Skiing with DD, HELP

[LondonInLausanne]

I am skiing with DD (4) tomorrow for the first time and am nervous. She is great with her instructors and is apparently advanced for her age, though they won't teach her to parrallel turn until she turns 5. But i am very nervous about taking her up the slopes by myself. I have no idea what i am supposed to do. Usually i turn up at the slopes, drop her off for her lesson and then leave (ski instructor's policy). I used to watch the last 20 mins of her lesson but when she left the nursery slopes that became impossible.

I am also really nervous about using the lifts. She used to use the pommel lifts herself but she had a nasty accident a few weeks ago and fell off so she wants to share the pommel lift with me. How the heck do i do that??

I am supposed to be a competant intermediate skier, have skied since i was a child, but since having the kids i have lost my confidence a bit...

Any advice? How do you ski with your DCs?

Don't take her if you're worried. Go sledging instead.

I have to take her as her instructor has said he cannot teach her anything else (they won't do parrallel turns until they are 5) and she needs practice what she has learned. I asked him if he could escort us for an hour or so and he did a face.

Really? The instructor can't teach her anything else? Sounds like he just can't be arsed. Get another instructor.

I took my two out aged 4 & 5. They were fine. They've been taught to ski using the pizza and chips method. I took her on the nursery slopes to see her ability to control her pizza turns and then we went and did some blue runs.

We only went in the bubble car and chair lifts. Can you just stick to those kind of lifts.

I don't understand. Have you paid for classes and they are saying they can't teach her anything else?

If you are an unconfident, out of practice skier I would not take her. You don't have to go despite what the instructor says. In my view it would be risky.

Our local resort is purely pommel lift, it is just 20 mins away so suits us, we have to go further for a bigger resort with chair lifts.

Maybe you are right and he can't be arsed.

But what the heck is the pizza and chips method?

Pizza = snowplough

Chips = parallel.

I am assuming that if he says he can't teach her anymore then she is able to do a snowplough (pizza) turn with chips (parallels) as she traverses the slopes. I used to ski along shouting out "PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA....and now CHIPS! CHIPS! CHIPS!...and now PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA!" etc etc until down the piste.

Have you paid for this instructor to teach her? Is she part of a class? If yes to these, then it's down to the ski school to figure out what to do and I'd be speaking to them about it.

If that's not the case, then I'd take her to the nursery slope only for a bit to build up your her confidence. If you feel that she is capable then take her to very easy blues.

We skied with DD at 4 when she had only had a few hours on the dry ski slope and a few days of morning lessons on the nursery slope. We stuck to going slowly on the easy runs and found it fine (I was only in my 3rd year skiing so wasn't great). However, no button lifts there. I have seen plenty of people at the local snowdome putting small DCs between their legs on the lift but have never considered the details. Now DD is 9, I can't keep up!

So, DD has been having private lessons twice a week since christmas but yesterday, under the advice of her instructor, i took her on the slopes myself.

It was brilliant. I was so stupid to be nervous. The pommel lift was ok, for reference; you put the pommel between your legs and your DC layers their skis with yours so you effectively push them up the hill. It was hard work, one of the lifts was very long and in some parts pretty steep but i managed.

As for being on the slopes, the hardest part was controlling DD who as soon as we exited the lift skied straight off and down without waiting for me. She flew like a bullet. She know a few off-piste routes through the trees which her instructor had shown her. They included a few little jumps and DD just nailed it. She was brilliant. I was all ready to be snouting pizza and chips but she was gone before i could say anything.

At the end of the day we bumped into her instructor and we chatted. Then i realisead that the reason her instructor wanted me to take her was so DD could show me how well she was skiing. I never know and felt a little embarrased.

So not cross with the instructor, very pleased he has done such an excellent job in teaching her.

Thanks for all the advice.

I wish I had seen this earlier - I took 3 year old ds skiing by myself for the first time this week! I am only just an intermediate skier and was a bit nervous about the whole thing, as dh has always been with us before.

It was really fun, even though we only did one run! Your dd sounds like an awesome skier!