ESF Ski School www.esf.net

This year saw my first skiing holiday and so I had ski lessons booked for me. I was terrified. My last encounter with skiing was a dry slope when I was a teenager but the idea of hurtling down an icy slope seemed so so different.

I was booked with ESF ski school (Ecole du Ski France) for morning lessons along with my other half, both as beginners. For the first day I spent most of my time getting to grips with how tiring it was on my legs but could balance well and snowplow.

My other half got moved up a class on the second day as he was much better (and had been before) leaving me with a couple of girls. Our instructor was good. He listened to our questions and gave plenty of advice and really pushed my boundaries.

After a day off after a small injury I spent the rest of my lessons trying to perfect my technique. I seemed to have a natural inclination to adopt a slalom skier position and kept forgetting to straighten up (whoops) but after a while realised that I could happily ski like this.

By the end of the week I felt comfortable with the chairlifts, button lifts and could manage a small blue piste. Next time I can advance up a group but for now I am happy that I just managed to actually ski without really hurting myself and having some fun.

All the ESF instructors were good, they poked fun at us and kept it light whilst still making sure that we could properly ski and stayed safe. Just a tiny bit disappointed that I wasn't given any badges for my achievements.