and walk down the side. All that bumping, jolting, having your body shaken every which way only to end up in a painful crashed heap very quickly. No thanks. Ski touring is another thing I just don’t understand. Basically, ski touring is where you ski up the mountain so that you can ski down it. What !! Just buy a lift pass ! It’s so much easier !!

Will actually suggested I tried ski touring. Hahaha …er … I’ll stick with buying a lift pass. I do understand his thinking though. I do a lot of walking. In fact on my first day in Saint Gervais I took the Mont Blanc Tramway up to Bellevue for some winter walking. I walk because my feet are a mode of transport which is free and I can get to places I otherwise wouldn’t reach. At no point did I think ‘oooh … I wish I had skis with me’. Unfortunately, I suspect Will is right. I would like ski touring. In the short time since September he has managed to build up a very accurate mental picture of me. If I am to try ski touring it will be with him since I trust him implicitly not to get me trying anything that he knows I am not capable of. So when he took me off-piste towards the end of my lesson I knew I was totally safe with him.

For those seeking personalised ski instructing in incredible surroundings, there is simply no better choice; join Will and his team for an exceptional lesson! Whether it’s your first turn on skis, or tuning your skiing performance to its peak Will and his team are some of the best in the world at teaching snowsports. https://www.book.ski/private/

Gallery:

https://nhsnursetoskiinstructor.home.blog/gallery/

Having spent a week with Alessandro Cambon and his New Generation ski school in Villars-Sur-Ollon, Switzerland as part of my required 35 hours of snowsports school shadowing I was invited back for a week of training. My NHS commitments meant that I could only join them for two days of the week long training but I was keen to go back having enjoyed my previous time with them so much. Also, I had my Alpine Level 1 technical resit booked for 2^nd March and needed to get as much training beforehand as I could in order to be sure of passing.

Villars-Sur-Ollon (Villars for short) sits on a sunny south facing plateau with stunning views over the Rhone Valley to Dents du Midi. The skiing is extensive and varied making it the perfect choice for families or groups of mixed skiing ability. New Generation Ski and Snowboard School, Villars, headed by Alessandro Cambon offers adult group ski lessons, children’s group ski lessons and private lessons. The instructors employed at New Generation, Villars are all English.

My arrival at Aigle in the Rhone Valley was greeted by heavy snow. As the bus climbed its way up the road to the plateau the road started to disappear and by the time I had reached the village of Chesiѐre where I was staying the road had completely disappeared.

I stayed at Chalet La Griotte. Owned by Rita, a Norwegian lady, she rents out rooms to people wishing to stay and you get full use of the house including the kitchen. If you want breakfast providing there is a fee. I loved the sign in the kitchen which read ‘if you want breakfast in bed sleep in the kitchen’. A stop for the free ski bus was right outside the front door making it easy to get up to Villars in the mornings.

Swiss Honesty

Heavy snowfall meant there was off-piste skiing to be had. I have only skied off-piste once before and don’t really like it but it was a good opportunity to practice. Alessandro paired me with Mark, one of his instructors, and Mike, a teacher from Aiglon College. After having taken a head first dive into the soft off-piste snow I found I was missing my phone which had been located in my inside top pocket which closes with Velcro. My phone will only let people I know ring it so finding it meant phoning my mum in the UK who then phoned my mobile phone while we all stood around listening for it ringing in the snow. Silence !! Ah…! Oh … !

When my mum rang my phone it was answered by a man with a foreign voice who simply said ‘It is found’. All I needed to do now was in a foreign ski resort find a man with a foreign voice who had my phone. Hmmmm ….

Now there is a system in Villars for lost property. Anything and everything that is found gets taken to SOS Bretaye. Sure enough, when regrouping after lunch Alessandro informed me my phone had been found. It had been taken to SOS Bretaye, who then phoned Mike, who then told Alessandro, who then told me. Off I went across the snow to collect it.

Training

Alessandro focused my training on getting my short turns improved for my technical resit and had me looping up and down two of the lifts. There was no point making it easy for me, I was there to learn and improve so we used some of the steepest terrain. If I could ski short turns on steep terrain then I could ski them on easy terrain. After each run he gave me feedback. Each piece of feedback and coaching point I would put in place on the following run. I knew when I had got the task right because Alessandro would give me a smile and a thumbs up when I went over to him. After one of my runs my feedback was a big smile and the words ‘die … die … die’. Alessandro says this when he is excited. I knew from my feedback that I had finally got my short turns correct. 

