Beginners Hub

Everything you need to get started. Lessons, gear, resorts, and what to actually expect.

Right. You want to learn to ski.

Good. It's one of the better decisions you can make. It will cost some money, you will fall over, and at some point in your first two days on the mountain you will wonder why you're doing this. Then something will click, usually around day three, you'll get down your first blue run without stopping, and you'll immediately start planning your next trip. That's how it goes for most people.

I get asked the same questions constantly: where do I start, what do I need to buy, which resort should I book, is it worth doing lessons. This page covers all of it in the right order. Work through the steps and by the end you'll have a clear picture of what you need to do and how much it's going to cost.

One thing worth saying upfront: the Midlands is actually a good place to start skiing. You have SnowDome Tamworth for real snow practice, Ackers and Swadlincote for dry slope work, and realistic flight options from East Midlands and Birmingham Airport. You do not need to live in London to have a proper ski trip. You just need to plan slightly differently.

1

Ski or snowboard?

The honest answer: most people find skiing easier to learn from scratch. On skis, your legs move independently, your balance is more natural, and most people can get down a blue run confidently after three or four days of lessons. Snowboarding has a steeper initial curve (the first day or two can be genuinely brutal, with a lot of falling forward and a lot of sore wrists) but once it clicks, many people find it more intuitive.

My view: start with skis. You'll see more of the mountain sooner, you'll get more out of your first trip, and if you later decide you want to try a board, that's easy to do. I have been on a snowboard twice. I consider this a closed chapter. But I did it on skis first, which helped.

If you are a teenager or in your early twenties, the calculus shifts slightly, as younger people tend to pick up snowboarding faster. But for anyone booking their first trip as an adult, skis are the better starting point.

2

Do a dry slope session before you fly

This is genuinely worth doing and a lot of first-timers skip it. A session at SnowDome Tamworth, Ackers, or Swadlincote before your trip does two useful things: it tells you whether you actually enjoy skiing before you've spent money on a week in the Alps, and it means you arrive on the mountain with the absolute basics already in your legs.

The difference between arriving at ski school having never stood on skis and arriving having done two or three dry slope sessions is significant. You will spend less of your first morning learning to stand up and more of it actually skiing. The dry slope surface is harder than real snow and the feedback is less forgiving, but that is part of why it works.

If you can only do one pre-trip session, do it at SnowDome Tamworth. The real snow makes it a more accurate preview of what the Alps will feel like.

Dry slopes guide: all Midlands venues →
3

Book lessons. Actually book them.

I know people who skipped lessons on their first trip. Most of them spent years skiing with bad technique they then had to consciously undo. Proper instruction in the first two days costs money and takes up time you might otherwise spend skiing, but it is by far the most efficient way to learn.

Group lessons are fine for most people: they're cheaper, you meet other beginners, and the social element keeps morale up when it's hard. Private lessons are worth it if your budget allows, especially on day one, because the instructor can address your specific issues immediately rather than teaching to the middle of a group.

Book in advance. Popular ski schools in busy resorts (particularly in the French Alps in February half-term) fill up weeks before the season starts. ESF (École du Ski Français) is the default in French resorts. British Ski Academy and New Generation are two well-regarded alternatives with English-speaking instructors who specifically cater for adult beginners.

4

Sort your gear

For a first trip, the rule is: hire skis and boots at the resort, buy everything else. Resort ski hire is genuinely good value: you get boots fitted properly by someone who knows what they're doing, and you're not locked into beginner equipment after you've improved. Buying your own skis before you know what you like is premature.

Everything else (jacket, pants, gloves, goggles, helmet) is worth owning. Hired helmets fit strangely. Hired gloves smell. A decent jacket and pants from somewhere like Dope Snow or Montec will cost £250–400 combined and last for years.

Three things beginners consistently underestimate: goggles (cheap ones fog and you ski blind), gloves (thin gloves on a cold day ruin the trip), and ski socks (wear proper ski socks, not football socks, as it changes how your boots feel entirely). The sock thing sounds like a small detail. It is not a small detail.

Jacket guide All gear guides
5

Pick the right resort

Resort choice matters more for beginners than for any other level of skier. A poorly chosen resort (too large, too few green runs, a ski school that teaches in French and moves too fast) can make a first trip miserable. A well-chosen one can set someone up for a lifetime of skiing.

For beginners from the Midlands, the practical considerations are: flying from East Midlands or Birmingham Airport, keeping costs reasonable, and finding somewhere with a genuinely good ski school and enough gentle terrain to build confidence. Les Gets and Morzine in the Portes du Soleil are strong choices: well-connected, good schools, and manageable if you stay out of the main Avoriaz bowl on day one. La Plagne is excellent for beginners and has direct flights from East Midlands. Alpe d'Huez is sunnier than most and the beginner areas are well-designed.

Avoid very large, high-altitude resorts for a first trip. Val d'Isère and Verbier are brilliant resorts but they are built for confident intermediate and advanced skiers. Save those for year three.

Destination guides for Midlands skiers →
6

Get ski-fit before you go

Skiing is more physical than most people expect, and it uses muscles (particularly the quads and glutes) that desk workers and most gym routines do not target specifically. By day three of an Alps trip, people who haven't prepared physically are struggling. Their legs burn on every run, they make mistakes because they're tired, and they stop enjoying it.

Six weeks of targeted work before your trip makes a meaningful difference. The exercises that actually help: wall sits (hold for 60 seconds, build to 90), squat jumps, single-leg squats, and lateral lunges. None of these require a gym. They can be done in a living room in ten minutes a day, which is how I usually fit them in.

Cardio helps too, because the combination of altitude, cold, and physical exertion is more demanding than it looks. A few sessions of sustained cardio (running, cycling) in the weeks before will take the edge off. I'm not going to pretend I do this consistently. But when I do, it helps.

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Beginners articles