Never skied but fancy giving it a go? Want to learn before you hit the mountains so you can enjoy the slopes more? Well you’ve come to the right place. With its dedicated gentle beginners slope and easy to ride travelator, Chill Factore is the best place to learn to ski. At the base of Whistler and Blackcomb is the enchanting Whistler Village I stay their during my ski Canada vacation.
Our fully qualified instructors are experts at teaching beginner skiers and will give you all the help you need to get you skiing confidently down the slopes.
Learning to ski does take time and patience. Our taster ski sessions are a great way to dip your toe into the water, but if you are going to learn you need to put a few hours in on the slopes to really get to grips with it. Our beginner ski lessons can be booked from anything from a day lesson to a 3 week course.
Clothing
First things first, you are going to need the right clothes. Nothing ruins a ski lesson like being cold or uncomfortable. You can rent some of our outer clothing from us – warm, waterproof trousers and jacket – but you need to consider what to wear underneath.
Arms and legs must be fully covered and you must wear gloves. Layers are the key to keeping warm and not overheating – you can always take layers off if you get too warm. Be sure to wear comfortable clothes that don’t itch or rub. It’s a good investment to get some good ski socks as these are the comfiest things to wear under ski boots as well as some ski gloves to protect your hands and keep them warm. You can buy both these at the Chill Factore shops if you don’t already have them. We’d also strongly recommend wearing a helmet whatever you ability, which is why we provide them completely free of charge.
Equipment
The price of your lesson includes your skis, boots and poles so there is no extra cost involved in using our ski equipment. For getting your equipment matched to your weight, height and ability – all very important factors when setting the release mechanism that allows your foot to come out of the ski if you fall – we have a brilliant machine which takes into account all those factors and matches you perfectly to the equipment you will need. Handing over the receipt from this machine means our staff will know exactly what to give you and what settings they will need to set your equipment to. Once they have you all dressed and kitted out, it’s off out to the slopes for your lesson.
Beginner Ski Tips
Get Instruction
Skiing isn’t one of those things you can pick up on your own nor is it very conducive to a healthy relationship to get your friends or family to teach you. The help of a fully qualified, experienced instructor can easily mean the difference between picking it up fast and loving it, or declaring you are never going anywhere near snow again in this life time.
Get Fit
Snow sports are hard work on the legs and it’s much easier to learn if your leg muscles are up to the challenge and you are fit and flexible enough to get up off the floor when you have a fall.
Watch Videos
If there’s something you just can’t get, a certain thing you just don’t understand, watching other people doing it right can make things all click into place. Watch videos of people skiing well and take notice of their body position, posture and movements.
Practice
The videos are all well and good but you’re not going to learn it by osmosis. You need to get yourself on skis as often as you can and keep going at it until you get it. Just as well that Chill Factore is open from 7:30am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturday and 9am every other day, staying open until 10pm. There’s always time to practice and improve at Chill Factore.