Over the two days with Alessandro we worked on my control of speed, corridor width, rhythm and flow, edge change and simultaneous roll from edge to edge. I made good progress. Just to be certain of me passing my technical resit he also gave my long turns a quick check over. I was nicely set up for my time with BASI trainer Will Roberts who would be giving me further training and coaching. Alessandro had also set me up with Will in a very different way. Knowing I was single, Alessandro decided to play matchmaker and sent Will a message asking him if he was single too. I have visions of the message reading ‘Hi Will, got Rosemary here, wants to know if you are single’. Great … thanks for that Alessandro ! 

Snowsports school shadowing

New Generation

I already had the second week of December booked off from work so it seemed sensible to use this week for the 35 hours snowsports school shadowing that I needed for my Alpine Level 1 license. December 8^th was very early in the ski season to be skiing and most resorts wouldn’t yet be open. To have a realistic chance of finding a ski school able to take me I would need to go somewhere with a glacier. Switzerland with the glacier skiing resorts of Zermatt, Saas Fee and Villars-Sur-Ollon was a likely option.

The resort of Villars-Sur-Ollon and the surrounding area is somewhere I know well having spent a lot of time there. I contacted one of the ski schools in Villars-Sur-Ollon, New Generation.

New Generation had no ski classes running, it was too early and the ski area didn’t open until 15^th December. There was however an in-house ski instructor training program running and the glacier would be open for skiing. I was put in touch with the ski school manager Alessandro Cambon.

As you might be able to guess from the name Alessandro is Italian. He is also a BASI trainer and trained as a ski instructor himself through the BASI system. Alessandro and his team at New Generation would be perfect and I flew out to join them.

Heavy snow for the first two days made skiing impossible. There was also another problem. Those on the in-house instructor training program had paid to be there; I hadn’t because I was going for shadowing hours. It was inevitable that in shadowing the group I would pick things up meaning I was getting free training. I needed to do some of the things the group were doing otherwise it would look like I wasn’t interested, which wasn’t good,  but taking part would mean I was getting training I’d not paid for and that wasn’t good either. Being with the group but not part of the training was a difficult balance and Alessandro had to phone me in my apartment one evening in order to work out how best to manage my shadowing time.

The group were brilliant and not bothered in the slightest about me being there with them.

Thank you so much Alessandro, Matt, Tom, Henry, Will, Sam, Polly and Georgie.

I had a fantastic time with them and plan to go back.

https://www.skinewgen.com/ski-schools/villars/

Ski Instructor Training

There are several routes you can take to become a ski instructor. For example, you can qualify through the Irish system, Canadian system, British system, on an internship program or as stand alone elements. There is no right or wrong way, it’s what suits you. I chose the British system with the British Association of Snowsports Instructors (BASI).

BASI

Unable to do an internship program due to my job as an NHS nurse I opted to complete my BASI training in stand alone elements and enrolled on the starting level course; Alpine Level 1. My time with BASI was to be beset by problems.

The stand alone elements needed for a BASI Alpine Level 1 are:

Level 1 training

Children’s Safeguarding

First Aid

35 hours snowsports school shadowing

Disclosure and barring clearance

Due to my NHS job I already met most of these elements leaving me just needing Alpine Level 1 training and 35 hours snowsports school shadowing.

Earlier in the summer I had enrolled on the Alpine Level 1 training course at Castleford for September and was using a week annual leave from work in order to do the week long course. My summer was spent studying the manual and pre-course material.

With 2 weeks to go I received an email from BASI informing me my course was cancelled, I had until lunchtime the following day to accept an alternative at Manchester or lose my place. Accepting Manchester would mean sorting out travel and accommodation. I had just finished a twelve hour shift at work and was on another twelve hour shift the following day. There was no way I could meet the deadline set by BASI; I had lost my training place.

My mum ran a small bed and breakfast. One person who stays there regularly and had taken an interest in my training as a ski instructor was a man named John Mordue. I sent him an email updating him,  saying I was no longer training as a ski instructor and why.

Now it turns out that John Mordue is on the board of directors at BASI. My email created a real fuss ! Phone calls were made, the Chief Executive got involved and when I got back from work that following day there was a lengthy, grovelling, apologetic email from BASI. More importantly I had been given a place at Manchester. My training was back on.

