Swiss Mountain Sports – the view from our clients and customers

We take feedback very seriously. We continue to enjoy very high levels of satisfaction from our clients and customers as a result of our underlying philosophy of client-centred, continually-improving service. We take nothing for granted. Many of our clients and customers have been with us since our early days and we thank them for their continuing loyalty. Here are some of the most recent comments which we have received :

Learning to ski rather than eat biscuits: how to get the best ski tuition for your children.

Picture the scene: trees laden with snow, perfect piste conditions, and then the inevitable sight of twelve or thirteen young ones following a single instructor – a snaking line with the kids at the back flailing around trying to keep up, cutting the turns, crashing and burning and getting little in the way of genuine instruction. At Christmas I came across two instructors with over twenty tiny charges – all snowploughing anarchically down a narrow, tree-lined piste. Apart from the enormous queue of very patient skiers which began to build up behind them, when the inevitable fall came in the middle of the pack, it was carnage – a domino effect took out more than half the group. Should this be young ones’ first experience of skiing?

Over the last couple of decades, I’ve had some really excellent instruction and coaching – sometimes by accident and, more recently, by seeking out recommended instructors. What I didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would be to find good instruction for my children. I thought I was doing the right thing by booking my three year old daughter into an ‘official’ school – I’d had good private instruction through them and their local reputation was high. Come Christmas she had a first week of lessons and it all seemed to go well – almost 1:1 tuition, a good, caring instructor, and engaging activities in the kids’ park. So I felt relaxed about booking two weeks of morning group lessons at Easter. This would leave me with three clear hours on the hill, and I could then take an exhausted, skied-out but happy daughter back to the chalet for lunch and a long sleep, with toboganning and thermal baths as part of the afternoon  schedule. So I was a bit surprised that she was full of beans when I arrived to pick her up; and not interested in food at all. A quick Q&A in the car on the way back to the chalet revealed that the lessons were ‘…Great!….We had loads of biscuits in the hut…’ and ‘…playing in the snow with the other girls was really good…’. Alarm bells started to sound. The next day I duly got her to the meet point, into ski boots and said goodbyes – but instead of getting on the mountain I retired to a restaurant with a view of the kids’ ski park. What I saw shocked me. Most of the time, the kids were either standing on skis waiting, or were engaged in non-skiing activities. Fine if all you are after is time for yourself, with your child in the care of others, but not fine if you and your kids are interested in skiing. I continued to watch. My daughter adjourned to the small hut in the kids park area and was in there, unsupervised, for over half an hour. The magnetism of biscuits, I guessed. But I’m good at suppressing irritation, so I continued to watch. At Christmas, there had been small groups, with experienced, older instructors doing good work with the kids. But now, there were over twenty kids with two very young members of staff. It was clear that the instructors paid attention to those children who elected to ski or were wailing and in need of urgent care - but not to anyone else. Any child who was ‘not a bother’ could do pretty much what they wanted. In my daughter’s case, after the spell in the hut, this included lying in the snow a lot. After a while she was clearly asleep lying on the ground, and at that point I’d had enough. On the walk over I repeated ‘Don’t get cross…don’t get cross’ a hundred times. In the nicest possible way, I asked the two seventeen year-olds in instructors’ uniforms to encourage my daughter to participate. In the nicest way, they said that they couldn’t make her ski if she didn’t want to. Although this caused an internal fuse to blow inside my head, I remained calm and simply stayed there helping my young one to engage fully in the more ski-related activities. Despite plenty of calm discussion about why I had commissioned them to help my daughter with the basics, the next few mornings were wasted observing and intervening, and there was no sign that they would change the approach or agenda one jot. She continued to eat lots of biscuits and snow, in turn. And not do much skiing.

