Skiing is one of the most enjoyable and competitive sports in the world and is incredibly popular. However, a lot of people avoid ski trips and skiing in general, for fear of the sport’s reputation for being both dangerous, challenging, and expensive.
While it’s true that skiing is immovably dangerous and can be expensive depending on certain factors, it isn’t as difficult to learn as some people say, and while challenging, it is by no means impossible to become a confident skier.
There are a lot of things you can do as a beginner to make the process much easier, and taking these steps will allow you to gain experience and improve your skills while also getting a lot of fun and enjoyment out of the sport, as well as the unique experiences it offers.
In this guide, we’re going to look at several different aspects of skiing that beginners may find intimidating, and help dispel rumors that the sport is hard while providing guidance to help you gauge how difficult you’ll find the sport as a beginner.
There are several important aspects to how easy or hard a person may find skiing, from your own personal fitness and sporting experience, as well as your confidence, the equipment you can afford, and several other key factors.
All of this will have some effect on your ability to learn skiing, but even the most unfit and uncoordinated person can learn to ski with perseverance, it may just take a little longer to become confident than some other people.
It’s also true that there are techniques beginners can learn in a very short amount of time to be able to navigate down simple slopes and start building the skills and confidence required to progress as a skier.
But first, let’s take a look at you, as your personal attributes can have a considerable impact on certain aspects of your skiing experience.
What Can Affect The Difficulty Level?
You And Your Prior Experience
There are a lot of external factors to becoming a better skier, but as a total beginner, your own personal attributes will dictate how comfortable you are starting out, and how quickly you progress.
Not all of these are physical either, and even the most athletic person may have poor coordination or lack the confidence and discipline to learn how to ski.
Sports History
First and foremost, your athletic experience plays a big part in how difficult you’ll find skiing.
This is particularly true if you’re someone who enjoys sports such as ice hockey, rollerblading, skating, or other sports which rely on balance and coordination.
It’s important to note however that having experience in these sports won’t make you a confident skier right out of the gate. Skiing is vastly different from most other sports and uses specific techniques and skills that require a lot of practice to become confident with.
Hockey and skating do develop your balance and coordination though, which are very important aspects of skiing, so you may find you take to skiing more quickly than people without a good sense of balance and coordination.
There are other sports that can help too, as most sports develop at least some coordination, and even a good level of cardiovascular fitness and flexibility can be a huge benefit when learning to ski, as skiing is one of the most physically demanding sports in the world.
Not only because it’s difficult but because it often takes place at high altitudes, which puts even more strain on the body and the cardiovascular system.
Snow Experience
Another thing that can make a huge difference to your skiing experience is your experience in snow and cold conditions. If you’ve grown up somewhere cold and understand the different types of snow, and how the powder will feel to ski and move around on as opposed to hard-packed snow, you will have a much easier time learning how to negotiate these conditions as you learn to ski.
For people who have never experienced snow and don’t understand how different it can be depending on its condition, skiing can be more difficult as they will be taken by surprise when hitting patches of ice, or when slipping around on fresh powder.
It’s a small advantage, but these are the sort of small factors which can add up to dictate how easy it is for you to learn to ski.
Fitness Levels
As mentioned before, some level of fitness will also put you at an advantage when learning how to ski. The sport is incredibly physically demanding and is a full-body workout that can last for 6 to 8 hours a day depending on how intensely you plan to ski and how you structure your ski trip.
People with lower levels of cardiovascular fitness, strength, and flexibility will find themselves struggling to keep up with the intensity and demands of skiing, which will inevitably slow down their progress.
Confidence
When it comes to skiing, confidence is a huge part of the process. The techniques of skiing often require you to perform movements that feel unnatural and counter-intuitive, but having confidence and belief in yourself and what you’ve been instructed to do is key to learning to ski efficiently and avoiding bad habits.
The key to skiing success is to understand that everyone falls, and it’s all part of the experience, especially at the beginning.
Learning your limits and finding your edges takes time, and you can only really discover them by learning when you’ve gone too far, which is why it’s best to build confidence on easier slopes first with real ski lessons before trying to teach yourself.
Coordination
Good coordination is key for skiing. There are a lot of intricate movements to orchestrate, and a lot of equipment to keep track of.
Developing coordination can take some time, but it isn’t too difficult to pick up after a few days on the slopes, and eventually skis and managing your poles will become second nature with enough practice.
Equipment
Skiing can be made a lot easier if you use the right equipment and set it up correctly.
Naturally, you will need skis, ski boots, and poles, but other accessories such as good salopettes, a ski jacket, and quality ski goggles will make your experience much more enjoyable and comfortable, and also make it easier to actually learn to ski by allowing you to spend longer on the slopes and avoid issues such as overheating, fogged goggles and blisters.
Does It Have To Be Expensive?
Becoming better at skiing doesn’t have to be expensive, and lessons for beginners in a group session are quite competitive and reasonable at most resorts, ensuring that beginners can start getting comfortable with the basics of skiing without spending too much money on lessons.
Are Skiing Techniques Hard To Learn?
It really depends on your goals and the type of skiing you want to do. For beginners, learning the pizza/french fry technique and how to do basic turns and stops isn’t difficult to learn at all, and these techniques will allow you to tackle greens and easy blue slopes.
However, techniques such as parallel skiing, hockey stops, and tight turning can take much more practice and can be difficult to learn without the right guidance.
This is where ski lessons really come into play.
A moderate skier trying to prepare themselves for tackling red or black diamond slopes will have a much harder time learning the techniques they need alone.
Getting lessons from an instructor will massively improve your skiing and help make learning these more advanced and challenging techniques much easier.
Just a few days of lessons for a relatively confident intermediate skier are often enough to push you up to the next level, giving them confidence and skill to allow you to tackle that next grade of slope you’ve been aiming for.
Best Ways To Speed Up Your Skiing Progress
There are a few things you can do to speed up your skiing progress.
The number one thing you can do to improve is taking ski lessons, either as a group or if you’re looking for more specific and tailored lessons, one to one.
One-to-one lessons are much more expensive and are best for people who have very clear goals and techniques they want to work on, and can massively improve your skiing in a short amount of time.
Group lessons are great for general skiing improvement and are much cheaper, but they won’t be able to provide you with as much specific advice which will slow your progress down a little.
After this, practicing and challenging yourself are the best ways to speed up your progress. Get out of your comfort zone and push your limits, but make sure not to overreach as skiing can be very dangerous for the overambitious.
Working on your fitness is also key, as well as ensuring you are eating well and getting enough sleep while you’re on a ski trip, as it’s an incredibly demanding sport physically.
Ensuring your equipment is up to scratch is also important to ensure you’re both comfortable while skiing and can practice harder for longer.
Final Thoughts
Overall, skiing is one of those sports that is easy to learn, but hard to master. The basic techniques to get you started on the slopes are quite simple and almost anyone can learn them in a few days of lessons and practice, however advanced skiing is difficult, both physically and technically.
Getting to the point where you’re able to ski black or double black diamond runs can take several seasons and a lot of years of practice, depending on how much you ski per season, and how effective your lessons are.
Even though it can be difficult, however, it’s incredibly rewarding and there’s almost no sport as exhilarating or enjoyable as skiing, especially when you get the sense of accomplishment that comes with linking together your first parallel turn or performing your first hockey stop.
