Ski instructor in Les Deux Alpes / ESF?

[chrissiejames]

Hi there
Does anyone know of a good ski instructor/ski school in Les Deux Alpes?
I am a nervous beginner and am too old to put myself through ski school! So I am going to go for private lessons, but have heard from various people that ESF instructors can be very impatient. Anyone got any experience of them?
Does anyone know of a good alternative in Les Deux Alpes?
Thanks!
Chrissie

CJ - I haven't been to les deux alpes for so many years that my experience will be out of date! However you could start on THIS link.

Re ESF, some people swear by them, but I tend to agree that unless you are pefecting an existing technique, they can be impatient, and more importantly I have found their instructors simply don't communicate effectively. I once spent 4 hours in one-to-one lesson and felt a bit ripped-off. I then made much more progress with a smaller local ski school (not in les deux alpes, though) in 2 hours.

Good luck, and don't worry about being a beginner. The right ski school will get you up and running very quickly!

HTH

ESF (or at least the ESF instrucotrs in Meribel) have also been very slow to pick the "new" techniques required by the modern carving skis. (Don't worry chrissiejames - carving skis are shorter and actually make skiing easier ) You still see far too many of them skiing with knees and ankles clamped together - and encoruaging the train of stidents behind them to do the same

Good experience with the instruction with ESI in les2alpes but the level of English was a bit hit and miss and we had to move the kids a couple of times until we were happy (that said the office were very helpful in moving them around and trying to get them happy), we ended up getting private lessons for DD and she did very well.

This year we are trying the ESS will let you know.

I was in Les Deux Alpes a couple of weeks ago and had a private lesson with an instructor called Daniel from the ESF ski school, he spoke perfect english and was really patient - I would have no hesitation in recommending him.

How many Daniel's they have on their books is a different matter - he wasn't young if that helps!