I began to question whether I was being reasonable in my expectations of the school. I had booked her into group lessons since I thought it more likely that she would respond to an instructor’s advice than mine – a positive first experience of skiing seemed vital. And surely they had more expertise in getting the basics right? But maybe collective lessons were always like this; after all, I had no experience of tuition for children.  My partner was a little clearer: ‘…It’s completely unacceptable!…And a complete waste of our money!…And you’re not even getting time on the mountain…!!’. After a week I pulled my daughter from lessons and did the best I could, myself. Apart from the agony of having her on button lifts with me, it all went quite well. But it didn’t seem the optimum thing to do, either for her or me.

So prior to the next trip I did a bit of research – both on the internet and through skiing contacts. Up came the name Swiss Mountain Sports, based in Crans Montana. This is in the Valais region – about 2hrs from Geneva, top height around 3000m, with 150km of runs. Swiss Mountain Sports’ provision in winter ranged from heli-skiing to private lessons and Warren-Smith style ski academies but, crucially, they had a reputation for excellent work with kids, including the really wee ones. I phoned them to discuss their approach. My questions were based on what I wanted to avoid from previous experience, and this clearly made them think I was very odd. ‘No, we don’t feed them lots of biscuits’. ‘No, she will not be left to go to sleep in the snow’. ‘No, our instructors are over 17’. After we’d established that I wasn’t mad, they made clear their philosophy. Groups were never bigger than 5. All instructors were very experienced in encouraging young people both to enjoy skiing and to progress technically. I queried why the morning lessons were only two hours long. We could put her in all day, they said, but really, after two hours of focused skiing in the morning, a really young child will be pretty exhausted, so SMS had by experience found that two hours was the right formula. ‘..And where will they go?..’ I asked. First to an area near a restaurant which had moving carpets, then onto a button, and then further around the mountain. This all seemed very promising. So I booked group lessons for a week, and felt more confident. But – having been let down so badly before – I didn’t feel confident enough to leave her there without discreetly looking at what was going on.

Crans Montana has four key access points; SMS has meeting points across the resort, with children of different ages ferried to the right location. Useful. At the meeting point the impressions were good – friendly, energetic and competent instructors who clearly loved skiing - and wanted to hand on their skills. Their enthusiasm for encouraging the tiny ones was strongly in evidence. Many had excellent English – not least because some of them were English – and those without extensive English had enough for engaging pre-ski banter with the kids and for instruction on the hill. They were great at handling separation anxiety amongst the tiny ones, and getting each child integrated into his or her group. My daughter was in a group of two. ‘…Er…where are the other children in her group?…’ I asked. ‘This is it’, came the reply. ‘Maximum of five and frequently the groups are smaller…’. And yet the rates were comparable to the school where she was in a group of over ten. This all seemed like a result. She grabbed the hand of the instructor and they were off to the bubble and up to the skiing area.

I followed, and watched from a discreet distance. She skied. Lots. She was helped to master the moving carpet, introduced to basics, picked up and dusted down after tumbles and collapses, had her gloves carefully put back on, taken for a quick toilet break, and encouraged both to have fun and develop technique. She did more skiing in the first hour than she had done in a week at the previous school. I breathed a deep sigh of relief. At the end of the lesson, she was indeed exhausted, so lunch was followed by a very long and deep sleep. And she loved all of it.

The next morning I had a chat with the owner and director of SMS, Yves Caillet – who seemed to be permanently on call and marshalling his troops like an experienced general. He was clear that small group size was essential, and a key to quality. He was also entirely pragmatic about my expectations – ‘You’ve put your trust in us and bought instruction from us…so we will teach your children to ski…that’s simple isn’t it?’. I liked the attitude. Yes, it should be simple, and ever since that first morning, SMS has delivered exactly what it promised. I now have two kids – 6 and 8 – who have acquired really good technique through SMS, love their morning lessons, and ski the pants off me in the afternoon, all over the hill. This Christmas, my six-year old did  a steep, mogulled section of a black run with a style I can rarely muster. What’s more, they are safe on any type of lift and observe good piste etiquette. They are a joy to be with. Last season, we had friends with older children grappling with skiing for the first time – including a very self-conscious teenager – and they had the same rewarding experience of the SMS model of tuition.  