Alpine Level 1

Our Alpine Level 1 trainer was  a man named Will; a likeable guy and very easy to get  on with. The sort of person who is fully  at ease with you which in turn makes you very at ease with him. He was very tolerant of me still picking fault with BASI.  

Will was an amazing skier; afterall he was the trainer.  The very first run he did left us all standing at the top of the indoor slope, open mouthed asking one another ‘how did he just do that ?!!’

Skiing for 38 years since the age of 6 meant I had picked up a lot of bad habits. I skied with my weight too far back, didn’t bend my knees or move my upper body enough. There was a lot of correction to be done. It was going to be a difficult week.

I put in long hours on the slope practising late into the evening, determined to get things corrected and pass. My skiing improved and I passed both the teaching and long turn criteria. However, my short turns were a problem. Our trainer did his best to get me to the correct technical standard but at the end of the week long course they still weren’t correct; I’d not passed and would need to take another exam for my short turns. I was gutted. I had promised Will I would pass and felt that in failing the course I had let not only myself down but him as well.

I also knew how difficult getting booked onto the one day re-assessment would be. We were writing January’s off duty at work. In order to guarantee being off work for the re-assessment I would need to use annual leave and I had none left.

Freedom Snowsports

Will advised me not to book onto the re-assessment until the problems with my short turns were corrected. I continued with the practice driving to the indoor slopes at either Castleford or Manchester when I could. I even did a two day ski performance course with someone who was a BASI trainer. Nothing helped. My short turns were still a problem. I was getting nowhere and running out of ideas.

I then remembered one of the training group mentioning Will had his own ski school in Chamonix, France and I had asked her for his surname on the last day of the training course. The solution had been there all along; go back to Will.

Typing his name and ‘ski instructor Chamonix’ into an internet search engine led me to him and his ski school in Chamonix, Freedom Snowsports.

Freedom Snowsports based in the Chamonix area of France covers Chamonix, Saint Gervais and Megève all of which make up the Evasion Ski Area. The villages and towns are pretty, frequent flights to Geneva, plentiful accommodation. Will hand picks his team of instructors and both him and his instructors are some of the best in the business. Whether you are learning to ski for the first time or looking to improve having a lesson at his ski school is one of the best things you will ever do.

For more information go to his website

https://www.book.ski/team

https://www.book.ski/ski-schools/chamonix/

I sent a message and we provisionally agreed on me going out for some extra training in December. The snow came and went. I had snowsports school shadowing booked in Switzerland with New Generation from the middle of December. As I left for Switzerland Chamonix had no snow; my extra training with Will wasn’t going to happen.

Go on … book a lesson with Will or one of his instructors. You’ll have so much fun.

School ski trip – Crans Montana

Saint Mary’s Catholic School

Saint Mary’s Catholic School in Leyland had done ski trips before; in fact annually. Never before had they been joined by a total stranger for the week. Joining the pupils on the trip were headmaster Philip Mooney and two other staff; Stephen Tattersall and Jade Thornhill. I have to confess having a headmaster with you does put you on your best behaviour !

My role was purely to support Thomas 1:1 whether in the hotel or on the ski slopes but quickly found I was very popular with the kids on the trip. This was for one main reason; I ski wearing a koala bear rucksack !

Koala Bear

With the exception of Thomas I’d not met any of the school prior to the trip. When I turned up to meet them at Geneva Airport with a koala bear rucksack they must have thought I was bonkers. In fact my previous boss on the dialysis team (Jessie Rahim) will tell you I am indeed totally bonkers. Koala certainly raised a few eyebrows. There was definitely some sniggering, pointing and whispering going on.

There is in fact a serious side to my bonkers rucksack; it makes me very obvious and traceable. By the end of the first day the pupils from St. Mary’s had realised just why I’d got it on.

In the busy ski gondola lift station the children had something to follow. At lunchtime I was an easy to find adult. Even children from other schools staying in the same hotel would come up to me at lunchtime. They all said the same thing:

‘we can’t find anyone else … you’re really easy to spot because of your rucksack’

On one of the days I tried to not take my rucksack and leave it behind. I failed.

‘Miss …Miss … where’s your rucksack … you’ve not got your rucksack on … you can’t go out without it … we need you to wear your koala bear … we really like your rucksack’

My koala bear rucksack proved so popular that I was nicknamed Nurse Koala.

