Talk to me about skiing holidays - never been before

[Farmhouselad]

Would it be safe for a 16 year old to ski (with a friend) without parents? DH & I cannot ski. DC skis well. We are looking to go to Italy skiing. DC is desperate to go with his friends family and us. I'm worried sick about DC sking with just him and a friend.

If he's 16, can definitely ski well and skiing with a friend he'll be fine. But maybe book a refresher lesson, as if you can't ski, how can you judge his skill level? Teenage boys can be dangerously overconfident. Do the friends parents ski too? Can they help you decide if they are safe to go alone?

My son would love to go but not sure where is affordable, it can be a very pricey holiday.

Depends what you categorise as ski well- can genuinely ski everything ie can safely get down a black then yes fine to ski alone. If he’s only been a handful of times and has a lot of teen confidence then not a chance in hell. We’re big skiers with a large extended family and the teens in our family are ‘released’ from ski school at around 16 once it’s obvious they can handle pretty much any terrain or conditions, because the weather can turn, chairlifts can close, wrong turns can be made etc. and then it’s never to ski alone, at a minimum it’s always in a pair. Otherwise ski school will have teen specific lessons.

To add- how many times has he actually been skiing OP? There’s a big difference between say he goes with cousins every year and has done every stage of ski school (that would be fine) to he’s been on the school ski trip twice and has loads of teen boy confidence (definitely not fine).

At 16 unless they are expert skiers I’d encourage them to go to a teen specific ski school
i’ve always enjoyed ski school especially as adult. You meet nice people and don’t have to worry about ending up somewhere where you can’t get down the hill (without a teacher anyway!).

then in the afternoons they could ski around by themselves for a couple of hours within reason

I haven't worried about this - ds and I were taken away when he was 14, he had lessons in the morning and was taken off by his friends in the afternoon- I believe they made him do a black run (most difficult) on the first day!!

BUT I would insist on at least 2 lessons, ideally every day, so that they get to know the resort and the lifts. And it also v much depends on your ds and his friend. Ds is extremely level headed and quite cautious, his friends a bit more crazy but also v responsible, would always make sure each other were ok.

It is a bit of a risk (like sea swimming) but imo a pretty acceptable one.

Sorry whrn I saytwo lessons, I mean one lesson a day, every morning.

Agree with pp it really depends how good a skier be is. If you’ve never skied it seems unlikely that he’d be that good. Competent and trustworthy skiers are people who go almost every year when they are growing up.

More likely he’s been twice and has no fear. Being able to get down a black run in one piece does not make you good skier (put myself in that category)

If your DH and you cannot ski, how did your DC learn to ski well? Just seems unusual to me - the teens I know who ski well (i.e. can ski the whole mountain, read a piste map and navigate themselves around too), have skiing parents who took them from a young age.

If by 'ski well' you mean he's been going to the indoor ski centre near home in the UK and passed all their levels, then I'm afraid that he doesn't ski well. The top level at our local snow centre is very basic indeed, includes only drag lifts (whereas most resorts nowadays are heavily dominated by chair lifts/gondolas) and obviously teaches nothing about navigation and the minimum about on-piste safety, right of way, what to do in case of an accident, etc.

I'd be fine with it if they were in teen ski school.

If not it does really depend how many times your DS has been and also what level his friend is at. I'd be a bit worried in case the other boy was more experienced and took him on slopes he wasn't comfortable with.

Maybe a compromise is a couple of lessons, the instructor will be able to tell your DS exactly what level of slopes he is ok going on and will show them the routes as sometimes the piste maps and signs aren't that obvious.

Good point about the indoor snow places @cheezncrackers - we take DD sometimes and at 5 she was in their top level for lessons despite the fact that she can’t use poles, and does snow plough turns based on the fact she confidently get from the top to the bottom of their main slope. Their categorisation of ‘Level 5’ would be equivalent to about Level 1 (snowplough turns on greens) at an on mountain ski school.