Of course, the strength of the Swiss Franc is putting many people off Swiss resorts, but the local tourist offices are very aware of the problem, and there are many exceptionally good deals for accommodation and related packages now in place. In reality, prices on the hill are not that different to the French resorts. Plus, I don’t mind carefully budgeting on other things such as lunches if my kids are getting really high quality tuition and are happy small things. The home of SMS, Crans Montana, has a fantastic view ranging from the Matterhorn to Mont Blanc, and a great sun record: important for families both with wee ones learning to ski and older ones further developing their skiing. The key beginners’ area has a good restaurant (toilets, recuperation in bad weather…rest and coffee for non-skiing relatives) and progression from moving carpets to button lifts.

Our experience gives you an idea of what not to accept and what to look for.

Outside Switzerland, which other schools have a similar approach?

Tim Oats

Dov COHEN - SMS Ski Camp (session I) 
12th January 2010
Thanks for the photos and the fantastic experience [...] your perfect team gave to my son Roy. We and definitely Roy will not forget it. Hope to see you also next year.
Dov Cohen

Annie H. - SMS Ski School
12th January 2010
Un grand Merci pour l'organisation des cours de Laetitia pendant les vacances de Noël; elle a fait énormément de progrès et a beaucoup aimé skier. [...]
Annie H.

Jocelyne MOLLET - SMS Summer Camp (session I)
14th July 2009
Merci pour votre message et les photos de nos enfants. Schakya a déjà manifesté son envie de réitérer l'expérience SMS l'année prochaine. Il dit avoir apprécié les cours d'anglais et surtout la journée de pêche.

Pour ma part je pense que nos enfants ont été très gâtés, TV dans la chambre, repas au restaurant à midi, desserts et vidandes à chaque repas, chasse au trésor avec GPS, et j'en passe.

Bref, je ne pourrai que recommander vos services et vous remercie ainsi que toute votre équipe pour vos services.[...]
J. Mollet

9th July 2009
J'ai eu Schakya au téléphone hier soir qui enthousisate me parlais des chamois, de la cabane, des tartes aux fruits, de la pêche, de la course au trésor au GPS... 
Bref, mon grand n'est ni un grand sportif, ni un grand positif dans ses démonstrations, mais le connaissant je le sais très heureux et vous en remercie. [...]
J. Mollet 

Sandra HAHN-DIGGELMANN - SMS Summer Camp (session I)
12th July 2009

Famille STUBBE - SMS Ski School
13th April 2009
[...] Merci de nouveau pour l'accueil et les leçons pour nos enfants!! Quelques photos en annexe pour votre site et probablement à l'année prochaine!
Joeren Stubbe et les familles Stubbe et Vandeputte  

29th March 2009
[...] De nouveau un grand merci pour l'enseignement à nos enfants! Ils ont beaucoup progressé pendant la semaine, comme ça nous avons pu skier avec toute la famille ensemble le vendredi. Dans le plein soleil, la descente de la Plaine-Morte; c'était possible grâce à vos professeurs.

Nos salutations et probablement à l'année prochaine!
Pieter, Emma, Charlotte, Isabelle & Jeroen   

Dominique et Thomas DEMEURE - SMS Snowboard School
9th March 2009

Famille Huser - SMS Snowboard School
22nd February 2009

Famille De Preter - SMS Ski School
15th February 2009

DEBIOPHARM - Incentive at Villars
12th February 2009

Roger MINERS - SMS Ski School
5th January 2009

Anne-Marie & Alberto FINALI - SMS Ski School
1st January 2009

Diane CHADWICK-JONES - SMS Ski School
31st December 2008

KYOCERA MITA Europe B.V. - Incentive at Sion
8th September 2008

SUNRISE COMMUNICATIONS AG - Incentive at Pont-la-Ville
9th July 2008

Tina & Geoff SYDENHAM - SMS Ski School
21st March 2008