Vincent

As part of the trip we all had group ski lessons with École Suisse De Ski Crans-Montana (ESS Crans-Montana). Our instructor was called Vincent. He was a French man from Nimes who had been travelling through Australia for a year and taught himself English whilst there. In the summer Vincent worked as a land surveyor. Or so he said. The internet is wonderful, you can find out all sorts of things. I would later find out that he wasn’t who he said he was and discover his real identity.

Vincent is in fact a talented individual who has taken that talent all over the world. Had he said who he really was and what he really did the focus and attention would have been on him; the week was about the children skiing. To this day I am the only one on that trip who knows the real Vincent and I will be keeping it that way.

Ski School

So as to support Thomas I joined his ski class with Vincent. I have skied since the age of 6 but recently had all but practically stopped. Having reached top ski class many years previously I found when I joined classes I didn’t learn anything and skiing alone can be quite … well …  lonely. Having lost the enjoyment from skiing I mostly did winter walking. If it was a sunny day I might put on a pair of skis.

As we set off in a group for the first time Vincent took us down a gentle slope. When I say gentle, it was almost flat.

‘Make the pizza shape … nice and slowly …’

I could walk faster ! I was definitely in the wrong class. So was Thomas.

Thomas

Thomas hated skiing. The class was far too difficult and he spent much of the time at the side sitting in the snow; he wouldn’t take part. The class were brilliant, rallied round him giving gentle encouragement and support along with his brother. It was all to no avail. Nothing would make him get up from the snow. Whenever I approached he would turn away and jab at the snow with his ski pole. All I could do was stand patiently nearby, not too close but close enough so that he could still see I was there.

Finally my patience was rewarded and Thomas beckoned me over.

‘I don’t want to do it’

I suggested that I take him back down to the hotel but he didn’t even want to do that. At lunchtime he sat quietly eating his sandwiches. I again offered to take him down from the mountain but once more didn’t want to. Much later afterwards I would come to realise that Thomas was in fact very homesick.

The ski class continued after lunch. I sat with Thomas watching the group skiing down the piste and I occasionally joined them so that I kept warm. Returning from one of my runs with the ski class I found Thomas plodding up a little slope of snow and skiing back down. He skied up to me

‘I’m going over there where we were this morning’

Then he was gone. I headed off in hot pursuit. As I passed Mr. Mooney the headmaster I had just about enough time to shout to him what we were doing and where we were going. For the remainder of the afternoon Thomas skied with me. I tried to help him on occasions but my actions were quickly rebuffed.

‘Stop helping … I can do it myself’

That was me firmly put in my place then.

Now there is a rule on school ski trips, a rule I didn’t know about and quite a major one; you don’t ski away from the class. In skiing with Thomas on the beginner slope away from the class we had broken the rules massively. We did get away with it though; just. Since I’d not been on a trip before I wasn’t aware of the rules. In keeping Thomas with me I had in fact stayed within my remit of supporting him 1:1. The next day Thomas moved into an easier class but the two of us would continue to be naughty and break the rules. Well, for a little while longer at least.

Under the nurturing guidance of another instructor Thomas thrived, he loved skiing and couldn’t get enough of it. At lunchtime all he wanted to do was practice and the two of us would sneak off to the nursery slope. Now, wearing a koala bear rucksack on my back was making the two of us pretty easy to spot. In order to be a little more discreet I would leave my skis elsewhere and stand watching from the side. That way it appeared that I was just stood people watching but if Thomas needed me I could still quickly get to him.

Rear guard

It became obvious to Vincent that I could ski. Not only that, but I was capable of helping. The children’s skis were set to pre-release (come off) at the slightest bump. Skiing on a piste covered in fresh snow that was bumpy meant the skis were constantly coming off. It made progress down a ski run frustratingly slow. With the ski’s coming off the children would fall over. As soon as they stood up they would cover the underneath of their ski boots with snow. Now in order to be able to easily clip into your skis the underneath of your ski boot needs to be clear of snow. The easiest way of clearing the snow off the boot is to scrape it along the top of the ski or whack the snow off with the ski pole whilst balancing on the other leg.

When I say easy, it’s actually quite difficult and takes good balance. Just try standing on one leg and hitting the underneath of the shoe on the other foot with a stick. You’ll see what I mean. You’ll fall over !

