Being A Pilot

Hi everyone and welcome to another post from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. Since my last post I've been skiing with lots of different people; I squeezed in a short trip back to Leamington Spa; and have experienced quite a mixture of weather over the last few weeks. There have been some regular snow top ups which are always a pleasure, with quite a few sunny days. A real delight.

With the changes in weather and snow conditions, there's been a bit of a theme with my teaching. I've skied with several people who haven't had ski lessons for a number of years. This is really interesting because quite often people can navigate themselves around the mountain in good conditions. However, in less favourable conditions their technique can go to pot. There will be different reasons for this, whether psychological, tactical, physical or technical.

One of the phrases I've used over the years is 'Be a pilot on the skis not a passenger'. If we are a passenger on skis this means we are reacting to what happens, we are going along for the ride not knowing where it's going to take us. If we are a pilot on skis, that means we are telling them what we are doing and where we are going. In other words we are being proactive and assertive with what we are doing. In charge, if you like.

This is super important, especially if there's poor visibility on the mountain or if the snow conditions are challenging. If we can tell the skis what we are doing and where we are going, internal trust builds, which in turn increases our confidence and we begin to relax more. It's a win win. If we are passengers on skis, it's definitely a lose lose in poor conditions.

Blimey, I went a bit ski instructory there, sorry about that. However it has been lovely to share my knowledge and experiences with loads of skiers recently. Right, what else has been on here in Méribel?

I've also been skiing (guiding) with a bunch of different American clients. I had three days of a corporate booking, a head hunting (recruitment) global company, and a ski club from West Virginia. I've spoken about this subject in previous posts, but we are definitely getting more skiers visiting Méribel and the 3 Valleys from the USA than ever before.

When I do ski with Americans it's always nice to hear their opinions of skiing in Europe compared to back home. One of the things they comment on is the sheer scale of the ski area here. When I'm guiding I do my best to show them how extensive the 3 Valleys are. Why do they come to ski in Europe? It's cost! It's cheaper for Americans to come here than ski in the States, even with a long haul flight. For example a daily ski ticket can cost over 300 US dollars, if they haven't signed up for an Epic or Icon winter season pass. Another reason I'm told for this winter is that so far the snow conditions have been way below average in the US.

The other day I was asked by the ski school to ski with a representative from the Tourist Office and three people running high-end travel agency firms; one from Mexico, another from America, the third from London. The snow conditions were great, we skied a bit in Méribel and then Courchevel. Talking all about the ski area, the continual reinvestment with snow making and the ski lift infrastructure. With the recent success of having increased the number of visitors from Brazil over the last few years, it sounds as though the next big push with marketing from the Tourist Office, is Mexico. It will be interesting to see this developing.

Right, time for a slight change in subject. In between a short break back in the UK recently, and then another big chunk of work, I managed to get a day skiing with my wife Harriet over in Pralognan.

I've visited Pralognan many times in the summer, both on my road bike, and also hiking. Being on the edge of the Vanoise National Park, the scenery is absolutely stunning. And I've had some ski touring over there during the covid winter when the ski lifts weren't running. It was nice to ski with the lifts running this time. The complete opposite to Méribel in terms of size of the ski area. There's one cable car, four chairlifts and a handful of drag lifts. It was a wonderful change of scenery before heading back to the 3 Valleys.

The school holidays are just about to start in earnest at the weekend. And my goodness the weather is kicking off. As I'm typing away (Thursday 12th) it's thumping down with snow outside my apartment. The top half of the mountain is closed, many lower pistes are also closed due to risk of falling trees, and the avalanche rating is at the highest possible of 5/5, which is very rare. And to say the forecast looks snowy would be an understatement, let's see how accurate this turns out to be. Right, I'll leave it there for now. I'll sign off with my usual credo, Live With Passion. Martin.