PlanetSKI Completes Ski Club GB Reps Course
16th December 2024 | Simon Miller, Tignes.
Last modified on December 19th, 2024
36 people have been in Tignes, France, training to become a Ski Club Rep. PlanetSKI’s Simon Miller learns if he has what it takes.
‘Become a Ski Club of Great Britain Rep and ski the world for less,’ I thought to myself as I signed up.
But it’s not quite as simple as that.
The days are long and hard on the snow, with a dose of classroom learning.
See here for my article on the first part of the course with further details:
Now it’s the business end of the course, where we learn if we have passed or failed:
Each day a different aspect of being a resort Rep for Ski Club members was taught and assessed.
One challenge was whether we could manage a group of members safely and enjoyably around the mountain.
To test our suitability for this task, we have the club chairman no less, acting as a member whilst our group took turns to demonstrate Repping in action.
When my turn comes I proffer options to my group, but strongly suggest an on piste pitch to the next lift.
It’s all about making group decisions so that as a Rep you are never acting like a guide or leader.
There is no dissent, so descend we do.
Ski Club GB Reps Course, Tignes. Image © PlanetSKI
It turns out hooping around with high speed GS turns, was not the right thing to do.
But when you have a well prepared set of skis and empty, immaculately groomed slope presents itself there is little one can do other than “hit the afterburners” as my assessor put it.
I hired my skis with Intersport where PlanetSKI readers can get a substantial discount if booked online.
On the Premium package you can change your skis at will – ideal, as I could take piste skis on piste days and wider off piste ski when we were into the powder.
I settled on a set of Völkl Mantras, perfect for high-speed GS turns.
Perhaps I should have picked up from our earlier classroom sessions, that a more conservative approach was called for, but hey ho.
So, what exactly is a Ski Club Rep?
The Ski Club of Great Britain provides a Rep service in 30 resorts, mostly in Europe with a few in North America.
The service has added the resorts of Serre Chevalier, Alpe d’Huez and Morzine in France for this season.
They are not guides or leaders, but just members of the Club enjoying time on snow with fellow members.
It is a social and fun way to see & enjoy the slopes.
There are around 250 trained volunteers so that each week of the season there is a Rep for Ski Club members to ski with in the designated resorts.
Part of the Rep qualification includes an American Avalanche Association Level 1 certificate.
It was fascinating stuff, a developing my mountain craft skills was high on my list of priorities from the course.
A couple of early morning two-hour classroom sessions from Mike Austin, a qualified mountain guide, explained what causes avalanches and how to read the avalanche reports.
Essential stuff if you are heading off piste.
Ski Club GB Reps Course, Tignes. Image © PlanetSKI
Having spent years scoping for good lines to ski from the chairlift, I now have a greater appreciation of what looks sensible and how to minimise risk.
Mike showed some horrific looking avalanche videos that reminded me of having been in similar situations.
A sobering thought.
Putting our newly acquired avalanche knowledge into practice started with digging a snow profile pit at 3,400m on a north-facing slope just beneath a cliff with a stiff breeze adding to the minus 15 degrees.
Ski Club GB Reps Course, Tignes. Image © PlanetSKI
Lou Reynolds our guide, and one of only a select few female British mountain guides, set us to work digging away at the slope to expose the history of the winter in snow layers.
Thank you Helly Hansen – even standing around cutting profiles, analyzing layers of snow and ice I was cocooned from the elements.
Ski Club GB Reps Course, Tignes. Image © PlanetSKI
My advice for anyone skiing as a Rep is to make sure your kit will keep you comfortable no matter what the weather – there will always be at least a few members who want to ski in all manner of heinous weather.
Snow science is complicated stuff but a reasonable understanding of the layers and what will likely slip is pretty crucial.
After digging our profile, we prod and probe an isolated column of snow before seeing how much pressure it will absorb before breaking away and causing a slide.
I won’t be in any great hurry to dig snow pits to assess the avalanche risk, but I now know what guides are testing for when poking their pole handles through the snow.
Digging a snow pit takes a while out of your day – pushing your pole through the layers feeling for soft and hard sections will give you a pretty good indication of layers that could be problematic.
Ski Club GB Reps Course, Tignes. Image © PlanetSKI
An unfortunate fact about avalanches is that they are most likely to occur on slope angles that are optimal for skiing.
The irony being that reading the avalanche report to show where the danger is greatest, is also likely to show you the best skiing.
With this in mind the course included a couple of days skiing off piste in avalanche terrain, where we learned how to identify specific hazards.
Snow build up caused by wind, slopes between 30 and 55 degrees, prime avalanche gradients.
We learned to stop at “islands of safety” – knolls, ridges, behind boulders – as well as when to ask the group to ski with big gaps between each person, so that if one gets caught in an avalanche others are able to rescue them.
We practice these skills with Lou keeping a watchful eye.
With the three elements of ski performance, group management and avalanche safety being tested, it turns out my only blemish was a tendency to ‘ski my own line’.
My ski friends could have told them that.
Tignes/Val d’Isere, France. Image © PlanetSKI
This course is an intense, enjoyable 12 days, and I am pleased to say I passed.
The course ended with a celebratory meal, back slaps all round and with plenty of Scots on the courser, free-flowing whisky.
At £3,000 plus lift pass it isn’t cheap, but for all of us who passed, it opens up Rep slots across 30 resorts around the world where board & lodging plus lift pass and a contribution towards travel are covered.
If PlanetSKI readers are in any of these resorts say ‘hello’ to my Ski Club of Great Britain Rep colleagues and hopefully I’ll see you on the slopes.
I promise not to ‘turn on the afterburners’.
Well, maybe not.
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