The children were finding this really annoying. As soon as they’d get the snow almost off the boot they would lose balance putting it back down in the snow and have to start again. In order to help speed things up and try to keep the lesson moving I started  helping the children. It’s much easier if you can use both your poles to balance yourself while someone else sorts out the snow clearing. There is a time and place for learning how to do this yourself but this wasn’t it.

Vincent immediately made me his rear guard.

‘Rosemary you go to the back and help the children who fall’

Total carnage

Not only was I proving to be a  useful  rear guard but I was also to prove useful in a much more serious situation.

In poor visibility our instructor inadvertently took the class down a ski run that was a bit too steep for them. It was to create total carnage.

Being rear guard I was always at the back of the class. As I came over the top of a rise I was brought to a sudden stop. The entire class had fallen over almost simultaneously. One of the children was shouting to the instructor.

‘Vincent stop ! Everyone’s fallen over !’

As Vincent stopped, turned around and looked at the chaos above him all I heard him say was

‘My god, my class’

Not a single one of the children had their ski’s still on. Children, ski’s and poles were scattered across the piste. There were two groups of three children who had crashed heavily into one another whilst trying to get back up. In the crashed group nearest me was a child totally still and silent. Vincent caught sight of me and as he looked up at me I could see the worry in his face. He wasn’t the only one worried; I was too.

I immediately went over to the child  who was lying still and silent in the tangled heap. For a brief moment I was in full nurse mode, checking the area around me and her to ensure it was safe then checking her. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt. Together Vincent and I set about untangling her.

Vincent and I had been the only two left with ski’s on but when skiing over to the child who wasn’t moving I too had lost a ski. This meant picking up 11 children, 23 skis and 22 ski poles.

The incident left the class very shaken.

Assistant ski instructor

As the week progressed a recurring theme developed. Lost ski poles. Even our instructor wasn’t immune. He lost both his poles after leaving them in the ski gondola and we had to go back for them after lunch.

Each time a ski pole was dropped from a ski lift it had to be retrieved. You could guarantee the poles were always dropped into an off-piste area. This created a problem for our instructor, what to do with the class while he went off-piste to fetch the dropped pole. The easiest solution was to leave the class with me.

By now Vincent was confident in my ability and knew I could cope if a child fell or there was an injury.  Besides which he was still in vision range so could still see me and the class. Each time he left the class with me we would agree a point lower down to meet back up.

From the moment Vincent left me with the class they knew I was in charge, they did as I said and I wasn’t going to take any messing around.

I organised the class so that the weakest skier was behind me and the strongest skier became my rear guard. Skiing with a class of 11 following behind is very different to how I would ski normally. I found my speed was slower, posture much more pronounced and I made each movement exaggerated so the class could see what I was doing. We snaked our way down the run in an orderly line with me frequently checking over my shoulder for any problems. Not only was I visually checking what was now my class but I was also listening to the sound their skis were making. I realised the sound their skis made told me much more than just looking over my shoulder did. When I felt it necessary I would halt the class, re-group them and set off again. Vincent always made it to the meeting point first and would stand patiently watching me bring the class down the run.

The sense of pride you get when you have a ski class following behind is difficult to describe and explain. It ticked all my boxes; snow, winter, mountains, Switzerland, skiing, children, teaching. I was hooked.

Since changing jobs I had lost the teaching side of my nursing career and no longer taught student nurses or new nursing staff. I  missed it. From that moment I knew I wanted to become a ski instructor.

For the past 20 years I have worked as a children’s nurse at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. First on the intensive care unit, followed by the kidney ward and finally as part of the kidney dialysis team.

It was a job I loved and one that also gave me opportunities to do things I would otherwise never have done. When London held the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games I was a volunteer performer in a specially choreographed section for NHS staff entitled ‘Second to the right and straight on t’il morning’. Being part of not only an Olympic Games but my country’s home Olympic Games was a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, I was about to get the opportunity to do something else I never thought likely; a school ski trip.

Can anyone ski ?

I had been on a school ski trip before when at school but never as an adult, nor did I expect to go on one. It was whilst at work one day that I heard a company (aptly named The Ski Company) was looking for a nurse who could ski to go on a school ski trip with a child from Manchester Children’s Hospital. It was in March, to Crans Montana in Switzerland, fully paid for. I was immediately interested.

Planning

The next few months were full of planning and paperwork. I met Thomas and his mum Sarah at a motorway services. Moved house and changed job relocating to the beautiful North Yorkshire Coast.