SKI WITH THE CLUB
The Club’s Instructor-led Guiding service gives members the opportunity to push themselves in a sociable and fun way – and has expanded to new resorts this winter
The Club’s ILG service is a fun, affordable way to learn from top instructors and mountain guides
The Ski Club’s Instructor-led Guiding (ILG) service was launched three seasons ago in response to the end of Leading in France. An affordable way of combining social skiing with the benefit of following an instructor or mountain guide, it became another cornerstone of Club membership, and last season it operated in 11 French and one Austrian resort. This winter, several Swiss resorts joined the mix – see our list below of where you can join in.
In each resort the Club has teamed up with a local ski school, in some places a British one, to offer attractively priced full and half-day small group sessions, several times each week, with an instructor or mountain guide. So if you’re alone, or the only one in your party who wants to have a lesson or go off-piste, you can join a Ski Club group, led by a mountain professional, and find the best snow and slopes in the company of other members, while honing your technique.
Take-up of ILG is on the rise, with numbers increasing by 9% season-on-season, and a total of 2,165 members taking part during winter 2018/19. Last winter 79% of spaces were taken on ILG days. To date the busiest ILG resort has been Tignes, but demand is increasing at other resorts. Off-piste days are more popular than on-piste days with ILG: last winter, off-piste groups ran at 88% of capacity (1,220 bookings); on-piste days at 72% capacity (945 bookings).
This winter the ILG programme in both Tignes and Val d’Isère comprises four full days off-piste and two half-days on-piste. St Anton, which joined two seasons ago, holds two full days off-piste, a half-day’s introduction to off-piste and a half-day on-piste.
At the off-piste sessions the instructor or guide provides each skier or snowboarder with a transceiver, probe and shovel at no extra cost.
The service this winter runs to the end of the season. Non-members are allowed to join in, but they pay around double what members pay. Group sizes are a maximum of eight on-piste and six off-piste and each session is geared to a particular ability.
∆ To book ILG, go to skiclub.co.uk and sign up. Ideally this should be done in good time, but if you’re already in the mountains and want to join in, please contact our friendly team on 020 8410 2000
∆ Members pay £50 for a full day and £30 for a half day.
∆ Non-members pay £80 for a full day/£50 for a half day.
RESORT FOR WINTER 2020/21
This winter the Swiss resorts of Verbier and the Jungfrau Region join our expanding list of ILG resorts.
Argentière // Avoriaz // Courchevel // Flaine // Jungfrau // Region (new) // La Plagne // Les Arcs // Les Deux Alpes // Méribel // St Anton // Tignes // Val d’Isère // Val Thorens // Verbier (new)