Learning to ski at 25, 35 or 50 is nothing unusual: we kit out adult beginners all season long. The only real difference from a child is that you ask more questions. Here are the answers to the main ones.
Hire everything: skis, poles, boots, helmet. For a first trip, buying makes no sense, financially or technically, since you do not yet know what kind of skier you will become. The entry-level range is designed exactly for you: short, soft, forgiving skis that let you get away with mistakes. In the shop, just tell us you are a beginner: we adapt everything, from the choice of ski to the binding setting, done to ISO and ASTM standards with a beginner setting that makes it easier for the binding to release if you fall.
A waterproof jacket and trousers, technical base layers, warm gloves, goggles: the essentials fit into a reasonable suitcase. Our article on what to pack for Val Thorens gives the full list and what you can buy in the resort if needed.
It is the best investment of your week. In a few days, an instructor will take you through the stages that learning with friends spreads over years, with bad habits thrown in. Book your lessons before your trip, especially during school holidays: slots go quickly.
Good news: Val Thorens is well suited to learning, with beginner areas within easy reach of the resort and a ski area that lets you keep progressing without ever getting bored, all the way to the 600 kilometres of slopes in Les 3 Vallées. Start on the beginner areas, then move on to green and blue runs once your turns link up without thinking. Do not let yourself be dragged too early onto a run above your level "because it'll be fine": you progress on easy runs, not by surviving on difficult ones.
Beginners tire quickly: muscles used in unfamiliar ways, altitude, emotions. Ski in the morning, take proper breaks, stop before you are exhausted: it is at the end of the day, with empty legs, that silly falls happen. And if a boot hurts from day one, don't grit your teeth all week: come back to the shop and we will sort it out. Our teams are there every day from 8.30am to 7.30pm, in 10 shops and boutiques across the resort.
